What's popping this morning, guys? Back again with the second part of the epilogue (especially since some of you have been screaming at me in my DMs'. Lol).

Now I have a feeling some of you might ask me, so I'll get it out of the way now... I'm not sure about Sonic Dream Team. No, not that it'll be a bad game or how it's locked behind a subscription service, but more of even after it comes out, I'm not sure if I'll ever include it in this story or not. I already set this stories original plot line back so Frontiers can be added to it, but I guess depending on how this new games story will play out, we can discuss that at a much later date.

But I think you'll all really enjoy what this page of the epilogue will showcase. I'll be looking forward to your reactions in the comments about them. Let's begin!

Also, stick around till the end for the ending Authors Note if you have time.

From Aegis-Archives:

No way. Did they just stumble upon something related to the Ancients? Was that a Koco?! WHAT IS GOING ON?!

Other than that, great chapter as always. Also poor Issei, the dude just can't catch a break. He should be fine by the time the exorcists show up right?

From Cure Rider Universe:

Wait...was that little stone thing a Koko!?

Bakuganman: No point in denying it, so to answer both of you, yes. Like I said before in my last authors note during the final chapter of season 1, I'll have to expand on the Koco to make something not only original, but interesting.

From Guest:

Ayo? White Hedgehog? Hopefully Silver

Bakuganman: You and only one other person noticed that.

From Feldragon:

although funnily enough imagine if sonic gained fangs if he got too overboosted with the boosted gear i think but hey could be funny in a way

Bakuganman: Maybe... it was only the minor form of Balance Break that he borrowed from, nots full power. Though if I had to honestly gauge it, I'd say Cyber Energy is a bit stronger than Issei's dragon energy (in his current state anyway). Maybe Issei's Juggernaut Drive would be equal, it's an interesting question this review brings up.

Season 1 Epilogue - Page 2

Koneko's POV:

Koneko began to open her eyes... she was alone? What happened to Sonic and Akeno?... Ugh, her body felt it got hit by a truck. Those laser blasts actually had enough force to penetrate her Rook defenses. She looked upwards, seeing there was a hole up above, but it appeared more like a chute or a small opening in the ceiling. Maybe that disappearing floor was some kind of trap? And those energy cannons were there in case anything somehow survived the opening of said trap? Whatever old civilization lived in this temple must have though of nearly everything, being wise beyond their years.

Figuring she may as well exit the way she came, she took out her wings again and flew up...

CLANG!

She grabbed her head in pain, as she was knocked downward by a red barrier, the same type of barrier that prevented them from following that stone creature, whatever that thing was supposed to be. She of course, tried again, and even attacked where it would pop up, but whatever the barrier was made of was extremely durable that even her strength couldn't punch through. She also tried the "walkie talkie" magic, but that didn't work either for some strange reason.

Koneko groaned a sigh, looking down the only possible direction she could take, which was a tunnel that lead somewhere? The way out maybe?... Sounded way too easy, as this temples builders proved to be well aware of beings as strong as herself. However will very little options, she had no choice, but decided to take this one slower and landed on her feet, deciding to walk forward instead.

XXX

Sonic's POV:

Sonic also began to come too after a few moments... not the first time he's fallen into a trap bottomless pit, so he's gotten pretty used too it. After getting his bearings, he attempted to leaving like Koneko attempted to in the previous POV, only instead of flying which he can't do on his own, he jumped off the floor, onto a nearby wall and jumping off of it on an upward angle...

CLANG!

"Oof!"

Sonic slammed head first into the exact same type of wall Koneko did, only he was knocked all the way back down to the floor with a thud. "Ugh... headache..." he muttered in pain, looking up to see the wall of red digital energy start fading away. Noting a small rock on the ground, maybe from some of the walls or something, he tossing it in his hand a few times while looking up at the hole he fell from, then threw the pebble.

clang

A softer impact sure, but the wall was still active and preventing anything from passing it. "Hmmm... maybe I can wrap out?" Sonic said, thinking whatever ancient society built this temple probably didn't account for gems that can wrap time and space. He was just taking out his Chaos Emerald and was gonna try to use it to teleport out instead, when he noticed it was glowing brighter than it did before, the Emerald clearly reacting to something.

Wait... could another Chaos Emerald be nearby? Here of all places? Could that also be why the ruins reacted this way, because of the Emeralds energy? Wouldn't be the first time that happened if that was the case. Sonic held out his Chaos Emerlad outward, and when he leaned towards deeper down the corridor, the Emerald glowed a bit brighter... something definitely caught the Emeralds attention.

Deciding to investigate, Sonic put the Emerald away and after taking a stance to start running, he ran down the corridor, intent on figuring out what was going on here.

XXX

Akeno's POV:

Just like the two prior, Akeno did try escaping, but physically could not. Even her teleportation magic wouldn't so much as flicker down here for some strange reason, almost like there was some kind of blockage in the aura in the air which would prevent her magic from functioning... but this would only happen with anti-magic spells, unless that red digital barrier somehow doubled as that?... There were so many questions about these ruins she had. When she followed the corridor, as it was the only way she could go, she did call out for Sonic and Koneko but of course never got an answer... unless you count her question rebounding back to her off the walls.

She ended up flying into a large room of some sort, dispelling her wings to walk around. The room was littered with what appeared to be the same stone material as the walls risen up from the floor in various shapes but mostly square and rectangular... was this a conference room or something at one point? The smaller stones chairs and the larger ones tables? It was interesting to think about, but what she needed was a way out of here.

jingle, jingle; jingle, jingle

Akeno perked up... that sound again! Was that the stone creature from before?! Looking around quickly, Akeno did notice another one of the stone beings... this one looked smaller though, in both size and diameter from the first one. Maybe this one was a child, as crazy as that sounded?

"Hey? You?" Akeno asked, getting the stone-beings attention. Upon hearing Akeno's call, the stone-being looked in her direction.

"DADAAAAA!" And just like the first one, this one too also ran... er, rolled and hopped away; but this one went around a table.

"Wait!" Akeno said, running to follow the stone-child-thing. When she got around the table, the creature was gone, yet she still heard the jingling sound... she cocked an eyebrow. Did this thing seriously?... Looking underneath while still standing up, sure enough was the stone-being, this table having a hole small enough for it to fit in, the being shivering underneath with fear. This hole didn't appear to be extra space underneath like a table would have, more likely it was an ancient "drawer" if you will.

Cute... this is actually something a child would do.

"Hey... it's okay... I won't hurt you." Akeno said in a sweet voice like you would say to a child to calm them down, leaning down on her knees and smiling warmly as well. The 'child' did not come out, which Akeno kinda expected. "I'm a little scared too." She added, which did get the 'child' to stop shaking a little and look at Akeno questioningly, again like a child would do. "I was with some friends and I got lost... now I'm all alone, and I'm trying to find them... maybe you can help me?"

The 'child' stepped out from the table a little bit, probably still gauging if Akeno was trustworthy or not. Akeno just continued to kneel there, letting the rock creature come to her. After a few more seconds, the little rock finally came out completely and in front of Akeno. She slowly reached out her hand to touch it as to not alarm it, and this seemed to work as the 'child' appeared to not be as afraid of Akeno anymore.

She pet the being, and as you'd expect, it felt hard to the touch, but smooth. The stone child then leaned into the pet with closed eyes, enjoying the feeling. Akeno wondered exactly what this thing was... a Familiar maybe?

The stone child then hopped and rolled towards something, then spoke back towards Akeno in what she can only describe as gibberish... it was strange, but her Language ability didn't seem to be working. Nevertheless, she followed it by walking. The child lead Akeno to what looked to be a white sign with a question mark popping out of the ground... was that there the whole time?

pong...

Akeno heard a sound below her feet, and nervously, thinking it was another trap, she immediately looked down... it was a floor panel of some sort, but it was dark and it caused more panels to light up in the color of green ahead of her. What in the world?...

One of the panels then dimmed before another set lit up... the heck was this?

"JAJA!" The child called to Akeno, who looked up at it. When she did, the child began to hop on some of the green panels. When one green panel it up, the child would immediately jump to it, repeating this over and over. "Toll-dodo! Bana dendo joe nana!" It said, trying to communicate what to do.

Akeno slowly looked back down at the panels, steeping on a green one... the same effect for the stone child applied here, then more green panels lit up. The cogs in her head turned... then she finally smiled, understanding exactly what to do and what this was.

(AN: Optional music - play your favorite song for the next paragraph only)

She wildly moved her feet around the floor to each of the green panels as fast as she could before they disappeared, where the panels lighting-up-then-dimming speed increased the further she got. This wasn't just a random thing... it was a dance game, like you see in arcades! She even imagined her favorite song playing in her head, the stone creature also hitting the panels with her. She kept going and going, keeping her focus until the panels stopped lighting up... she took a few deep breathes after moving and grooving... was the game over?

Ping... Ping... Ping...

Some kind of clear waves then spread from off the question mark sign, then the symbol itself dimmed.

rumble, rumble, rumble...

Towards her right, the wall itself began to rise up... a way out! So was this dance game like, a lock or some kind of passcode? Maybe a puzzle to keep out intruders (or keep them in so they could be dealt with)? Whatever the case may be, Akeno now had a way to leave this place!

"Thanks little guy! That was also... fun!" Akeno thanked the denizen of this temple, which clearly knew more about it than she did. The said denizen jumped a few times, speaking its gibberish, before then rolling out the newly revealed escape route. She then began to follow...

hummmmmm...

Some reddish energy then filled the entire room, and Akneo's vision was covered by it. She shielded her eyes, and when she unshielded them, the room was overlayed in a red hue... but that wasn't the weirdest part. Large liquid-like lifeforms were standing near the tables, speaking to... she couldn't believe it, but a small group of Fallen Angels, Devils, and Holy Angels! They didn't seem to register her presence at all, which was odd.

Curious, she walked over, wanting to see what was going on.

When one of the larger liquid beings approached the table, something in the middle of its body began to shine... and the being shrank, now at eye level to the supernatural beings Akeno recognized. As for this particular watery... "person". It had two long protrusions at the back of its head dragging down, its top protrusion is also zigzag-like. It also seemed to bend its back forward... was this one older?

Even more bizarre, the glowing object looked very similar to the stone child...

"Sa chitrayna youra... nibbla toy ark mora." Said the liquid being, sounding male... damn, Akeno cringed at that. And she thought the stone creature spoke gibberish, but that was even worse! She wasn't the only one, as the group of supernaturals groaned.

"Ahem..." Said one of the Devils, pointing to his chest while frowning with both his eyes and lips, obviously referring to the water persons chest. Now, the liquid being didn't have a mouth, at least none Akeno could see, but the watery beings eyes seemed to smile before the stone creature in his chest glowed a second time.

"As I was saying: we appreciate your help, but this is not your concern. We just thought you should know." Said the water being, now actually speaking in an understandable language this time.

"The hell it isn't!" Shouted the same Devil from before, then walked over and slammed both his hands on the table. "You come into our world, and bring some personification of death that devours all life in its path, after we allowed you refuge in our territory?" The Devil continued, gesturing to the water person first, then himself after, then back to himself upon the mention of territory. "We're supposed to just, sit back and grab a snack and enjoy the show?!" He added a sarcastic remark.

Before the elderly water being could answer, Akeno's world began to get all digitally distorted and a flash of red light blinded her again. When she came too, the red hue of the world was gone and was back to normal... what was that all about?

Shaking her head of it, she exited the room to follow the stone child out the secret exit. Now wasn't the time to worry about this.

XXX

Koneko's POV:

Koneko continued to walk deeper into the ruins, still searching for both her friends and a way out. She eventually stumbled into a room that gave very little on what it could have been used for. When she passed by a gray-blue ball-like object of some kind, she heard stepping behind her, and we see the ball-like object slowly try to follow her with a slow waddle. When Koneko looked back hover, the ball immediately stopped moving... she cocked an eyebrow at this, but turned back around and moved on.

And the ball began to follow her again, where she heard it and turned back quicker and sooner this time, but again the ball stopped the moment she did... slowly turned back around this time, she began to walk off, which the ball copied once her back was turned. Ignoring it, Koneko kept moving until she got to some small statues, where the ball then began to unfurl the metal around its body, showing its gray-blue part was flexible, and revealing it had a very thin body underneath that waddled on 2 legs which had a robotic-like body with a head but no arms. It then slowly formed its shell into a disk-like blade...

Koneko then nimbly jumped on one and off of the statues and then back at the ball following her, going in for a punch attack!

CLANG!

Immediately when she did that, the ball closed itself on its thin body so by the time Koneko got into attack range, her punch did nothing. Koneko continued to try and strike it over and over, but this flexible shield made this thing completely impervious to harm. In fact, it actually kinda stung her a bit upon hitting this shield.

She jumped back as this thing unfurled itself again, and not wanting to be stabbed, she hopped away. That's when this thing actually threw its disk-like blade shield, turning it into a deadly projectile! Koneko, instead of running away, used her Rook traits to form a reddish shield around her, much like when she chased Sonic when Rias caught him in Kuoh Academy when they weren't sure of him.

CLANG! BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

The disk continued to spin at her like a buzzsaw, and she was thankfully able to block this attack, but the force behind it forced her to plant her feet and put all of her energy into standing her ground... for a robot with thin limbs, this thing was decently strong.

The buzzsawing blade returned back to its owner like a boomerang... great, now she was back to square one. How was she supposed to damage this thing? Having not much choice, she rushed up to it and performed an uppercut... it only toppled and rolled over, not what she was going for, but it was something. Sadly, this showed its entire body was covered from its head to its feet with that armor.

The robot rolled itself back over before launching its disk again, which Koneko jumped away from... that's when she saw the spinning blades rebound back to the sender when it accidentally hit one of the statues by accident causing it to rebound a second time but still return... that was it. That's how she was gonna beat this thing.

She didn't attack, but constantly moved around a bit, baiting the robot to and attack her. This would yield success, as the robot did finally end up attacking her, and that's when she made her move. Avoiding the disk and rushing up to it as fast as she could using her wings, she then dealt a series of punches and kicks to this things body, which was now completely vulnerable now that the shield was gone and the robot had no other means of defending itself.

The blade however, began to return, and that's when she hit the robot extra hard to send it reeling backwards, then avoided the returning bla... the fuck?! It was still returning to the robot?! Not wanting to give this thing its defense back, Koneko flew up to the robot and began combo-ing it again, repeating the same process of constantly hitting it away, then quickly closing in on it as the blade continued to try and return to the thrower over and over.

After what felt like an eternity, her final combo had the effect of causing the robot to start violently twitching before it blew up, but there was no shrapnel of any kind... only energy that went poof. The blade was still coming at her, so after evading it one last time, the shield flew into a wall and impacted with it, it's spikes nailing it perfectly to the wall. Apparently with its owner now gone, it had nothing to return to.

POOF!

Then then shield itself blew up in the same way as the robot did... only this time, it actually dropped something:

It was a key of some sort, looking like a skeleton key. It had a long and thin shaft, a hollowed out head that looks like the outline of a gem, and an intricate set of teeth on the other end of its shaft like most keys have. It also had a glowing aura and a digital stardust trail as it floated just an inch above the ground. Koneko normally wasn't one for curiosity, but she cautiously approached it...

As she got enough, the key was absorbed into her body through her hand! The hell?! She didn't even use magic, the key did it all by itself! She looked down at her hand that absorbed the key and moved her fingers... she didn't feel anything was wrong. Little tingly, but nothing that was of major concern. Deciding to ignore it for now, she continued on past the statues to try and find the way out... maybe this key would unlock a door or something, but how was she gonna access it now?

And that robot she fought... it was allot like her. It's durability, the way it was more of a tank that could absorb heavy damage and not feel much, all the way down to its slow speed yet strong offensive power.

It was strange but... it's almost like that robot was modeled after her... after a Rook Piece...

XXX

Sonic's POV:

Sonic kept running deeper into the ruins of the temple, feeling the Chaos Emerald he had radiate some more light... whatever it was reacting too, he was definitely getting closer.

He skidded to a halt upon entering a room full of handle bars, floating platforms hovering in the air, zip lines, and multiple different tracks all over the place. It looked like this room could be fun to explore, if he wasn't busy looking for his 2 Devil friends and whatever the Chaos Emerald was reacting too.

He would have continued on, if there wasn't a peculiar object smack dab in the middle of the room. It looked like a stone with an hourglass shape... heh, that brought back some memories.

Curious, he struck it with a Homing Attack, where the hourglass stone flipped, and a digital dots glowed in it resembling sand. Also, blue squares spawned in front of him one after another, making a path... they lead up to what looked like a box or cage with a propeller on top of it, hovering waaaay above towards the top of the ceiling. Something was also shining up there inside the box... was that the item his Chaos Emerald reacted too?

Sonic smirked, and took a starting stance... might as well...

(AN: Optional Music - Sonic Frontiers: Action Chain Challenge)

Sonic dashed of into the squares, following the path they laid out. He had to make a turn as he followed it, and it lead him to a ramp or maybe it was a bridge at one point and it just decayed away or something, but he shot off of it, doing a few tricks to show off to no one in particular. He then had to bounce off the wall upwards, then Homing Attacked one of the poles to swing off of it, then Homing Attacked a zip line and rode it, passing through all the blue squares along the way from each obstacle as it took him up.

The zip line dropped him off and a floating platform. Getting his bearings quickly, he jumped onto each other platform that was nearby to get their squares, and also had to Jump Dash off the last one to just barely touch one hovering in the air. The one platform he ended up on was right next to a wall, with more squares littered diagonally upwards it. Sonic Boosted up and along the wall, traveling further to the goal and collecting the squares.

He made up to another set of platforms, where they were set up making a path forward but would require strict and quick timing to turn with squares on those set paths... reminded him of the alleyways of Rooftop Run. Getting through it easily, Quick Stepping like a pro, he then Homing Attacked into a pully this time that dragged him upwards. It lead him to the final stretch, some platforms up here floating up and down, as well as spinning either vertically or horizontally, which made this a tad bit harder.

Sonic didn't know why, but he felt in his head he didn't have much time left to complete this "challenge"... it's almost like he can see numbers counting down inside his head. He had to go fast now!

Carefully, yet quickly, he leaped from platform to platform, making sure he went through the squares as he went on each. After getting each one, the final square, which had tiny extra squares around it, hovered in front of the cage holding the shiny item. Not really worrying about what it was, only that he had a few more seconds; Sonic bolted towards the final square, jumped, and did a Spin Attack as he went through it, also breaking the box open.

(AN: End music)

The box digitized and faded away, and Sonic fell back all the way down to the floor on his feet with grace and style... and a key hovered down from where the box was, the exact same key Koneko found. Curious, Sonic reached out to touch it, only for it to be absorbed into his hand the same was as for Koneko, which did freak him out for a second. And again, like Koneko, tested his fingers... nothing seemed wrong. In fact, it felt like an extra pocket to hammer space. Maybe this was some sort of ancient magic?

Sonic then continued onto the next room... maybe this key will unlock something important? Seriously though, what was this place?

XXX

Akeno's POV:

Akeno continued to walk without the stone child, as it went off somewhere else most likely while she was distracted by that odd vision. She hoped the little guy was safe, whatever it was, but figured it would be fine. Looking around as she strolled, this place was certainly interesting, definitely adventure tier, and Sonic did keep his promise in a funny twisted way.

However as she was looking around, she then noticed something of interest on the back wall, a large symbol was drawn in big red letters. Curious, she approached it, the mural of the word getting bigger due to her getting into closer proximity to it.

...

...

...

Strange. Much like the spoken language that of those water beings from that vision and that weird sign, her ability of Language as a supernatural being couldn't translate what this symbol meant. Language was supposed to translate anything the user speaks to a recipient in they're most native language, and it works vice versa. This also included written language. Greek, Latin, English, Chinese... hell! She could even read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics!

But for some reason, she couldn't decipher what THIS word was supposed to mean. It looked to be spelled like the English word "zap" in all caps and written together in a cursive-like way, but that's only because she knew of the English word zap to go off of... and if this was "zap", her Language ability should have translated to that in her head the very second she saw it.

She brushed her fingers along it, as if feeling for an answer. "What could you mean...?" She softly asked.

Suddenly... a tall shadow of a pointed head appeared on the wall... something was behind her, and the shadow of what appeared to be a sword rose from behind her...

SLICE!

Even after her eyes widened from the sudden surprise attack the shadow showed her, Akeno evaded by ducking away, using her devil wings for momentum just in time. The mark on the wall left by the slash could have been her if she was a second slower. Now as for what attacked her... it was pretty creepy, especially in the dimmed darkness of this temple:

A tall robotic being with a vaguely (yet also somewhat feminine) humanoid shape, standing roughly twice her height (around 3 times Sonic's height by first glance). This things body was composed of black metal with red lights streaking all over it, a triangular eye and a pointed head (the shadow from before). It had no torso, but instead a VERY narrow waist for a neck coupled with thick thighs, and long pointy legs with no feet or toes. Even creepier, it's arms were shaped like straight blades or swords, but they were NOT physically connected to its body. They floated nearby it instead.

It looked even more advanced than those robots the Fallen Angels used when they kidnapped Asia... What the hell was this thing? A guard to ward off intruders and trespassers?

It then began taking a few steps forward slowly towards, it's legs not making a single sound, which was even more creepy. If this thing was some kind of guard, it was definitely sneaky. Was it stalking her the whole time?

SWIPE!

It took a swipe at her with its long blade-like arms after dashing forward without moving its legs, and it was as such a fast speed, she barely had time ti register the attack itself, and put up a magical barrier too... wait! Her magic still worked?!

The guard backed up, sliding backwards without moving its legs again, probably judging when to attack again, but Akeno still couldn't believe her magic worked again. Maybe now she can teleport out of here?

When she attempted too, it fizzled in her fingers, just like last time.

SWIPE!

Seeing the opening of the trespasser fiddling with her fingers, the robot took it as a time to try and attack again, only for Akeno to repeat the same shield as before... again the robot backed off, but why was her magic turning on and off like that?

She focused and sparks danced on her fingers... oh, now she got it. It was only teleportation magic that was cut off, but her defensive and offensive magic was still active without any interference. At least she wasn't totally defenseless down here.

With no other options at the moment, she prepared herself for a fight.

(AN: Optional Music - Sonic Frontiers Guardian OST: Ninja)

Akeno watched this things movements very carefully... it still slowly stepped towards her again, making Akeno a bit tense. She fired some of her lighting at it, and while it did hit the robot, it's arm blades and body flashed red, and it did also slightly twitch... did that do anything?

A second one digitized into existence... great! She had to deal with 2 of them now?! She shot lighting at it, but it passed through the newly summoned one... what the...?

DASH! SWIPE!

The new robot swiped at her, which Akeno blocked, but the original robot used this as an opportunity to jump up to the ceiling. Then like a ninja, it kicked off the ceiling and rushed at Akeno.

SWIPE! SHATTER!

From both a powerful downwards dual slash and catching Akeno off guard, her barrier was destroyed and she herself was knocked back off her feet and on her back. The 2nd robot dashed at her, its blades obviously preparing an uppercut-based attack from how they were positioned; so Akeno, now her adrenaline pumping through her system, had to use her wings again to make a desperate escape, BARELY evading harm as the enemy swiped where she was a second ago. Though this is where the 2nd robot faded away... was it a clone then? A duplicate made by this thing to psych her out, cuz that was honestly both smart and effective. She never saw it coming until it was too late.

She still had to worry about the real one that was still here, so she decided to go on the offensive again, shooting lighting at it...

ZA-! CLING!

Akeno didn't understand how, but this thing somehow generated a red shield of digital-like energy, the same kind that locked them all down here in the first place, which completely rendered Akeno's attack useless by absorbing it. She was both shocked and highly concerned... how was she supposed to damage it with that shield?

Rushing at her again, the robot did a frenzy of swipes in different directions with wide swinging motions, but Akeno evaded each one... barely. This thing was both fast and tactical, apparently figuring out Akeno was more of a long range attacker quickly and decided to keep up the pressure by constantly closing the distance between them.

ZAP!

Akeno shot lightning at it again, hitting its side this time after she evaded another slash. Like when she first attacked this robot, it flashed red and twitched again. It would appear that digital shield only protected its front while it was active, but what made it difficult was the shield itself was invisible until it was struck, so there was really no way of knowing which part of its body it was protecting.

It summoned another clone... oh no! No way was she falling for that again! She kept her eyes locked in both robots slowly stepping towards her, looking back and forth between them to keep her attention on them evenly so the other one would not surprise her. The clone of course did dash at her, which she instead evaded this time, and zapped the real one again, using a stronger bolt.

That one. Looked like it did some damage, as the twitching and flashing was more severe this time around, and the robot was pacing itself more slowly but it appeared to be in pain rather than simply watching her. It suddenly decided to jump on a wall, then off of it right at Akeno. But again, as it's clone was still active, she didn't brother blocking, knowing full well it would attack her if she did; but damn, she was starting to get tired. From flying around the temple with Sonic for fun, trying to survive this same temples traps, the dance game puzzle thing and now this... Akeno was starting to feel very exhausted.

DASH! SWIPE!

The clone slashed at her, but she dodged... her shirt however did get slashed, but she wasn't worried at it now. The clone disappeared by then, and then the real robot began rushing at her next, slashing in a frenzy again. In fact this frenzy attack actually got Akeno hit, being grazed on her ankle as she flew backwards. She cried out in pain, but then bit her tongue to end it, forcing herself to ignore it.

SWIPE! SWIPE, SWIPE! SWIPE, SWIP- CLANG!

All of a sudden as Akeno was still backing up, she passed by some pillars, most likely for stability for the architecture of this temple, and that's when the robots arm smashed into it, but oddly it didn't even break. In fact, this caused the robot to stagger from the recoil... this was her opening! Quickly summoning all of her strength, she used both her hands to attack the guard with a dual shock.

ZAP!

The robot reeled backwards from the attack, still trying to maintain its balance...

CLANG! CLUNK!

(AN: End music.)

The robot then started falling to pieces, starting with its arms, one after the other. Then in multiple small explosions off of its body, the robot appeared to blow up... and also evaporate somehow during a final slightly bigger explosion. Akeno couldn't help but take a few breaths in and out... was it over? Looking around, nothing else came for her, so she finally felt safe enough to relax.

Hang on... where the robot exploded, some sort of key popped out of nowhere. Did it drop the key when it exploded? Was it really a guard of some sort then? When she went to go pick it up, just like with Sonic and Koneko, it was absorbed into her hand. What kind of key does that?... She heard something behind her, and her adrenaline still pumping, she quickly turned around with her fingers sparking, still very on edge about this place.

It was a certain short white-haired girl behind her. Koneko was a bit shocked Akeno was flaring her magic at her like that though.

"Oh... Satan, it's you, Koneko." Akeno calmed down with a sigh of relief, dispelling her magic. She of course was sorry she nearly fried Koneko, and was happy to see it wasn't a form of danger.

"You okay? You look like you saw a ghost." Koneko said, asking if her Queen was okay for she was uncharacteristically very jumpy at the moment.

Not only did Akeno think back to the fight with the robot leas than a minute ago, but also immediately flashed back to those odd visions she saw when she helped that stone thing. "... Yeah. One can say that..."

The 2 Devils exited this room before venturing down the hall, looking for a way out still, but at least they were together. Now they just needed to find Sonic... speaking of whom, he was actually just making a turn on the other end of the hallway Akeno and Koneko went into just now, when he noticed them ahead of him and he skirted a stop quickly to avoid bumping into them.

"Sup, fellow explorers. You guys okay?" Sonic asked, making a tiny joke, but was still genuinely worried about them and asked if they were okay.

"We're fine. Just documenting our experiences." Akeno joked back. "Be easier if we can find the way..." She was gonna say 'find the way out', though that's when a soft shining light began to slightly illuminate up ahead down another corner. That's also when Sonic's Chaos Emerald reacted again (which he took out to check before putting it back again), glowing even brighter at exactly the same time.

They were all curious about this, so they all followed the light... more accurately, Sonic moved in that direction first, then the other 2 followed him afterwards. The light up ahead got brighter as they closed in, and they were shocked when they stumbled upon the source...

Another Chaos Emerald! This one was the blue one... but it was where it was is what was very confusing.

The Chaos Emerald was inside some kind of structure with 3 horn-shaped spires surrounding it that was made of a black material. These spires were also slowly rotating around the Chaos Emerald, which was sealed in a bubble of clear energy that kept it suspended in place. And like the robots Koneko and Akeno encountered, reddish digital energy was flowing in-between the spires.

"Another Emerald?... Here?" Akeno had to ask out loud. She was surprised to see they found another in a place like this of all places. And if they never would have taken this detour, they probably never would have found it... Sonic was right. They could be found anywhere.

Sonic looked at the Chaos Emerald... was the Emerald the reason the ruins were acting like this? Coming to life and springing all sorts of traps and other oddities?... Wouldn't be the first time that happened. He went over to try and take it, praying it wouldn't trigger a trap (though he'd more than likely be fast enough to evade or outrun it). When he did try and reach for the Emerald...

SHINE!

Sonic: Whoa!

Sonic's very expressive eyes went wide, as well as both Akeno's and Koneko's, for the strange key Sonic found then digitized itself out of his outstretched hand; then after floating for another second or two, re-digitized into tiny particles before entering the structure itself!

In a silly WTF fashion, Sonic stared at his palm, trying to comprehend what the heck just happened and how. But then again, maybe it didn't really need explaining, as it would appear those keys they found fit into this thing holding the Emerald. Slowly stepping towards it the same way, Koneko outstretched her hand and just like Sonic, her key appeared then disappeared the exact same way, Akeno then repeating this a moment after.

With a gentle humming sound, the bubble encasing the Emerald glowed for a bit before vanishing completely. The Chaos Emerald then floated out of the structure before floating towards the last person that "unlocked" it, which was Akeno in this case (maybe that was just how this thing was programmed). The Emerald then dropped into Akeno's hands, safe and sound.

"I think this belongs to you." Akeno said, jokingly; holding to Chaos Emerald out towards Sonic. He reached out to grab it and gently took it, putting it away in hammer space.

"Eh, this was fun, but let's skedaddle before something else happens." Sonic said.

"I already tried. I can't teleport out of here." Akeno said. "These ruins are having a weird effect on our magic."

Sonic nodded in understanding and slowly took out one of the Emeralds. "Worth a shot." He said, figuring he'd try Chaos Control now that they discovered what was down here. "Hang on tight."

Now neither Devil had experienced Chaos Control before but had seen it in action, so both of them were rightfully nervous. But they also knew Sonic wouldn't do anything to hurt them, so they got closer to Sonic and each Devil gently grabbed a shoulder of his each. Sonic closed his eyes in focus, then the Emerald began to glow and hum before it sent off a bright flash, the trio completely disappearing. Most likely to the outside.

...

...

...

We start to slowly zoom into a wall, going through a very small hole to the other side... on the other side of this wall, was a throne-like structure made of stone with a black material down the middle. We zoom further into it, more specifically the middle which had the outline of a gear...

"The Key..."

And that's another page of the epilogue done, but we aren't done just yet. There is one final page to go over, which I'll release at a later date. Now I was originally gonna have a chase sequence for the Emerald they just found during the last stretch of this chapter, either by the Squid or the Capture enemy from Frontiers; but while it was a cool part of the chapter that I had in a draft, I ultimately decided to cut it for one important reason: It's too much too quickly for now.

Them doing a few of the Ancients puzzles, seeing 2 Kocos', Cyber Energy showing Akeno the past, and also fighting 1 of their powerful Guardians and the weaker Shell enemy was more than enough. Especially now that a certain voice is aware of their existence...

Now only that, it was also a Power Scaling issue. You can disagree with me if you want, we can also discuss it in the comments or something, but from all the dialogue in Frontiers, it's heavily implied Sonic and his friends weren't powerful enough for most of the Ancients weaponry. Sonic even outright says after getting yeeted by Giganto "I'm gonna need the Chaos Emeralds. And maybe a little bit of luck", and Sage confirming even Super Sonic is powerless against its might in one cutscene in the Open Zone. An Asura was also implied to have beaten Knuckles during the prologue animation, and this was well before he had gotten any Cyber Energy at all.

My interpretation of this is the Cyber Energy played a huge role in the gangs victories throughout that adventure. Even Super Sonic's giant punches and kicks only have those big yellow limbs attack the Titans when he makes contact them, yet those same yellow limbs don't appear if you spam the button with no target in range. This can easily be seen if you defeat Giganto or Supreme but don't land the final blow yet, further implying this is also Cyber Energy, as well as the Cycloop's color changing from blue to yellow (which I will admit, that can be argued it's due to Sonic's Super Form). Not to mention the Titans have at least 1 instant kill move each that even a Super Form cannot fully protect against and regardless of ring count, which is a first for the series as I can't think of another instance like this ever happening before.

Or I could be just overthinking this... but that just shows my love and appreciation for the game and the overall franchise, eh? I'll see ya in the next page when I get around to it. I will try to release it before 2024 begins, but no promises.