Cosmic Wars Omega: The Multiversal War across the Infinite Frontier

by Darth Necron

In the aftermath of the Secret Wars a path to the Multiverse was formed. Decedents of legendary warriors Ben Auro and Doug Fitter, Michael Auro and Astra Fitter, now must unite the likes of Rachet & Clank, Sam Porter, MegaMan Volnutt, 2B, Mark "Invincible" Greyson, Tanjiro Kamado, and the other last hero's of the universe to stop the Negaverse from conquering all other universes.

66. Chapter 318: At the Edge of Oblivion

Chapter 318: On the Way to a Smile at the Extreme Edge of Oblivion.

Ezan was not kept down long after Zoth's surpise spell, and after he regained his bearings he saw he was on what seemed to be a ruined landscape.

He quickly noticed that there was a sun, that nearly looked like it was about to crash into the planet before he grit his teeth." No, are they already destroying Cetra? No matter what, I refuse to let the mission end in ruin!"

As he got up a male voice cut in with," Oh this is not a ruin, its my ideal world " hero". Welcome, to Tyrant Star!"

He saw the voice came from a man that was approaching him. He was a man young man with long, wavy light-blond hair, blue eyes and a pair of clemar horns on his head. He was in a suit of white, ornate armor decorated in the Euchronian state army logo, and wore a white cape around his neck . The man gave a mock bow before uttering," So your Ezan Zeon correct? My name is Louis Guiabern! I am the rightful king, he who will forge anew this unworthy universe into a utopia! Attack in any number.

Wield any weapons. But... fight with your very life! If you live by a creed, show me its strength! Go ahead! Have at me! An attempt on the life of Louis Guiabern is a folly most cannot afford!"

Ezan saw Louis looked confident before he grasped his blade tightly." I heard the others like Strohl talk about you. So, you're the one who was subjecting his world."

"Please, I'm trying to save it and all other universes! The others are just mere simpletons that don't realize that a country is heavier than a crown, and he could not bear it. Retribution past due, I will not let those who understand nothing get in the way of my duty!"

Ezan got into a fighting stance before declaring," You think your resolve is that pure? I was trained by one who shared your views…I won't let another man with ambitions like that harm others. No matter how grand you think your resolve is, you're going to find it's not enough."

"Maybe…but what if it's not alone?"

Ezan tensed up as he saw pillars of light appear around him. Behind Louis one of the ones that stepped out was a lighter version of Emperor Mateus. The man with wings smiled before uttering," Ezan Zeon…you have suffered long but it does not have to last forever. Forgive your superiors…and you yet can be saved. Even now Mr-V Day will forgive those who can realize their flaws."

Ezan just had his aura erupt before he spat out," I will never surrender to you scum. Living forever as a servant of the IV just means living forever as a slave."

The Emperor frowned before uttering," If you will not have eternal life, I will give you eternal suffering! We are some of the highest-ranking employees of the Infinite Victory and Conquest corporation and we will get what we deserve!"

"If you can't give up your ambition, all you will get is death."

Gongora snickered before he raised his staff." You think the likes of us fear death? Death fears are existence, as a god! Right Zophar?"

A man with blue skin and many hands became the size of a building before he looked crazed." Ahh, now then. What brings you to our inner sanctum? Have you come to

beg for mercy? Or perhaps, to halt our glorious plan? Go ahead, it

doesn't really matter. You haven't the slightest chance of stopping us now. Are new age of supreme darkness has begun! Watch now as we mold this

Multiverse to are taste! Right Dux Aldric?"

An armored man with a black mustache took out his ax and nodded." Yes…are plans for all life will not be denied, right Aephorul?"

A robed wizard with demonic tentacles coming out of his back walked up and had his own aura crackle around him." To think that you could stop us with a snap of your fingers... But no, you choose to cling to the silly belief that this all turns to good someday. But you're about to learn the hard way, eh Valmar?"

From the sky a gigantic demon with many mouths flew down while crying out," O foolish. piteous humans. accept your fate. Accept the mercy of a perfect God!"

Ezan narrowed his eyes before uttering," I eliminated those who said they were perfect gods before, and I'll devout everything to do it again!"

A bald man in a white uniform snickered before uttering," Hmph! Idealistic youth. If you speak the truth, then prove it to me! When you get involved in intrigue, do it decisively. I will do just that, with the power of the Sun Ruin!"

The bald man took out a sphere before he transformed into a being similar to a giant butterfly, with the figure of a woman. As it started to turn into a miniature sun the red haired Indalecio walked up and had his angelic wings extended." Marscal Godwin is right boy. You may be strong enough for me to remove my limiter, but you can not stop this! This universe is just garbage, and we will erase it till not a trace is left! Right Vam the Malevolent?"

A man with long green hair and a red mark on his face appeared before his eyes glowed." The sheer hubris of you mortals to believe you could stop this! Know your place! Right Lashiec?"

A man with golden armor and horns for a crown and a staff walked up and snickered." This man must know who decides destiny, right Zanza?"

A blond man that wore skin-tight glowing golden and white robes, and had a revolving halo above his head and matching wings snickered before declaring," You thought you could change destiny? And who decides that, a god...Because only a god may decide. HAH! May you ROT in that shell for all eternity! Right,

Dagoth Ur?"

A man in a voodo mask came out before he crossed his arms."

What a fool you are. I'm a god, how can you kill a god? What a grand and intoxicating innocence. How could you be so naive? There is no escape. No recall or intervention can work in this place. Come, lay down your weapons, it is not too late for our mercy. Right Myria?"

A massive half woman half serpentine entity, slithered out before hissing out," If you make us your enemy, you're making the whole multiverse your enemy! Do you realize that, hero? if not we should teach him, yes Elgar'nan?"

A elf like member grasped his staff and added," Yes. You thought your light could outshine are power? There is no light save my glory! No refuge save my shadow! No desire save my perfected intention! I am Creator and Destroyer! I am will made manifest! I! Am! Elgar'nan!"

Ezan saw all the high ranking members of the IV&C prepare to attack before he shrugged." You think you all evolved so highly, but now your just all mere monsters made for another man's profit and that won't match my resolve."

Louis snickered before he raised his blade in the air." Hmph. A mission? An assigned purpose, an ideal borrowed? If you think that alone is equal to my will, then you have already failed! Come, then, and act your part in this showdown. I've a new world to build, and you will die in its name!

Our land is consumed with anxiety as it has never been before... All of it foundation for my new, better world! You are but an audience, powerless to tread on history's stage! Let it begin as you see the depth of my resolve as we begin a new age!"

"What new age?" Ezan uttered in disgust." All those around you understand is how to destroy. You all refuse to believe in dreams. That's why you can't believe in anything gradual, complex, and what is slow to change. All that this means is that you given up on having faith in everything. Your all nothing but cowards trying to escape reality!"

"The time for words is over." Louis uttered before Ezan raised a eyebrow." Are you sure? You like to talk a lot."

Louis's eyes glowed purple before he raised the scepter into the air and became consumed with energy." I will not let the injustice I suffered happen ever again! Again all must be shattered, and it must be built anew! You will die in tribute to my ideals Warrior of light! RAHH!"

He transformed into a giant three headed demonic angel before Ezan shrugged." Your ideal of becoming a three headed monster is not worth anyone's lives."

"SILENCE! There is no power in your fantasy "hero"! The world of old... and its people... shall perish! Destructor's Flare!"

Louis, after transforming into his "Destroyer Charadrius " form fired a massive energy blast at Ezan. The sliver haired man blocked it, but before he could follow through Indalecio yelled out," Your just one man trying to defy destiny! Sun Flare!"

Myria then yelled out," Holocaust!"

Gongora then yelled out," Pain Surge!"

As Vam yelled out," Rain of Blades!"

And Lashiec yelled out," Razonde!"

While Zanza roared out," BEHOLD SUPREME POWER! Mechonis Buster!"

While Zophar snarled out," Lie down before me and await your destruction! There is nothing left to save you now! "

A spike of ice appeared in his hand before he fired a massive wave of dark ice magic. At the same time Valmar roared and unleashed a massive red energy blast, before Aephorul put his hands in the air and declared," Throne of Flesh!"

As Marscal Godwin as the Sun Ruin unleashed a super nova and Mateus looked crazed," Suffer lowly worm, victory came to the strongest! Starfall XVI"

Ezan was bombarded by all sides as he was pressed to the ground, and grit his teeth." You can howl all you want…that's not enough."

Louis yelled with disgust before uttering," There is no power in your fantasy, your fantasy... is nought but LIES! You will be a sacrifice... You will sustain the strong... O weak one... O peon…DIE!"

Ezan was pressed down harder by the combined barrage before he spat out," No…the Enji Code is not a lie, the ideas of the Lylat Kingdom are not a lie as long as I keep fighting for them! For all the mistakes we made, the desire to protect those that matter to us, is not a lie!"

"Fools... These false foundations... Who in their right mind could promise such fantasies? You struggle in vain... Give in to the truth... Your "fantasy" has no meaning whatsoever.. the inequities of the very multiverse can only be cleansed if the strong subsume the weak. You can't beat us when your shackled by foolish unneeded dreams! Now... be a noble sacrifice!

Great Reset!"

His other face unleashed another spell to bombard Ezan further, and as the combined energy blasts caused the ground to cave in, Louis snickered as the light blinded his eyes." That's right, this tainted Multiverse and its people... shall perish! Huh?"

To his shock the combined barrage of projectiles suddenly were lifted up, as Ezan revealed he was slowly pushing back the attacks with his Nu Epyon katana. The sliver haired man saw his opponent's shock before he narrowed his eyes." Its time you see…that the one living in fantasy, is every last one of you scum. I'm not like you who cast aside everything for a fool's ambition, I cast aside nothing!"

Louis had his eyes twitch before he hissed out," No…impossible! One mere man can not turn back the tide of destiny!"

Despite even more projectiles being thrown into the pile, Ezan had his aura flare up, before transparent reflections of himself, Limbo clones are surrounding him, and backing him up before the Enji replied with," You should know I'm not one man, I'm a super elite! And while I'm alone, I have many shadows at the moment. If one man 's ambition can shake the very multiverse, then another man can counter it! All of you just threw away your pride for another man's ambition one way or another. But…I'll show you how strong my resolve is and reflect your fraud ideals, and powers right back at you!

You think your all" winners" Your all" Losers" who could not even defend your own pride!

Limbo: Susanoo Sanjingi no Ni Kageoni Reflection Slash!"

To his enemies horror, Ezan managed to absorb all of the projectile fired at him, before unleashing a pillar of purple flames and energy that erupted upward. Louis yelled out in horror and tried to beat back the projectile, only to see his hands burning before he yelled out in horror." But why? Why... is it still beyond me? My world... MY PERFECT WORLD! AAAAAHHHHHH! MY WORLD... MY NEW WORLD! ARRRGH! ARGH...ARRRRRRRRGH!"

Emperor Mateus saw his staff shatter before he yelled out," No… I will…not die…I… Ungaahhhh!"

All the other villains gave various cries of outrage before they all were vaporized by Ezan's attack. The spell went on to the edge of the Tyrant Star, and blew a hole in reality. Ezan saw the attack go past the space between universe's before he grasped his fist tightly." I don't care how terrifying you all were in your native realms, your just obstacles for me to checkmate to stay on the mission.

Ah, I see Bahamut and his group caught up with Daigo. Good, need every piece in play hear to see things through. Aeris…just hang on a little longer…even if they throw every would be tyrant in the Multiverse at my way, it won't be enough! I won't allow it to be."

With one last check for any lingering enemies, Ezan burst out of the Tyrant Star to make up for lost time. As he tried to keep his anxiety back, little did he know that his wife's situation was not quite as dire as he thought, though it was still rather stressful with so many villains trying to kill her.

---

But some were taking it with as stone cold professionalism as Ezan, like Dale/ Eden.

Eden wasted little time upon her own arrival. At once her eyes went straight to Mianyl. The moment she set her sights upon her, she brandished both of her weapons and fired up her jets. She sailed straight toward her and raised her weapon to fire…

Only to get interrupted by a pillar of darkness getting in her way. She cursed as she saw Mianyl vanish in a pillar of darkness of her own at the same time. She nearly tried to seek her energy signature out, but that aborted as she picked up on an energy signature just as strong forming in front of her. Quickly bracing herself, she watched the dark fires die down—revealing Ultimecia now standing in her way.

Eden hesitated, not used to seeing a sorceress looking so malevolent and wondering if her power actually surpassed that of her progenitor. As for Ultimecia, she fixed her demonic, red eyes upon her.

"I do not deny I have longed for some time to see you with my own eyes, Eden. Your power clearly exceeds that of any other Guardian Force. Nevertheless…"

She held up a hand and brandished her curved claws, instantly bringing up memories of Mianyl.

"Planet or not, you are as doomed to destruction as the rest of existence. You were the one who was fabled to have once slain the Sorceress who held the power of all of Hyne's Descendants who drew breath. Now you will face the Sorceress who holds the power of all of Hyne's Descendants in history."

Eden didn't balk. "I will tell you once and only once to stand down, and then I won't hesitate to kill you."

"The yapping of an elderly dog means little to me. One who is eternal cannot be killed."

"I am the will of this Planet embodied into flesh. I know what it means to be eternal."

"You know nothing. I have seen the birth of your kind. Aeon...esper...guardian force...Eikons...the name is irrelevant. And I have watched you die. I have seen your successors, the WEAPONs, meet the same fate. And even the Sorceresses afterward. I am beyond even them. If you cannot grasp that, then you are as foolish as all the others who neither understood nor accepted my brethren."

"I know enough to know that you have no right to call them your 'brethren'," Eden practically spat. "The Sorceresses were never more than means of power to you. And I know enough to know you aren't special either. You're the same as the others I've seen come and go. Chaos...Mateus...Zemus...Kuja...Kefka...Mianyl...they all were just like you. They all thought this world and everyone in it just existed to service them. And they all died for it."

"You remember so much," she coolly answered, still not perturbed in the least. "And because of that, you will suffer most greatly at the hands of the Infinite Victory and Conquest Corporation...as everything you can remember ever loving or hating or hoping in is violently torn out of your mind in an agony you cannot possibly fathom. It will be the last you ever experience before you face an eternal horrific nightmare worse than any Hell you have ever fantasized: non-existence."

She drew her full height up, enough to actually look down on Eden.

"Venerate me, elderly dog. I will be the only one left from your entire universe who will remain to even have a memory of you. I will be the only one left from your entire universe who even exists."

Eden glared back at her only momentarily, before she drew up her own height to match hers perfectly.

"You're an even more insane miscreation than Mianyl was, and I'm through with the days of letting monsters like you run rampant. I'm going to destroy you for everyone's sake. Even the other Sorceresses."

Ultimecia's eyes narrowed.

"You will die trying."

For a moment, like ancient gunslingers, the two faced off against one another. Neither betrayed the slightest emotion or fear, and neither made the slightest gesture nor looked away from one another for an instant.

Then, in a snap, Eden's gun arm was up and firing a holy blast at Ultimecia. Yet just as quickly, as if she had chosen that moment to attack at the same time, the sorceress waved her other hand and, without chanting so much as a spell, discharged an actual Holy blast right back at her. The two attacks met perfectly in between the two and annihilated in a blast of brilliant light, momentarily obscuring the entire battlefield…

Only for the light to give way to Eden sailing right for Ultimecia with her blade naked and ready to strike her down. Yet a moment before she could, the sorceress waved her other hand, again not needing to speak, and cast another spell.

Eden was just in time to register it as a Stop…before Ultimecia vanished completely from in front of her. It took the Guardian Force a moment to process exactly what happened before she realized, in spite of her own magical defenses, the Sorceress had managed to afflict her for a few crucial seconds.

She also realized that if she wasn't seeing Ultimecia in front of her that could only mean one thing. With that in mind, she took to the air…just in time to avoid the sorceress firing behind her with a Bio spell.

No sooner had Eden taken to the air than she spun around and faced down the sorceress once again—once more unleashing another radiant beam from her cannon. But in the time it took her to aim, Ultimecia quickly cast the Double incantation on herself. Once she fired, the sorceress waved both of her hands independently at once, casting two spells simultaneously.

The first was another Holy spell, which readily intercepted and annihilated the second beam. Yet at the same time, she waved her hand at Eden and sent forth a wave of intense miasma and darkness…the very same Maelstrom spell that her progenitor had once used against her.

Quickly, Eden crossed herself as the wave hit. For a few moments, she could feel it trying to eat away at her and siphon her energy and vitality. It made her feel cold and nauseated while numbing her extremities.

Yet then, her eyes opened wider, she gave a cry, and with a flex of her power her armor glowed radiant white and shattered the attack completely. Ultimecia finally registered a change as her eyes widened slightly, moments before Eden arched her weapon down and began to fire a continuous stream of holy energy tracing along the battlefield.

In response, the sorceress quickly cast a Haste spell on herself before she took off. In spite of being in what seemed like a restrictive dress, Eden was amazed that she was able to move as fast as she could to dodge the attack lapping at her heels. And she wasn't even flying as the other Sorceresses had done. With that in mind, Dael released her sword hilt and raised her other hand.

The world around Ultimecia grew dark, a facet she soon realized, before streams of light began to seep inward to a central point right in front of her. Moments later, the beams condensed and went off—resulting in a titanic explosion burning with green magical energy that dwarfed even Bahamut's Megaflares. The entire lab area was blasted aside on both the floor above and the floor below in the wake of the tremendous blast.

However, when the light and eruption died down, Eden frowned beneath her helmet as she could still clearly sense Ultimecia's energy. As she lowered back to the remains of the floor, the smoke cleared and revealed the sorceress untouched on the other side of the still-gleaming crater. As she stared back at Eden, one of her clawed hands raised and dusted off the fur on her dress.

"Impressive. Even with my Stop spell, I had to devote all of the time to evading your Ultima attack without having a moment to counter. You're more trouble than I thought."

"You're the one who should know by now I tend to be quite the pain in the neck to Sorceresses."

Ultimecia snorted. "Don't misunderstand me. I'm not using anywhere near my maximum power upon you. I only see you worth destroying in a more fitting manner for your insolence."

Eden looked puzzled at this, but the sorceress raised one of her clawed hands. As she did, her long black wings stretched out behind her and began to slowly flap. In response, her body at last began to levitate.

"I see your present…I see your future…and I see your past. I see your greatest regret and your greatest fear. I will give life to that fear and watch as it destroys you."

Eden's eyes widened, but there was no chance to stop her now as white light radiated from her hand like a glorious beacon. Her wings flapped again and she quickly rose to the newly exposed level as she shouted down.

"Come to me and become the true greatest of the Guardian Forces—Griever!"

Eden let out an audible gasp at that name, even as the floor in front of her erupted in white light. As if a cosmic door had been opened to the laboratory's basement…or perhaps to another reality all together.

Much to her shock and dread, it was only a moment before a gray-furred, clawed, and muscular arm reached out from inside it and grasped the side. And a moment later, it was dragging itself up and out of it. Big as life, bladed-armed, adorned with bat wings lined with white feathers, and with the face of a demonic lion bearing five crimson red spires for a "crown".

In spite of knowing the "dead" had already come back several times that day, Eden didn't want to believe it. Even more so, as much as she wanted to deny the feeling inside her own chest on seeing the hulking monstrosity leave the portal, spread its wings, and begin to hover in front of her, she could not deny that something deep in her chest stirred on seeing it. Infernal and evil as it was, deep down in her heart of hearts she knew the truth…that she was gazing on another one of her children.

Griever hovered there only a moment before his eyes opened and set upon Eden. However, the moment they did, they widened. Immediately it ceased flying and alit on the ground. Its bestial face became far softer.

"Mother…" A clawed hand reached for her. "It's…really you…"

Eden hesitated only a heartbeat longer before she recoiled, holding up her cannon and making it hum with energy. "Stay back!"

In spite of the monstrous visage of the beast, it actually recoiled on hearing Eden's sharp response. It almost cringed. "Why…why do you recoil from me? Am I not your own child, the same as the rest of the espers?"

"You're a monster," she coldly retorted, not wavering in the least.

"M…Monster? How can you say that of me?" the creature responded, genuinely sounding surprised. Even hurt. "Didn't I do everything you wished of me? Everything you created me for? I protected my younger siblings. I raised them…reflecting the same love you were unable to give them."

"You corrupted the Crystals," Eden retorted. "You created the Four Archfiends of the Elements. You tried to kill the human race."

Griever looked aghast, holding its claws to its chest innocently. "I only wanted to punish our true enemies! The same species that ravaged you, abused you, and exploited you! And they've done nothing but that ever since! Look how they murdered our kind! How they used us, your own children, as much as they used you! Surely you can't mean to defend humans over your own offspring? Why else would you have created the WEAPONs if you didn't think they needed to be subjugated? I did what was best for us! You, me, and my brothers and sisters!"

Eden, for a moment, had wavered as Griever spoke. Her arm had grown a bit weaker. However, that last phrase made her stiffen again. "What was 'best' for them? You tried to murder your own brothers and sisters!"

"But Bahamut and Wyvern were never truly espers! Never really one of us! Couldn't you sense that? Isn't that the real reason you gifted me such power?"

Eden quivered at that, wincing beneath her visor, but kept the gun aimed. "And what's your excuse for Odin? Leviathan? Ogopogo? Starlet? Phoenix? Were they not 'true espers' either? And if you loved me as your mother so much, why did you destroy Ultima Nexus and send it crashing down to the earth? Why did you try to annihilate all life on me?"

Griever truly did cringe at that, quivering and swallowing. "…Alright, I admit it, mother. My own power was too much for me. My thoughts of being the strongest being…the magic that made me above all others…it was overwhelming. But please…have pity.

You know full well I didn't have what my brothers and sisters had. I never knew what it was like to be small, weak, and helpless. I never knew what it meant to slowly grow and earn my powers.

I never knew what having someone stronger than me or who could command me by force entailed. What I did was…was…was horrendous, but I didn't know any other way. I may have been a spoiled child, but…I was still a child in some ways, can't you see?"

Eden kept holding her arm out. However, she softened more in the view of the towering beast, for it was acting as meek as a kitten at this point. It nervously risked a step forward.

"Sorceress Ultimecia may have summoned me, but…" It shook its mane. "But it doesn't matter. You are the last creature in all of existence I would ever want to hurt, let alone fight. I'm finally seeing you with my own eyes. I can speak with you and touch you. I may have been mad before, but…but no longer. I serve you again. Now and forever."

It risked another step forward, cringing lower, and holding out its hands. Eden looked down upon them as they neared. She showed nothing, either through her visor or her face, but her gun arm lowered slightly.

"Let me help you and who's left of my family, mother. Let me prove myself to you. Please…please forgive me, as you did Wyvern. Command my strength. Use me as your weapon against the IV & C."

It reached out a hand closer.

"Let me feel your touch for the first time. Let me know what a mother's touch is like. I beg you…have mercy. Please see me as your wayward child…"

Griever was still shaking as it reached out. Eden kept staring, her own heart tugging at her and pulling in different ways. She kept her grip on her blade in her other hand, but it remained at her side. As for her arm cannon, very slowly, she slid her normal hand out of the bottom of it. While the barrel still stayed aimed at Griever, her hand now showed below it.

Tentatively, she held it out in response to his, as if mentally still deciding. It drew a little closer. It came within a few inches of making contact…

And at that moment, Griever suddenly rose up, bent an arm inward, and drove one of his blades through Eden's armor and into her stomach.

Horrible stabbing pain quickly snapped Eden out of her thoughts and back to reality, and she gagged as she went rigid. However, she had no time to react any further, for Griever quickly arched his other arm around and moved the other blade to take off her head.

Quickly, her sword arm raised and intercepted it, and the two clashed ferociously. Even then, Griever quickly pushed inward and the agony in her stomach grew as she struggled to fend it off.

Its face twisted in malevolence as it laughed mockingly in her own.

"You sympathetic imbecile, I can't believe you fell for that! You're as stupidly sentimental as Starlet and Phoenix were! You want to know the truth?"

Griever dipped its head in close enough to spit in Eden's face with every word.

"I…hate…you. More than anything in the entire world or any other world. Because you had the gall to give me such power and then you spawned offspring who could become stronger than me! You always destined me to be humiliated by pitiful, mewling children! You were so pathetic and incompetent you couldn't even make me strong enough to kill Shinryu's crotch goblins! You disgust me! And now I'm going to take off your worthless head and feast on it, you miserable ball of mud!"

The blade dove deeper…enough to start making blood ooze from Eden's lips. It pushed its other blade in enough to get in the groove of her neck armor and start to dig into her skin underneath. Yet Griever's words had the opposite effect that it intended. It caused the full measure of Eden's fury to flare again. Her mercy and sympathy evaporated in the fires of her warrior's passion. Tightening her limbs, she growled right back in his face.

"Get…the Hell…off of me!"

With that, she slammed her crested visor right into Griever's head so powerfully that it snapped one of its bony crests all together. It gave a roar of anguish as blood flowed from its brow and it recoiled. It yanked out the blade from her gut as it did, causing blood to flow freely, but Eden answered by slapping her gun arm over the wound while jetting for it and aiming a slice at its own neck.

Griever, however, snapped to life and quickly unfurled its wings, back-flapping so hard the wind pushed her back while letting it shoot free and away from her. It immediately swung both of its claws for her and chanted forth.

Eden's eyes widened at what technique it used, recognizing it as the relatively new spell the humans called "Pain". And just as its namesake, she immediately felt a wave of nausea and weakness come over her.

She had been moments from healing her stomach wound when the spell faltered in her mouth, and she dropped to one knee. Roaring in fury and triumph, Griever quickly flew back at her with its claws brandished—ready to take off her head.

Unfortunately for him, Eden was still able to pull out her oldest trick. As Griever moved to attack, Eden's body split apart into five separate images. The eldest Guardian Force hesitated, suddenly faced with five new targets, before it snarled again and sliced through one with its claws while lashing out with its bladed tail to cut through another.

However, it gained only vapor vanishing in a blink of light for its effort. It quickly sliced through a third one—once more hitting nothing, before it slashed out for the remaining two. Yet it was too late. Even the momentary pause was all Eden needed to negate the Pain and start healing her stomach with her sword arm…while giving Griever a face-full of her arm cannon in the process. The thing roared in agony as it was blasted away again.

The moment Eden cut off the blast, she flew out for it with her sword at the ready, prepared to strike it down with one hit. Yet unfortunately for her, Griever looked more infuriated than hurt by her last move, and quickly slapped both of its hands together to launch a Flare spell at her. In response, she cried out, spiraled around, and sliced right through it before flying through the intense explosion. To her surprise, however, a second one was right behind it.

For this, she raised her cannon and fired—causing the miniaturized nuclear blast to ignite right between her and Griever. She raised her blade again, shooting into the fire and meaning to go right through it to slice her target…only to be met with pain once again as a third Flare sailed through and blasted her dead on in the head. Even with her helmet, the intense explosion knocked a gash across her brow and sent her flying away from the legendary beast.

Holding both of its hands over its head, Griever made darkness condense rapidly over it in the form of what looked like black ink. As soon as it had enough, it roared yet again and cast a sphere of blackness, the form of Gravija, right at Eden's flailing body. Still stunned and spiraling away from the beast, she grit her teeth and looked up just in time to see it coming, and quickly fired off her jets to shoot up and over it. The sphere sailed past her before igniting its event horizon, which she just narrowly managed to escape, before she looked back to where Griever had been and prepared to attack…only to see it was gone.

"You always were more of a brainless infant than your own offspring…"

Hearing Griever above her, she looked up, only to suddenly stiffen in more pain and agony. To her surprise, a gleaming sphere had formed around her and had immobilized her. She struggled and fought, but her limbs were frozen and her jets were ineffective.

Griever, both arms extended toward her, grinned malevolently. "Bumbling along…creating life at random…making new races only to have your newer ones render them extinct… What a pathetic excuse of a mother you always were!"

The air around Eden turned dark and rapidly began to condense. She looked up and around, and recognized it for what it was. Griever's ultimate attack…the Shockwave Pulsar. The move strong enough to destroy even a planet. The Guardian Force was setting it off here…

"Now look at you! Siding with the children of the destroyer of universes over your own flesh and blood! Even the one perfect child you must have clumsily made purely by accident! You're the miscreation! You're the stain on your universe! And I'll prove it by rubbing you out!"

The darkness quickly began to move inward to the sphere, picking up speed. Still, Eden couldn't move. She strained and struggled, but the power was too much and had caught her off guard. In moments, the energy would converge on her, and the resulting blast, even if it wasn't fatal…which it very well could be…would annihilate everyone else around her too.

Fortunately, Eden still had one more spell from her days as a human…

The wave finished collecting, struck the sphere, and rapidly condensed it. Griever grinned as it raised his claws, ready to detonate it and annihilate his progenitor…

…Only to cry out in agony as a slash was opened across its abdomen; deep and wide enough for blood to come fountaining out.

Griever immediately grasped for its gaping wound, hovering back and bellowing in misery. It hardly noticed the fact that Eden was now in front of where it had been, still holding her bloody blade in the position where it had been slashed. It was true she had been immobilized, but that didn't stop her from casting a Teleport spell.

And at this point she had been all over the room to create a presence in it. It had been child's play to teleport right in front of her foul offspring right at the moment she needed to strike.

As the Guardian Force continued to writhe and recoil, Eden turned her wrathful gaze skyward and back to Ultimecia—more impassioned and furious than ever. "Are you ready to get back in the fight? Or do you have any more of my progeny you want me to maim first?"

"My, you certainly are the savage for supposedly being such a loving mother," Ultimecia dully answered, never changing her expression. She held out both of her hands and Eden braced for another attack, only for her to cross in front of her own chest.

"Sadly for you, your fight with Griever is far from over."

At once, Ultimecia was enveloped in light. A moment later, her body seemed to transition into it completely, before it streaked through the air and headed straight for the still-agonized Griever.

It arched about and struck him right in the chest, and at once the monster released its wound and went flaccid, craning its head to the sky and letting out the longest, loudest, most deafening roar yet before it too was enveloped in light. It was so thunderous and earsplitting that Eden winced and lowered herself out of the sky due to inability to focus on flight.

However, no sooner had she descended to the ground than Griever's own body dropped like a stone and slammed down on top of it. For a moment Eden thought the Guardian Force was dead—that Ultimecia had somehow killed it. However, she soon realized that wasn't the case as the light dimmed down again and revealed something equal parts intimidating and revolting.

Leviathan had spoken to Eden about what a "failed junction" would look like, but she had yet to see one and honestly could have gone the rest of her life without seeing one. Griever's lower body had split wide where its injury had been, now exposing the internal organs and even the skeleton, while its legs had grown bloated, oversized, and now vestigial.

They were nothing more than grotesque masses of flesh, muscle, and claws now. Yet much to her disgust, they seemed to bear the same black wing structure and colors as Ultimecia's own gown had.

Its arms and claws had grown massive—bigger around than its head. They too now bore the same colors, contours, and shapes as Ultimecia's own talons. Its wings, by comparison, had shrunk to the point of being unable to lift its disgustingly bloated body, and the white wings had been stained Ultimecia's black.

Most of all, however, much to Eden's revulsion, Ultimecia herself now seemed to be half-embedded in Griever's own chest—enclosed by some sort of bony cyst. Above her, Griever craned its neck high and looked just as monstrous and furious as ever, but the eyes had turned pure white. Ultimecia's own white hair seemed to have merged with its own mane.

This form was clearly not being "shared". The sorceress was the one in control now.

Eden was revulsed by the new monstrosity. "You're insane… Do you have any idea what it's going to do to your body when you try and separate from Griever?"

"Again you completely underestimate my power," Ultimecia's voice answered…from Griever's mouth. "I am far more than any Cetra, esper, or WEAPON that you have even encountered or even dreamed of. I am beyond any Sorceress past, present, or future. I am the penultimate perfection of all of Hyne's Descendants.

Sephiroth and Lazard believed Aerith, the progenitor of our race, to be the key to undoing the universe. Mianyl naively believed herself to be the rightful heir to her sum power. Yet the truth is both of them are irrelevant. Both of them are nothing.

"They, like all other Sorceresses before them and after them, had only one true purpose. To lead up to me. My power. My vision. My destiny. When I and those like me in the Infinite Victory and Conquest Corporation rewrite all existence to simply be a part of us."

Eden brandished her weapons and grit her teeth at her. "Neither Aerith nor Faerio nor any other Sorceress…not even Mianyl…exists just to be a steppingstone for you."

"And yet that is exactly what they are. While you? You're not even a bump in the road. You can't protect them from me. You can't even save yourself from your existence being denied, outdated relic."

Eden readied blade as her cannon began to hum again. "Big talk from someone who needs to suture themselves to my child to keep fighting. Let's finish this."

Blasting off with her jets, Eden split into five new copies which all immediately converged on Ultimecia-Griever at once.

As their fight resumed, we roll back time a bit to those who Ultimeica was talking about.

---

Where we last saw Aeris and Krysta, the former of the two was just finishing watching as the last of Mianyl's knife-like tentacles emerged. Despite everything the woman winced. "I'm sorry we did not meet till now, Mianyl. If you were able to meet someone to give you happiness in your life, things could have been different. Even after everything, even after losing so much, even if it's true about what you said, that all the way up to God sees my life as a joke, I'll fight for the people that matter to me!"

Mianyl had a sphere of light form in her hand. "That is pointless and irrelevant. No matter how hard you try or how hard you fight, everyone and everything you care about will eventually die. The only one true absolute is death. I have accepted that and fully embraced it, and I have cast aside all doubt and confusion for the sake of devoting myself to oblivion."

The sphere quickly grew larger. "You two, on the other hand, are still constantly torn between desire and selflessness, between love and hate, between idle wishing and what needs to be done. My resolve is purer than either of yours and my will is stronger. Now embrace the inevitable…embrace the truth of chaos!"

With that, Mianyl unleashed her Corrupt Holy spell. Rather than a radiant, peaceful, glorious light, it was sickly, nauseating, and even maddening to look at as the deadly sphere sailed toward both women.

Aeris grit her teeth before her own energy flared up. "I refuse to accept that Mianyl!" She countered with her own holy energy sphere. The two energies collided, and a shockwave of lights and "unlights" swept over the area. For a moment, neither side budged and remained in a beam lock. Yet after a few fateful seconds, it seemed as if Aerith's attack was beginning to get the edge.

Yet that was right before Aeris felt chain-like cables suddenly wrap around her legs. She glanced down, distracted, and saw that Mianyl had extended her tentacles to wrap around them. A moment later, they snapped taught and yanked her right off balance to slam into the floor. The holy attacks went wild, deflected and shooting off to annihilate another section of lab, but Mianyl herself was totally unmiffed.

More tentacles arose and brandished their sharp tips, aiming for Aeris' body. "I have no need to draw this out for any foolish notions of superiority or sadism. I will deliver you to oblivion now." Like arrow shafts, the tentacle tips snaked out aimed straight of Aeris' heart.

However, before they could reach her, Krystea gave a grunt of her own before she shot over to the tentacles that had Aeris' legs trapped, swung her leg upward, and drove it down. The sheer power of the nanite armor enhanced the blow enough to, much to Mianyl's surprise, shatter the ends of the tentacles all together. Her fists rapidly lashed out and punched away the other incoming ones with one rapid blow apiece—before she glared murderously at Mianyl.

"That sounds fine to me, because I'm sick of you and your crap!" Krystea shouted. Immediately, she tightened her hands into fists and went for a charge attack.

Mianyl answered by lifting one hand and twitching two of her fingers. "Idiot."

Two of the tentacles responded by shooting off a pair of focused, deadly red beams, which impacted Krystea right in the chest. She let out a pained gag as she was stopped cold, before dropping to one knee and bracing herself with one arm. A pair of holes were in her armor, and they only slowly began to repair themselves.

"Rejecting your true nature will cost you," she remarked as she made a simple hand gesture. In response, her broken tentacles split into sections, with each one reforming itself into the shape of a razor-sharp knife. It hovered independently after doing so, until a great cloud of them began to gather behind the sorceress. "Simple gene waste that chose the role of a mere grunt cannot overcome a true master."

She waved her hand again, and instantly the cloud of knives shot forward and spread out—becoming a spherical wave that surrounded Krystea from all directions. She looked up and about, and with a grunt forced herself back to her feet as her armor kept closing up its apertures, but looked nervous on seeing there was no way she could protect herself from all angles…

Yet just as they began to shoot inward, Aeris got to her own feet and cried out, "Too bad she's not alone! Photon Feather!"

She unleashed a barrage of holy projectiles to blast some of the knives away. As for the others, Krystea quickly crossed her arms in front of herself and rushed out to meet them, using the flat of her arms to smack one down after another and intercepted the rest with the broader parts of her armor.

Mianyl regarded this with a small frown, before she held up her hand and twitched her fingers again. Another tentacle broke off and began to form into knives once more, ready to give a counterattack to both ladies from behind.

Yet as soon as Aerith turned to use another Photon Feather to relieve Krystea, the woman suddenly twirled about and kicked off of the floor—sending her body sailing straight for the sorceress. Mianyl's eyes widened in genuine surprise, but it was too late to defend herself. One of her nanite-armored fists slammed across the side of her head in a thunderous blow, actually knocking the woman back slightly.

The sorceress' head was turned away for only a moment, before she snapped it back. Her eyes were wider now. Blazing yellow and looking positively demonic. "Fools…"

An instant later, a red pillar erupted around her—right before flames looking like they were ripped straight from Hell enveloped her in a burning inferno. Krystea cried out in pain as well as alarm and was forced to break off her attack. Yet Mianyl didn't just stand there. Still surrounded by hellfire, she began to hover toward both women again as the flames blazed hotter and higher. The very lab around her began to deform into slag from the raw heat.

"You think you can fight chaos with chaos? You think these feeble moves can stop the scion of the Void itself? Then how about you see just what manner of Hell all of your own actions along with all others who commit the sin of existence have wrought?"

Aeris defiantly answered back with her own energy flaring up. "I don't care how much you hate everything or want to die Mianyl…I won't let it be enough to kill me! Judgment Arrow!"

She unleashed her holy projectile to blow the flames away, and the shaft sailed straight for Mianyl herself. Parting her lips just enough to show a sneer, Mianyl's tentacles rapidly arched in front of her and massed together right at the point of contact. In spite of that, the shaft still pierced the tentacles, ripping instantly several of them and managing to dip down through several others. Nevertheless, it still halted with just a short distance to go—burning and sizzling but moving no closer.

"I told you already, fool. You can't-AUGH!"

Mianyl's face contorted in genuine pain for the first time, for as she had been giving her latest dismissal Krystea had made a move. Running up from behind the attack, she had driven her palm firmly into the back of the shaft of the Judgment Arrow. That was all it needed to break through the rest of the defenders and slam into its target's shoulder.

Aeris gave a weary sigh before she uttered, "Mianyl, I can feel how strong your hate is. I think, if fate went a different way I could have been just as consumed by hate. If, if Elmyra, my step mother, did not run into me just as my mother died I would have either been an orphan on the run or raised by Hojo. Maybe, I was just the lucky one. But I don't pretend otherwise. I was blessed to have people care about me. I was blessed to even come back from the dead…twice! I know others are not as lucky, so I try and be that luck to others to save them.

"I'm willing to try and help even the likes of you. But know this…your hatred alone won't be enough to consume everything!"

Krystea was about to add her own two cents, but didn't get the chance. A force suddenly slammed into her back and tackled her all the way across the floor to the edge of the lab. As the armored woman was slammed against the wall, she looked behind her in confusion and saw she was being pinned by T-elos.

The android giggled darkly. "Good thing her hatred is not enough! As a reminder, I am T-elos, the embodiment of absolute order! And I won't let trash make a fool out of me! I got this one, she offends me."

Mianyl, now frowning, rubbed her injured shoulder slightly to repair the injury before she glared fully at Aeris. "I don't care either way. Just do your task and send her to oblivion."

The android widened her eyes and had a blade form out of her arm. "Oh don't worry about that. All who stand in my way shall receive no mercy!"

She tried to stab Krystea right in the back, only for her target to suddenly raise her foot, push against the wall, and use the force to shove both back. Freed up, she was able to spin around and swing out the broad side of her arm to parry the strike. The blow allowed her to wrench her arm free, and she gave T-elos a death glare.

"I'm a Turk. I wouldn't need any of your mercy even if you offered it."

This caused T-elos to have a wild look in her eye. "You think you can challenge me, you defective piece of junk? You should be thankful. Your miserable life ends here."

She formed a triple-gatling gun in her free hand and tried to rip Krystea apart in a storm of bullets, only for the Turk to quickly apply her armor again and dart about with bursts of incredible speed. From that close of a range, there was no way for the android to keep up.

"I don't give a damn what you or any of your fellow nutjobs think my life should be! I'm not giving up!"

Launching herself again as she had for Mianyl, she lunged at T-elos and wheeled her arm back and countered her assault with another powerful haymaker.

The android, however, seemed to brace itself better against physical damage than Mianyl did, and after taking the attack the only visible change was its eye twitched. "A simple doll that doesn't even understand its reason for existence can't stop me. This is where you die!"

She took out her Magdalene-16 plasma pistol and fired at her target with that as well. Fortunately, at that close range, and now needing to pull the trigger, Krystea was able to keep dodging the barrage.

"Want to out-shoot me? I got news for you…" She yanked out her own pistol, reengaging the bracers around her arm. "My caliber is a bit bigger!"

Snapping free to one side, Krystea quickly lined up another shot and pulled the trigger. However, although her gun thundered and snapped back with a powerful recoil, it was noticeably smaller than the one that had killed Aleron and she immediately noticed.

"Huh?"

As for T-elos, she looked positively enraged. "You think you can out firepower me? U-TENERITAS!"

Krystea found out the hard way that her opponent had a Phase Transfer Cannon right in her chest, as a globe of red energy appeared around it. The bullet managed to reach its target only to vaporize as soon as it hit.

She then had a manic look before she shouted out, "What is the actual reason for your existence? You are nothing more than an empty vessel. How pathetic. You'll never be able to accomplish anything. Return to dust so that I may truly... awaken!"

She was about to have her projectile explode, before a flash of light erupted out. This blinded T-elos and caused her beam to go off course. As she grasped her face she screamed out, "You can't stop me with such petty tricks for long damn it!"

Krystea had no idea how that had just happened, but she knew enough to realize that she didn't want to stick around to get hit by whatever attack the android had been building.

Using the moment, she quickly darted behind the nearest laboratory divider as her opponent fumed and cast about. She pressed herself against it for cover and quickly raised her gun. Cracking open the chambers, she looked at the inside as she pulled out a bullet. She looked confused on realizing it was only her standard caliber.

"I may not know how to build a turn-off switch for T-elos, but luckily I'm pretty good at blinding anything that models after standard eyes."

Krystea looked up in surprise, only to see Maritza right next to her—also hiding behind the wall and smirking at her.

"Maritza? That was you?"

"Yes, now shut up and listen because I'm insane even getting this close to the action and she's going to be pissed when her eyes clear," she spoke hurriedly, peeling herself off of the wall and facing her. "The nanites can only load your gun with its standard ammunition. Luckily I got a little something with more pop. This is the same device you blew 'Hojo's Folly' away with."

Grasping Krystea's free hand, she placed a box inside it that jingled slightly. The woman looked at it curiously. "What are these?"

"I call them 'Iecit Facultatem'. 'Bullets of Possibility'."

"They're bullets? What do they do?"

"I'll put it in layman's terms. When firing a projectile at any object there is an inherent degree of probability in determining the effect of its impact. Most ballistics can consider the obvious possibilities, but there are additional infinitesimally small possibilities in the mix. Such as the fact that most matter in the universe and what we think of as solid force is collisions with electromagnetic force rather than collisions of actually solid objects with one another.

However, in those infinitesimal possibilities, there is an effectively-nil chance that a bullet will collide with an object in such a fashion that the inner atomic particles will never collide at all and that the projectile will effectively pass through the object as if it wasn't even there.

Furthermore, there's an even more infinitesimal chance that the projectile will move in such a way at such a right time of atomic orbital alignment that two nuclei will collide at just the right moment to kickstart a nuclear fusion reaction that will eject antiparticles that will, in turn, cause a further reaction through matter-antimatter annihilation. Using the small supply of transcendental multivector bosons that Hojo allowed me access to, I managed to replicate a small containment field and hook it up to a miniaturized 30-core microprocessor small enough to fit into the casing of each one of these large caliber shells.

Upon firing of the primer, the processor powers on and uses the mix to quickly generate a bubble of compressed intradimensional space in an area say, ten centimeters around each projectile. During its flight it quickly calculates the correct path of probability to hit upon the aforementioned infinitesimal possibilities and reorganizes the space around it into a one hundred percent probability, which negates the targets defense and ensures a penetration."

Krystea looked back at her blankly, prompting the scientist to frown.

"Ok, I'll put it in 'drooling idiot terms'. Ahem...these bullets blast things real good."

"But can they really work against these kind of targets?"

"Are all of your targets composed of matter? Solid, liquid, gas, or plasma?"

"Uh...yes."

"Then yes. The bullet will penetrate any energy barrier or armor they have and guarantee putting a hole in them. Up to three meters deep. That's how long it can travel before it burns through its core. Just load one at a time. Two of them at once will probably, oh, I dunno…implode reality or somesuch…"

"How many of these do we have?"

"Seven."

"Only seven boxes?"

"No, seven bullets. All I could make with what my now-ex-boss gave me. And you better hurry up here before she shows up…" To Krystea's surprise, Maritza suddenly leaned over and gave her a "motherly" peck on the cheek. "I believe in you, Krystea. You can make whatever you want of yourself so long as you don't let that marionette or that emo kid get in your head."

T-elos heard where the voices were before she snickered in disgust. This prompted Maritza to quickly duck out while Krystea rapidly knocked out one of current bullets and replaced it with one of the special ones. "You really think you can stop me? I'm the vessel for the resurrection of Mary Magdalene! You're just a failure that refuses to die!"

Her eyes finally clear, she drew a bead on her location and was nearly about to fire. However, she was beaten to the punch. A hole suddenly erupted from the wall divider—signifying a bullet headed right for her. T-elos quickly orientated herself to vaporize it, but in the interim she saw a blur shoot out from behind the divider. By the time she orientated to it again, the target was gone.

"Careful!" Maritza's voice called out. "Those bullets don't do any good if she vaporizes them before they can hit her!"

T-elos ignored her as she searched about for Krystea, until she heard her voice shout out as well. "If whoever wanted me in the first place doesn't think I met their 'purpose', that's just tough crap for them. I know what I want, and I know what I'm living for. And I'm not giving up on it.

So talk spit about me being a 'failure' all you want…it doesn't mean a damn thing to me anymore. I haven't failed myself, and that's all I need. From here on out, my life goes the way I want it to go. Not some scientist and definitely not you!"

This caused T-elos to snicker as she had even more energy form around her. "The weak don't get to decide that, because I will decide I will kill you all!"

Another gunshot from another angle fired. Once more, T-elos saw it coming, and once again she fired another U-TENERITAS blast. The shot was once again vaporized, but more than that it obliterated another wall divider behind it. And as soon as it blasted through it, it exposed Krystea taking cover. Immediately, she got up and aimed her gun at the android again, but T-elos looked smug in response, "You can't stop me with your normal ammo! You put everything on one last gambit but, GUH!"

She found out too late as Krystea's latest shot ripped a monstrous hole through her chassis that she had been wrong. After her first failure, Krystea hadn't fired on her the second time with one of Maritza's special bullets but rather one of her remaining conventional ones. It was only her follow-up gunshot that had been the genuine article.

T-elos yelled out in pain before screaming, "Impossible…I, GUH!"

The rest of her remaining body heated up, right before exploding completely. Krystea let out an exhale as she cracked open her chamber, ejected the current casing, and slipped in another. "Guess you found out the hard way being built for a purpose can be kind of a drag. Maybe you should have made a future of your own rather than buying someone else's hype about you."

Clicking the chamber back into place, Krystea spun about to run back and help Aeris.

At the moment the revived flower girl from the Prime Universe was able to hold her own, but Mianyl kept adding more and more spells along with an endless storm of tentacles and knives. The fighting grew more intense as Mianyl continued to apply more and more pressure, but her opponent was able to keep up with all of it.

By now, Mianyl was lashing out at her with four metallic whips at once in addition to the blade storms, but Aeris was able to keep blasting them back. However, she was so preoccupied with this assault that she saw a flash of light behind her too late—right as it took the form of a perfect copy of Mianyl. Before she could react, it came forward and seized her tightly.

Mianyl broke off her attack, but only to fly above her and raise her claws to the sky. "You are everything I imagined you would be and far more. Worthy of surpassing the reputation of Sorceress Aerith the Radiant from my own universe. But just like with her, that's not enough to save anything."

With that, the skies were opened to once again reveal the cosmos. A Meteor once again came forth to the opening and began to rain down from the sky…

But before it could breach the portal, a huge bang went out. Aeris would have gotten a bit of a chill as half of the clone grasping her was turned into pink mist, but the rest of it quickly released her. A Meteor finally did emerge, but with natural fluidity Krystea ran forward, ejected her spent casing, put in another bullet, took careful aim, and fired again—pulverizing the attack into dust.

"You don't know Aerith that well, or you'd realize saving things is her specialty," she shot back at Mianyl as she popped out the casing and loaded another bullet. "Besides, she's not alone."

As Aeris smirked Mianyl just sighed. "And have the two of you forgotten that I'm not alone as well? That you are literally surrounded by promising members of the IV & C above and below?"

Aeris shrugged as she heard an explosion in the distance. "Thankfully, it's not just the two of us either. You may have saw some clips from your new boss on what my husband and friends can do but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Trust me, we are survivors, and even if the very universe around is trying to kill us, we won't let that stop us!"

Mianyl sneered, holding up one of her hands and gathering shadowy miasma about it that looked equal parts black and vilely nauseating. "No matter how hard you try and live, oblivion consumes everything in time. You…and every last so-called 'hero' and rebel in the Multiverse…are going to learn that the hard way."

She cast her hand forward and unleashed her Maelstrom spell, only for Aeris to counter it with a wave of holy energy. "No! Before this is over, one way or another, you will see you're wrong Mianyl!"

As Aeris tried her best, her friends were fighting to prove her right.

---

Ragnar was still trying to get used to everything but while Garland was rowdy, he could see that Lady Nil was clearly something to stop.

At the moment, he, Cloud, Garland, Genesis, the Young Sephiroth, and more were slicing through the crystalline monsters like the Tonberry, the Malboro, Behemoths, and more as the fragmented arm of an Iron Giant flew past Lady Nil she closed her eyes. "Oh Jack, it's a pity you're too stubborn to see us make existence worth something among the ruins and just ruin things further. Alas I'm not one to lose heart so…easily. No matter how hard you all resist, I will expel all the wicked corrupt forces you love so much, the darkness, the chaos, and guide this lost star, along with all others, to the glory that Lufenia envisioned!"

Ragnar saw the army of crystalline manikin monsters around her and frowned. "I may not know anything about your culture, but I hardly see how killing innocent people by the billions puts you in any position to tell us what's 'wicked' or 'glorious'!"

Nil's eyes hardened." Sometimes brutality is required before grace. I will spawn as many monstrosities as it takes to stamp out chaos forever! I won't stop till the Multiverse is returned to nothingness…and reborn into a glorious utopia free of chaotic, uncontrolled elements! But, first I must tear out the root of the corruption!"

Zack shrugged before he pointed his Buster Sword at her. "You can try lady, but bigger jerks then you tried to pull us out and they failed so you don't stand a chance either!"

Nil then had her eyes glow before she uttered, "You think I'm a mere bureaucrat do you? Know that you stand before the ruler of countless ages! The Lord of Time! Across the eons, countless mighty warriors have defied me…and all these 'brave souls' ended up kneeling. You too will do the same, to Chronodia Nil Urobolus! Take solace in dying at the hands of a true Transcendent being, one who will drag all of existence into the future!" Energy poured into her, before she transformed into a crystalline serpentine being with tentacles on her back, and the heads of the classic four fiends and other monsters on her body.

Garland cracked his neck before spitting out," The only thing you will transcend, is your face after the thrashing I'll give you!"

"Your primitive bravado is useless in the new world order!"

She fired a barrage of red lasers from her tentacles, but Garland and the others dodged them before Garland yelled, and tried to smash Nil's head in, only for her body to become transparent.

Garland looked at the ground before he shrugged." Did not think it would be that easy but whatever I just wanted her dead."

Ragnar sensed something, and saw the air behind Garland become distorted. "Watch out! She's behind you!"

The alert came just in time for his sudden new ally to block Nil as she reappeared. Ragnar saw her current demonic look and grimaced.

"I heard stories of the Lufenians back in the City of the Ancients. They seemed to be more…flattering to them. It's a shame this version of them are monstrous on the inside and the outside."

Nil snickered and retorted with, "You're a Cetra correct? Your race could have been respected by us but you embraced the sin of empathy. Your kind deserved what Jenova did to you. It's merely the rules of nature. Now I will finish what Jenova started! Galactic Bulge!"

She raised her right hand, before a portal of light appeared. A disc like a miniature galaxy came down before she tried to smash it into Ragnar. However Zack came in and slashed the attack back before he landed next to Ragnar and nodded. "No more Cetras are dying today, damn it!"

Ragnar was momentarily surprised at the irony of what had just happened, but he shook it off and gave him a nod. "Thanks a lot. I owe you."

The First Class Soldier smirked. "Hey no problem other me, we got to stick together! Seriously, enough of us have died already."

Again, Ragnar blanched at the irony and the thought of their inadvertent "connection". "Uh…er…heh, I don't think we're really related…"

Zack shrugged. "Eh, since you clearly have the pride of a soldier we are brothers in arms one way or another."

Ragnar smirked before nodding till Nil hissed out, "You're all just relics of a bygone age that don't know when time has passed them by. But that moment of truth is now. Great Attractor!"

She had another void appear above her before she formed giant purple spheres and threw them at the swordsmen.

The Warrior of Light had his sword shimmer before he uttered, "You can try, but the light shall never fade! Coruscant Saber!"

He conjured a large blade of solid light that shattered the incoming projectile. While it burst at Nil, she caught it with her tentacles before narrowing her eyes. "You relics are just tools to be used by your masters. You outlived your usefulness so just vanish! Heavenly Anointment!"

Her tentacles combined to form a larger laser, but as she fired at the others Cloud jumped up and yelled out, "No, all of us are through being puppets! Finishing Touch!"

Cloud unleashed his limit break to slash the upcoming projectile back at its sender before at the same time the younger Sephiroth grasped his blade before he closed his eyes." Heavnly Grasp."

As Nil tried to smash back her own attack the younger Sephiroth unleashed a lighting fast attack that slashed into her and caused the attack to blow up in her face.

As she screamed out in pain Garland cracked his neck. "Chicken head's right Nil. This is not one of your experiments, this is a fight to the death! Authority means nothing in battle! Time for you to wake up to what you really were all along!"

Nil had her eye twitch before she yelled out, "NO! You, you won't deny me what is mine! Lumen Nebulae!"

She had the heads of the various fiends on her body all fired projectiles and formed a massive purple and red energy sphere, before Ragnar charged at her.

"On behalf of the Cetra race, the thought of gaining your 'respect' makes us sick! And you're not welcome on our planet or any other!"

He didn't go all the way, however. Instead, he twisted his blade around, shoved it into the ground, and began to utter a prayer to the Planet. In response, golden light emerged from the blade of Ragnarok and streaked out to the others.

Cloud and Zack were the first to be affected as their own blades were touched and laced with golden energy. In response, both men shot forward as Zack yelled out,"No matter how much you control, we won't give up on are dreams or are pride! No matter what, we will embrace are dreams, and... whatever happens, protect are honor... as SOLDIER!"

At the same time Cloud nodded and added," No matter what, your not forcing us off this train we are on till we reach the place we want to be!" Before they sliced along either side of the great projectile with their now-enhanced swords in a tremendous X-slice. The result disrupted its path, slowing it down and absorbing much of its power.

The golden light struck Angeal and the young Sephiroth next. Both of them went back-to-back brandishing their blades before them, and spun at the slowed sphere. With their own swords enhanced, they sliced into the sphere repeatedly like a great apple slicer, carving it down into an immotile stack of energy disks.

At long last, the Warrior of Light leapt into the air as the prayers hit him—enveloping not only him but his entire body in golden light. Twisting his blade downward, he thrust it straight down into the center of the remaining attack. It burst around him, but the aura of invincibility protected him and his sword. The sphere was fully neutralized and all that was left was the Warrior of Light standing crouched yet victorious where it had been.

Nil yelled in outrage. As she did Garland started to glow with energy. "You thought you could predict everything Nil, but there is no limit to my strength! After what you did to me and my comrades, I'll knock down all your dreams and erase your body and your soul!"

His blade glowed red before he smashed Nil in the head. The impact caused red crystals to erupt all over her body. As she saw her body freeze she yelled out in outrage. "NO…the multiverse is lost without Lufenia to guide them! I won't leave them in the hands of such primitive power!"

"Too bad!" Garland retorted. "You're going to be dead in seconds! At least I have you to thank for sending me to Corneria in the first place so I would not end up to be another tool. Good call on that at least, that's why I won't drag this out!"

"Damn you Jack Garland…damn all of you! Just as you endured…so too…will my will remain! None of you…will ever be safe…as long as…GUH!"

Her body became covered in red crystals before Garland snarled out," Shut the hell up!"

He then shattered her before he yelled in primal rage. "Everyone…I did it…I showed her who was on top after all."

The Warrior of Light felt the ground shake before he sighed. "It's not over yet, Jack. Others still need to be saved."

Zack nodded as he looked around. "Your right, if we failed to save Aeris, all of the ones hear, it's all for nothing."

Ragnar sensed the energies going at each other. In spite of the power, he clenched his fist in determination. "My wife is the strongest person I know. She's not going to fall so easily, and she'll never give up."

Cloud looked around before shrugging. "Either way now that she's out of the way let's get back to help."

They were about to do just that before a plasma bolt went by. They saw a man in a robotic suit with many zombie-like henchmen run up before the scientist yelled out, "You're not making a fool of Jacob Crow! I'll show you my Time Splitters are superior to you 'SOLDIERS'!"

Zack rolled his eyes before spitting out," You're going to find out how wrong you are dude! Let's make this quick!"

The group proceeded to show the other IV & C scientist how wrong his calculations were, but as they did we go back to who they were trying to save.

---

After we last left off the former flower girl, her and her sister from another universe were holding their own, yet Mianyl just seemed to be getting more fanatical as the battle went on. Aeris saw some flame like worms bursting at her and blasted them back with some photon feathers, only to see that Mianyl's cape suddenly form a blade and lash out to try and impale her very head. Aeris dodged, but got her helmet cut off and her face cut before Krystea slashed the blade in half.

Aeris saw the coldness in Mianyl's eyes as she waved both of her clawed hands to unleash another wave of darkness.

The Cetra unleashed a wave of holy energy to counteract it and stepped back before yelling out, "This madness has to stop Mianyl! The only thing that will come from this is pain and suffering!"

"Everything ends in pain and suffering!" Mianyl yelled back, her own frustration finally emerging. "That's all existence is! I'm the one who's trying to end everyone's misery and you're both being too naïve to accept it! If you want even more undisputed truth, then I'll force you to see it along with everyone else!"

Holding not only both claws over her head but most of her tentacles, she began to prepare the incantation for Apocalypse. The runes began to draw in midair before Aeris felt the ground shake, but she merely shrugged. "No offense but I been busting through Apocalypse spells since Genesis and, huh?"

She noticed Mianyl's eyes were gleaming like beacons, and the etchings along her face were growing darker and deeper, showing just how much power the woman was putting into her spell before she tensed up. "Though…this is a bit more intense."

"It doesn't matter," Krystea replied, hopping next to Aeris' side and giving her a half-smile. "We'll just plow through it anyway."

Aeris smirked. "Heh, sorry Krystea, just been a long day. But you're right. Sorry Mianyl, no matter how much hate you have, it won't be enough! Judgment Arrow!"

She fired her spell at Mianyl only for her current opponent to sneer back angrily. "Your hope won't be enough either! Apocalypse!"

With that, she fully executed the sigil and flung her spell at the arrow. The two collided, but after their initial impact with one another it was the Judgment Arrow that began to push back from the destructive wave.

Yet that was when Krystea leveled her own gun at it. "We've got a little more than just hope on our side!" She shouted before pulling the trigger—sending her own special bullet right down the shaft of the Judgment Arrow itself.

Mianyl's eyes widened at the unified attack—clearly realizing the power of the bullet. While she had to strain even harder to pull it off, her remaining tentacles managed to rise and cast an independent spell. As a result the bullet froze just shy of making contact with Apocalypse wave itself.

Krystea let out a curse, and, as fast as she could, reloaded another one of the special bullets, took aim, and fired again perfectly behind the first one. Seeing this, sweat began to break on Mianyl's brow. She was clearly quivering and shaking as she forced one of her hands off of the main Apocalypse wave, and strained to try and aim it at the bullet…

It didn't get the chance. A thin column of rock suddenly fired from beneath her like a slung stone and smashed her clawed fingers.

To Mianyl's shock, she recognized that as one of Veriguno's spells. As for the two ladies, they soon got a third running in between them as Faerio stepped up with blazing fire in one hand and chilling ice in the other.

"Need a boost?"

With that, she cast both of her arms forward as she had with the pillar—letting balls of fire and balls of ice fly and mix together on the combined Judgment Arrow/Bullet. The combined power flared and, at last, was able to burst through the Apocalypse spell. Mianyl's eyes widened as she realized she couldn't defend against the wave and evade at the same time. With that in mind, she made a more desperate move.

Summoning her own knives, she forced them to slice off her own limb. Somehow, the appendage kept generating the spell just long enough for her to get out of the way before her spell was shattered.

As the wave died off, Mianyl was left standing there with one arm and panting hard. Her stamina had depleted so much she no longer had the strength to regenerate it. However, her yellow eyes focused mostly on her fellow sorceresses looking bitterly at her. Especially Faerio.

"That…that power…within you…"

Faerio smirked. "Payback's a little bitch, and so am I. You won't be getting any backup from Cybus now, either physically or through inheritance. How about I turn you into a lawn jockey this time?"

"You didn't have the power to do it yourself, did you?" Mianyl coldly responded, before her eyes turned to Veriguno.

The taller woman crossed her arms and glared back silently at her. That was all the response she felt the need to give.

"So you're both traitors to the Order of Hyne now. Foolishly and willingly joining in on the crime of life…"

"Find someone else to sell your craziness to, Mianyl," Faerio snapped back. "We're not in the market anymore."

"I will no longer fight for a side that does nothing but swear itself to a single greedy man's desires," Veriguno flatly answered.

"So you'll fight for the side that swears itself to a millions greedy desires and ends up in the exact same spot after hundreds of thousands of additional years of misery," Mianyl half-snapped back. "You're deluding yourselves to think you can change fate."

Before either sorceress could give a reply, they both got a start and leapt back in alarm as the wall of machinery nearest to them was ripped apart. A heartbeat later, Ultimecia, back in her human form but looking far worse for wear, in both attire and damaged accrued to her body, came crashing through in between them.

A moment later, Eden came hovering through the aperture, glaring down on Ultimecia through her visor, and came to a hover next to the Cetra. It was clear she had been the source of that move. Aeris saw her and gave a victory sign. "Hey Dael, looks like taking turns with our former enemies is going well. Want to switch out?"

"Thank you, but no. I'd rather teach her this lesson myself," her mechanically-laced voice answered. She hovered closer to Ultimecia as her fists tightened. "Get up. I don't think I've quite driven home to you yet how much I don't appreciate you trying to summon my own first child to kill me."

The older sorceress began to pick herself up again, relatively quickly but still not as fast as she could have at full strength. Mianyl stared at her as she rose, and let out a sigh of lament. "So even you have failed…you who had the sum power of sorceresses across time. Still they persist and deny us…"

Ultimecia snickered as she fully rose to her feet. "Hardly. We just need to change a few more things. If you will follow my lead-"

"No."

Hearing that simply word caused Ultimecia to look to Mianyl in genuine surprise. However, the one-armed sorceress sighed. And as she did, to the shock of all present, her "Oblivion" form faded as she again became, for lack of a better phrase, a girl in a long-sleeved dress. Her head hung hopelessly.

"What are you doing?"

"It's over. If neither you nor I have the power to defeat them, then this struggle is pointless. I barely have the will to live in this half-shattered Multiverse—let alone continue toward a foolish hope. Have the grace to admit your defeat, if you so possess it."

Ultimecia curled her lips. "Cowardly little wretch… You think you can just 'forfeit' at this juncture? When ultimate power over reality itself is in our grasp?"

Mianyl looked up just enough to scowl at her. "Unlike you, I have no ego or lust for power that drives me to fight a hopeless battle. And here I thought with all of the power of the sorceresses behind you that you would amount to more than just a vain, conceited creature. It seems you aren't nearly as wise as you initially came o-"

The younger sorceress got no further, for at that moment the ground beneath her erupted again—enough for the hand of Griever to shoot out from it and grasp her in a crushing grip by the throat.

"I don't recall giving you a choice in the matter," Ultimecia darkly answered. "And it seems there are some sorceresses right here I neglected."

Aeris saw the ground shake around Faerio and Veriguno and widened her eyes. "Watch out!" She created a holy barrier that protected the two from sharing their former comrade's fate.

Mianyl saw Aeris protect them. Her look grew somber for a moment. Perhaps it even had a touch of bitter regret upon it. Yet if she had any final words for either of them, they couldn't get around Griever's claw. And a moment later, the claw clenched inward and snapped to one side—letting out a sharp cracking sound. Mianyl's eyes bulged before going blank and the rest of her went limp and lifeless.

It took only moments for the inheritance to follow. Ultimecia smiled triumphantly as light condensed out of her former confederate and streamed into her. Crossing her arms in front of herself once again, she relished her new power as her aura flared up once again. The "horns" that were on the sides of her head composed from her hair enlarged and sharpened into true horns before being joined by two additional ones fanning out from beneath them.

Her fingers and claws grew long and spidery, with each talon like a small, curved blade, as her arms extended and dangled from her sides. The lines on her face seemed to dig in deeper and expose flesh as her own skin first turned to white before turning as black as her feathers, and as her body enlarged it became covered with fur of the same color.

A set of tentacles erupted from her own backside, each one a mixture of sickening, poisonous-looking hues, and her wings grew larger and more bat-like while framed with oily-looking feathers. Finally, Ultimecia's corneas turned completely black—turning her eyes into hellish rings of gleaming light.

Once complete, she snickered. "The little wretch should thank me for granting her the precious 'oblivion' she longed for. Now her power will see the very end of time itself. Now I truly have a power beyond what mere Time Compression could give me. The game is over."

Aeris glared at the transformed woman. "You think betraying your own will change things? You can be as nasty as you want but it can only stall things for so long!"

Ultimecia's eyes glowed brighter. "I can 'stall things' as long as I so wish now, because time itself is mine to grasp. To behold. To control. To command. As for you, first of the 'Children of Hyne', time itself is now against you in every sense of the word. The only thing left for you is to be absorbed by it."

Before the flower girl could respond she saw a pillar of energy coming for her, and cast a barrier. She saw part of her staff get vaporized into particles before she kept casting barriers to reinforce each other as she cried out, "Seriously prefer to stay out of time, thank you very much!"

Krystea and Eden saw Aeris was struggling not to be erased, and immediately the latter went into action. Brandishing her sword, she sailed straight for Ultimecia, but this time the sorceress was able to call on the same hail of knives and tentacles that she had used against Aeris and Krystea before.

At first, Eden dove right into it, slashing out one way and another, cutting off tentacles and using her gun-arm as a shield to deflect the knives. Yet just as she got near enough, one of Ultimecia's monstrous arms lashed out with her terrible claws and swiped across her body.

Eden finally gave a real cry of pain as the talons easily cut through her armor like it was made of foil, before the hand followed up by aiming a palm at her before, in mere moments, summoning another Ultima spell. This time, the colossal green explosion blasted her away with such violence that she nearly caved in a part of the lab as she was hurled off through several panels worth of machinery.

Holding onto her last special bullet, Krystea instead discharged her more conventional caliber shots that the nanites could provide—for all the good it did. Sparks went off from Ultimecia's body but none were enough to penetrate her. Instead, she raised her other claw and called forth light to it as she had with Griever, and in response another portal opened in the floor.

Krystea hesitated and looked down, only to see not a beast but what looked like a thick, noxious cloud of green and red vapor rise from the portal. At first, she assumed it was some sort of poison gas and rapidly backpedaled, only to get another shock as she saw it seemed to condense and move in such a way to take the likeness of a voluptuous and cruel-looking woman with a heart emblem on her forehead.

As soon as this "Cloud of Darkness" looked at Krystea, she grit her teeth and began to fire into it.

The result was the aspect smirking at her as her bullets simply sank into the vapor and did nothing. As soon as Krystea emptied her chamber, the form responded by extending its arm-like wisps and concentrating its own power, before light condensed around it. A moment later, it aimed its arm-like pieces forward—unleashing a monstrous deadly beam of energy with all of the power of one of Bahamut's own Gigaflares within it.

Krystea gasped, doubting even her nanite armor could protect her from that, but fortunately it didn't have to. Faerio leapt in front of the attack, guitar of ice in her hand, and immediately began to play it like a metal rocker in the middle of a song's solo.

The strings of the guitar actually burst into flame as it did—resulting in glacial-sized walls of ice appearing between the two and the attack. While the Flare Wave destroyed them in moments, new ones rose to replace it just as quickly, and when the final wall of ice was destroyed the cloud was also spent.

The moment it was done, Faerio raised her hands, used both at once to chant, and finally lowered them to send a searing, blazing, almost lava-esque Hell Firaga into the midst of the cloud. Its face actually expressed shock for a brief moments before the fireball erupted—annihilating it completely.

Faerio wasted little time, but quickly pulled her arms back, chanted again, and then let loose with one of Cybus' own Hell Blizzaga attacks on Ultimecia to try and break her focus. Unfortunately, not only did the new sorceress look barely unsettled, she held her hand to the sky again and once more summoned her power. This time, two portals opened.

From one of them came something that filled Faerio and Krystea with disgust just as much as horror. It seemed to be nothing more than a towering, insectoid mass made of almost haphazard fins, bones, muscle, and gleaming blue cyst-like structures. They couldn't even tell if the alien mass was opening its mouth to reveal another hideous face or if it was part of its revolting body.

From the other came something far more conventional, yet no less intimidating. A hulking giant of a figure even bigger than Barnabus had been, with a long blue cape and enclosed in imposing black armor. It bore red curved horns on its head along with fins like a fish or dragon, with the scales bleeding to his humanoid face. However, the hair tapered off into more horns behind its head, and both its eyes and teeth were yellow and contorted in a look of rage. No pupils were visible—indicating the madness, mindlessness, and hatred of the being behind them.

"Great…" Krystea groaned as she took aim again.

"How many of these things can she pull out?!" Faerio griped as she readied her spells.

At any rate, both opponents charged, so Faerio targeted the mass of flesh. Bringing her whip back out, she snapped it once to fray the end into a cat of nine tails, and lashed out with red-hot strikes for the monster.

It instantly cried out in a horrible alien noise as she lit up its bulky flesh with gleaming, burning lashes, but it wasn't enough to stop it from cracking its maw open wide and, to the tune of a bright and brilliant flash, send out a Flare for the sorceress.

Quickly, she aborted her attack and focused on generating a magical shield, and while it intercepted the blow the monster wasn't finished. Suddenly its maw opened again, this time seeming to show a great, black, empty void…as if it had opened a Black Hole on the battlefield.

When it did, much to Faerio's shock, her magical shield suddenly evaporated—leaving her to take the brunt of the blast from the resulting explosion. She cried out as she was blasted to the ground, the fire and force tattering her clothes and leaving her stunned and in pain. The hulking monster quickly moved in, and as it did the heavens broke and prepared to finish her with a Meteor…

Before it could, however, Veriguno dashed in between the two—summoning a hammer and lining it with powerful gems. The Meteor attack rained down from out of the heavens, but her response was to dig in her feet, arch back, and smash her gem hammer into the rock. Inconceivably to the monster, the Meteorite was sent hurling right back to it, and connected with a powerful explosion that caused it to stagger back.

Faerio groaned as she leaned up. "Veriguno…"

"You were always too reckless, which is why Mianyl killed you last time," she flatly retorted. "Now summon your strength. As soon as it exhausts itself on me, finish it."

Faerio was about to ask what that meant, but soon got her response. Veriguno put her hands together and began to chant a new spell, but otherwise stood tall and resolute like a human shield. Yet Faerio barely noticed her in the wake of the downright shocking amount of power the alien-like being began to summon to itself. It transcended any other power she had ever experienced before.

She nearly began to summon her protection spells again when it opened its maw fully wide and unleashed it—an explosion so terrible and shocking that it seemed to undo and remake the room itself in a horrific, twisted Big Bang.

Faerio and Veriguno both nearly had their senses overwhelmed from the immense force that washed over both of them. It was like they were being pulverized both outside and inside and even at the spiritual level by the horrific blast.

Even with Veriguno shielding her, Faerio felt like her body had been turned to glass and was now being shattered from the sheer pain. When it finally died down, and she collapsed to the ground in a heap, she felt like it was continuing to hurt her. She nearly passed out from the pain…

When, most suddenly, most of it alleviated and her might returned. Opening her eyes again, she felt the strength to once again rise. She looked, and was shocked to see Veriguno, most of her clothing blown off and criss-crossed with blood and bruises, somehow was still standing. And while she was heaving and weak from the Big Bang, her final spell had completed—which Faerio now realized was a Curaja just for her.

"Now…finish it…" Veriguno barely managed to grunt.

Snapping out of it, Faerio looked to the monster as it paused to recover from its terrific attack. Quickly, she brought all of her own power to bear. Toughing through the resonating pain, she summoned her full strength and aimed both hands at it. "Perish in flames, you big smelly tumor! Corona Star!"

Again, Faerio unleashed her wave of intense fire; this time driving it right down the monster's own gullet. The cysts on it's body widened as if they were eyes before the fluid inside them began to boil and burn—right before the entire alien exploded. Yet Faerio's heat was so strong that it incinerated the remains the moments they ripped apart, leaving nothing but a flurry of ash behind.

At the same time, Krystea opened fire on the humanoid. The bullets, as monstrous caliber as they were, did little against its armor. She nearly shifted to its head when he suddenly drew a long saber from his side—curved, blood red, and simple—and slashed out for her before she could fire again.

She backpedaled but the figure kept after her, slashing down repeatedly upon her and slicing out for her limbs. She ended up having to bring her armor's gauntlets to bear to deflect against them, but she immediately winced on not only still feeling some pain but seeing sparks from shredded nanites go flying with each swipe.

One slash finally came down and cleaved her bracer, and her eyes widened as her gun was cut free from her body and sent sliding. Yet this only made her resolve stronger. "Alright, you want to do this the hard way?"

With that, she ducked under another swipe and shot inward, driving a hook into the sides of where she figured the lowest rib was. Her enhanced blow immediately punctured the armor and dove deep into the figure's side, and in spite of his expression he winced in true pain. He tried to swipe out for her head again, only for her to block his sword arm, curl up, and give him a potent kick across the face.

The blow sent him staggering slightly, so she quickly followed up with another iron palm to the stomach, again fracturing armor, to make him step back, before she lashed out with another foot to smash it down on his knee. A satisfying crunch went out, and his blank eyes bulged as he faltered. She proceeded to give him three more powerful blows, snapping his head one way and another…

Yet as she moved in for a fourth blow, the air and ground around the two began to shake. Krystea paused, as the figure suddenly seemed to generate vapor around his legs, which began to take forms just like the Cloud of Darkness had. Only these ones were of multiple figures, some humans, some beasts, and some unmentionable. Then, suddenly, the form was on both feet again, and before Krystea could protect herself a lesser Comet spell materialized out of thin air and struck her in the head.

While the nanites had been protecting her in spite of her seemingly lack of coverage, a gash still broke across her brow and she staggered back. Her body was limp as another blow from a second Comet struck it, blasting her backwards and rattling her terribly even with her protection. The figure then hunched over, put his blade to his side, and suddenly shot out at her so fast that she didn't even see him move.

An instant later, Krystea's pupils shrank into pinpricks as pain wracked her body. Half of her nanites were instantly annihilated and left her exposed, along with a great bloody gash across her chest that fountained out blood.

She let out a pained gag, realizing her opponent had struck her so fast that the mere collapse of the air behind the blow had struck her twice with a "vacuum wave". She was sent skidding along the floor, barely able to stop herself by dropping to one knee herself

Krystea was left gagging, struggling to recover the air knocked out of her. She half-expected to bleed out…but fortunately the nanites that were left were rapidly stitching her wound closed and stimulating healing. Unfortunately, that meant they weren't repairing her armor, and her opponent was readying for another slice. This one was bigger, as bright and brilliant holy energy condensed around his blade.

She let out a pained grunt and looked for her gun, but it was well out of reach. She was too injured to even try to dive for it, and her enemy was nearly ready to attack. She let out a hiss and a wince before she spoke.

"Come on…I'm a 'future sorceress'…I should be able to pull off one trick like Aerith…"

The figure finally was ready. Like a crack of lightning, he shot forward with his brilliant holy blow, ready to slice her in two. Yet just before he could, Krystea finally choked out a whispered incantation. A small cloud appeared right in front of the figure's eyes and ejected a low-level Thunder spell right into them.

It did little damage, but it did serve to make the figure stagger. His slash went out, and a focused, blazing, powerful wave of holy energy ripped forth and dug a titanic rift in the floor…right to the left of its intended target.

At that point, the wound closed, and as her armor began to rebuild itself Krystea dove to the side and snatched up her monstrous handgun. The nanites quickly locked it into place as she pivoted on the floor, turned about, and raised it to aim right between the figure's eyes as he recovered enough to turn to her.

She coldly pulled the trigger, and a moment later discovered his unarmored body was far more vulnerable as she spread his brains out across the other side of the room.

As he fell to the floor, she didn't waste time relishing her victory. She quickly got back to her feet as the nanites kept repairing her armor, and as soon as she had bullets loaded she fired again on Ultimecia—aiming for the eyes this time. Faerio turned up her own heat and blasted her with flames from both arms. Yet Ultimecia withstood them both and kept collapsing the area around Aeris.

"Stupid fools. Two lesser sorceresses could never defeat me before. You have no craft or spell that can best me now."

"Oh, I think we do."

The sound of Eden's voice, still mechanical but now resonating throughout the entire room, stunned Krystea, Faerio, and even Ultimecia alike. Only at that point did the three realize the room was still rumbling and it was getting louder. The elder sorceress looked past the two, and her eyes widened in alarm. The two turned about as well and their jaws dropped.

Through the blasted, hollowed out remains of the destroyed lab, Eden had grown considerably. She was now just as big as the largest of the four regenerating fiends, and her body had changed to some sort of great armored disk with a form that was only vaguely feminine extended beneath it. Yet it was radiating light and massive amounts of power. A circle at the top of it was gathering strength now, beyond Holy or Ultima and seeming to be a potent fusion of both. Krystea and Faerio actually recoiled in the wake of it, before, to the sound of a tremendous blast, Eden unleashed her Eternal Breath.

The beam of focused spiritual energy slammed down on Ultimecia in a blast that put the Zeus Cannon to shame. She grit her teeth to withstand it only for a moment, before she tightened in genuine pain and anger and was forced to at last break off her attack to counter with her own dark magic.

Immediately, the light around Aeris vanished. The moment that was done, Eden broke off her own attack. Her massive form quickly fractured and began to disintegrate into light again—yet her human-sized smaller form emerged from the collapsing structure and quickly flew back to the others.

As for Aeris, the Cetra flew upward and took a deep breath. "Thanks everyone, already did dying—really did not want to do the whole being erased from time thing. Ultimecia…no matter how much you control you can't control everything!"

The sorceress, now looking clearly annoyed and growing angry, simply looked down her nose at Aeris. "I disagree." With that, she snapped her fingers before in an instant hundreds of energy spheres had surrounded the group. A moment later, all of them converged on them together in a hailstorm of death.

"Because very soon I will be everything. Just like my masters, all existence will begin, live, and end with me. All life…all wills…all purposes will be by my design. That is what it means to truly call oneself god."

Krystea could do little but cross her gauntlets in front of her, dig her legs in, and try to withstand the blasts. Faerio generated ice walls as fast as she could but they were being shattered too quickly. Eden couldn't help at all, as she had gone to Veriguno's side and was struggling to heal her, even as the half-dead sorceress doggedly raised her hands to try and raise earth walls.

Yet in the midst of the barrage, Aeris had her energy flare up. "No…you can try and grasp time itself but you can't control everyone's will! I'll prove it! Holy Infinitum!"

She formed a holy energy sphere and had it collide with the barrage of attacks coming at her. While it broke through some of them, more were still there to keep coming.

"And who are you to stop me?" Ultimecia sneered. "And with what? Your own will? As if that feeble trifle would be enough."

Aeris replied with a determined, "That's just the thing, I'm not alone! And while time magic's not my thing, if you're already getting the ball rolling then I can draw on not just my own soul, but those in the Lifestream from across time!"

Ultimecia saw that the giant holy energy sphere was growing larger. It made her grit her teeth. "Drawing magic…just like those accursed SeeDs…" She hissed. "Clever, but not clever enough. I still have all the sorceresses in history on my side. One of them is worth billions of…what?"

She suddenly felt slightly more sluggish, as if it was a bit harder to focus and move. She looked and saw Krystea. Veriguno was now healed enough to take over with her rock walls, which enabled her to aim both of her hands at her and chant. "I may be a neophyte when it comes to being a mage, but I'll bet this hap-hazard attempt at a Slow spell isn't making things any easier on you while you're dealing with Aeris!"

"Don't worry, I'll make up for both of us!" Faerio boasted before aiming both of her hands at Ultimecia and unleashing another stream of fire—far more intense this time. "Think you can think about spellcasting when you've got to beat the heat too?"

Eden, on her part, locked her blade against her gun-arm; converting both limbs into a single cannon. She took aim at Ultimecia and soon joined in with an intense, focused blast. "If you couldn't focus while being struck by my Radiant Breath, then blocking this should really ruin your concentration!"

The triple assault, slowing her actions, surrounding her with intense, burning heat, and blocking against a focused ray of spiritual energy, soon began to tax Ultimecia more than she could shrug off. And as a result, Aeris' enemy realized she was getting pushed back by the blast. Her face grew angrier yet as she realized she was nearing her limits—but her hatred remained most focused on the source of the Holy Infinitum.

"Very well!" she declared over the blasts. "If you are really that superior, then your power too must become part of me!"

She raised one of her long-fingered hands to once again summon the hand of Griever…

Only for the fingers, spontaneously, to spasm of their own accord to the sound of bones breaking. Ultimecia's eyes widened, both in pain and surprise, as she saw blood now oozing from it. It lasted only a moment before she growled and tried to speak again, but her tongue lazily rolled in her mouth and her jaw loosened—preventing the words from forming.

She was astonished only a moment…before she saw something out of the corner of her vision. She turned away from the holy sphere and toward it, and saw herself looking at a translucent form of Sorceress Mianyl in her full regalia.

"Surely you of all people haven't forgotten that if one inherits the power of a Sorceress of strong enough will," she taunted, "that the dead Sorceress can work their will over the inheritor's body?"

Ultimecia was aghast. She tried to speak, but it was no good. Mianyl's spirit wouldn't let her. Aeris' sphere slowly drew closer.

"She was always more than you. And me. After all, if we were truly the greatest of our kind, we wouldn't have needed the power of others to accomplish our goals. You see now how little your best-laid plans and ambitions matter. For all your power, both stolen and your own, in the end your desires amount to nothing. Vanity of vanities…all you have accumulated you must now bequeath to another."

Ultimecia's teeth began to grit as the power started to touch her hands—instantly singing them and beginning to erode them.

"But not your will. Not in this universe. I won't let you or your power perpetuate the cycle of violence and death. It's part of me now. It will be my power that endures from here. And since your own desires amounted to nothing, I will make sure you yourself own up to the same."

"No…" Ultimecia finally managed to choke out as the attack moved onto her arms. "Wretch! Miserable child! Curse you! Curse you all…"

The Holy Infinitum attack hit, and just as a shadow is devoured by light, so the group watched as Ultimecia's body was swallowed up by the energy. Her final cry echoed out long throughout what was left of the laboratory area, but in the end the light and eruption died down to reveal not even ashes were left.

Krystea sighed in relief. "Finally…that's it for the evil sorceresses…"

"No, it isn't," Eden darkly responded as she lowered her weapons. "There's still the Sorceress Cycle. Someone here has to inherit her power or she won't truly die. That means she could be reborn through someone else…"

"I think not," Veriguno grunted as she slowly pointed.

The group looked back at where Ultimecia had been, and as before they saw a mass of light gathering that represented her power. However, it wasn't in the shape of Ultimecia at all. Unmistakably, it was the calm, composed form of Mianyl, with her sleeves folded in front of her just as she did back in her sagacious matriarchal days.

"You have made your choice. Don't become hypocrites as she did. Save the Multiverse from the will of that madman and do not fail. Farewell."

With that, she closed her eyes and her spirit faded back into light. Moments later, it turned into wisps and circled over and around before it touched Faerio's chest. The young sorceress let out an even stronger gasp than before, almost looking like she would pass out as the power flowed into her.

Even when it finally cut off, she continued to waver and only made mild noises for several moments before she was finally able to break free. When she did, she clutched her chest and let out a massive exhale.

She blinked several times before she spoke quietly. "I…I honestly never thought…I'd be the one to inherit her…"

Aeris took a deep breath before she sighed. "Mianyl…I'll do whatever it takes to prove I'm not a hypocrite. But…thanks for the help everyone."

Eden's visor slid back, allowing Aeris to see her bloody face. She looked back where they had seen Mianyl, and she slowly let out an exhale before she turned back to Aeris. "Don't mention it. And…thanks for trying to talk some sense into her. As horrible as she became, there was a time I wanted to call her my friend."

Krystea snorted as she rubbed her nose, but smiled. "Heh…I said I wouldn't let anything happen to you, didn't I? What are sist…" She trailed off, grimacing a little, then forcing the smile back. "…f-friends for?"

"Don't sweat it," Faerio beamed, stretching her arms out and cracking her neck. "I could really get used to this activist gig. Sure beats praying in a temple all day…"

Veriguno said nothing more, just used the moment to start healing her own wounds. Only now that they had a moment did Aeris realized she was on their side. She smirked. "Oh, you were part of the 'plan' too? Nice one!"

The taller woman bowed her head and winced. "My alliance with you was not part of any plan. I simply came to my own senses and realized my goals did not align with the IV ." A pause, before she looked up again. "However, you do carry yourself different from how we envisioned Sorceress Aerith the Radiant. Different…but not worse. Kinder. Gentler. Simpler. Unchained…and yet not soured by the world either. I wish we would have held this image of you more dear. Things would have been different."

Aeris sighed. "Sorry, much as I love to bring smiles to the multiverse still just one very stubborn flower girl. Still, I'll do what I can. At least I know I'm not alone, and that I have kickass siblings or relatives or whatever. Might not be in the clear yet but at least we stopped Sephiroth's crazy mass murder, eh? Hey Aerith, sorry that you had to be stuck so long but we will get you all out in, huh?"

Everyone saw a magical pentagram form in the ground before a cold voice said, "Who said anything was stopped? Cetra…the time is now!"

Aeris saw a flash of light before another male voice she declared, "NO!"

In a flash Ezan was above her, and swung his sword just as a blade of pure light came down from the roof. Aeris widened her eyes and yelled out, "Ezan!"

Ezan managed to shatter the blade coming down, and while another blade came for her, the Young Sephiroth appeared and parried it with his own blade. While Aeris looked shocked the younger version of the man who killed her looked grimly determined. "Not this time…I can't correct all my future mistakes but I can at least stop this."

Sephiroth chuckled from the distance before he echoed out, "So you even rallied my younger self have you? A confused me will never be able to defy my proper form. And you only delayed things a tad, and only saved one of many. It's upon us, the reunion-when universes merge... when spite and sorrow are harvested to feed the true promise land!"

Aeris, Ezan and the others saw the Whispers fly around the area, before blades of darkness come out of them to impale Aerith, and all the other counterparts across the Multiverse before Zarathustra, while still damaged, glowed. Aerith and the others screamed before their bodies were converted to light and were sucked above.

Despite her death, the voice of Lady Nil then laughed from the distance. "You think we would leave just like that? You saved one version but that just delays this enough for you to despair at your failure! Let the despair in the area, transform into pure chaos!"

Energy burst out of the room before it transformed into a horned demon with large wings, sharp claws, and a tail. His kneecaps depicted monster faces and he roared before uttering, "I am darkness manifest! The sum of the universe's fears! You stand before despair given form, you stand before Chaos!"

"Shut up!" Jack roared out. "The mantle of Chaos is mine! I claim your darkness and take it for my own!"

Chaos roared out a crazed, "Ambition…good. Now show your soul to me, show me your worthy of Chaos!"

Jack paused before he snickered. "Well I plan to but looks like the other guy beat me to it."

Chaos saw a light and turned around to see the light of Bahamut's Sun Flare coming for him—right before it annihilated in one colossal, building-shaking blast. Soon afterward he, Daigo and the rest of their group landed. Daigo looked at Aeris and Ezan and wiped sweat from his face. "So, we made it, we're not too late?"

Aeris winced as she saw Cloud's despair at his universe's version of her's sudden death before she looked down. "Not…entirely…but we have no time to waste."

Tiamat saw the remains of Chaos, and could only snicker. "Feh…I knew it would have been that simple if we had handled the Age of Chaos ourselves."

Bahamut sighed, saw two of the sorceresses were still standing, and that the others were not alarmed. "What happened? Short versions only, please."

Eden, Krysta and Ragnar quickly filled him in on their respective details. When they were finally done, Bahamut nodded. "So by my count, the ranks of our foes have shrunk to only three of consequence."

"I only care about the one," Tiamat retorted. "Where's Shinryu?"

before Ezan looked up and grit his teeth." He's above…both of them are. They are about to unleash their insanity; we have to get through there defenses in time."

The younger Sephiroth nodded as he grasped his blade tightly." I can still bypass my counterpart's energy, I should be able to get you through. And my allies should be able to help to, right Gaignun?"

Another member of the Multiversal Rebel Alliance, a man who looked like a teenager with red hair and guns on his sides in a black outfit landed near the group before he waved." Hey guys, no time to be formal but we can get through…my buddy Chaos will be able to get us there with his power."

A man with sliver hair and cyan eyes and tan skin landed before Garland had his eye twitch." Chaos?"

The Warrior of light put up his hand before saying," Not that Chaos Jack."

The man named Chaos nodded and looked up." I know one of the ones aiding Sephiroth now…Wilhelm. I will try and stall their end game as well with my power. The red horse carries war, and the black horse, famine. Upon those tiny backs, bear they great calamity. Even now…I want to believe... in the light of human beings' will. But we have little time left…we will have to fight Shinryu and Sephiroth at the same time."

Ezan nodded before he held Aeris tightly." Are you going to be ok?"

"I'm tired hun, but not tired enough to make him pay for all this crap." Aeris replied bitterly."

After hearing Shinryu roar in the distance, Bahamut took in a deep breath and steeled himself. "I will not lose to Shinryu again."

"Oh?" Tiamat half grunted. "And how do you know that?"

"Because now there is no alternative save victory."

Tiamat let out a chuckle, before actually grinning. "Too bad you never said anything so badass when we were still children, Bahamut. That's good enough. Me? I refuse to die again until I've bathed in his blood."

"Very encouraging, you two…" Carbuncle groaned. "This is insane, but it's not like there's gonna be a home to go back to if we don't win. And if…when we win, I'll have something to rub in all the 'bigger' Guardian Force's faces forever!"

"I've never been so afraid…but I've also never been so excited!" Leviathan spoke up while managing a toothy grin. "I'd be a fool to back down now! This is the finest hour for all of us!"

"Leave Shinryu to us, Ezan," Eden called to him as her visor deployed once again. "Keep your focus on Sephiroth. I promise…we won't need you to save us again. This time he dies."

Daigo nodded. "Yeah, these guys are going to learn one way or another is that it does not matter who came first, they do not have the right to decide how we live our lives, damn it!"

"Agreed." Ezan uttered somberly. "So get ready everyone. One way or another…the time has come to see are duty to the final road to dawn. No matter what, I'll prove what the true pride of soldiers are worth."

Aeris grasped her husband's hand tightly before she nodded." Sephiroth...the nightmare is at last ending so we can finnaly live the lives we want. Wherever you are Mianyl, just watch as I keep my promise."

---

Authors Notes: Got another intense chapter today so let's get started.

Dr. Jacob Crow is from TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

Jr and Chaos are from the Xenosaga trilogy.

Zanza is from Xenoblade

Lassic is from Phantasy Star one

Myria is from Breath of Fire

Dagoth Ur is main antagonist of the Elder Scrolss III: Morrowwind.

Valmar is from Grandia II

Zophar is from Lunar: Eternal Blue

Aephorul is from Sea of Stars.

Elgar'nan is from the Dragon Age franchise.

Marscal Godwin is one of the main antagonists of Suikoden V.

Vam the Malevolent is from Fantasian: Neo Dimension, the most recent game made by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.

Louis Guiabern and the Tyrant Star itself is from Metaphor: ReFantazio

Griever is from Final Fantasy 8, Cloud of Darkness is from Final Fantasy 3, Zeromus is from Final Fantasy 4 and Exdeath is from Final Fantasy 5.

Chaos is the version from Final Fantasy Strangers Of Paradise.

Nil's final form is a combo of her fight in the DLC of Strangers Of Paradise, and Chronodia, a superboss from the original Final Fantasy found in the 20th Anniversary remake.

Hope you liked how things were resolved…got even more showdowns incoming so thanks for the reviews, hope you liked what you saw to leave more and till next time stay healthy everyone.