Apparently, those Killachines were massive hunks of indestructible metal and of deathly weapons, with some kind of sentience, and now under ASIC's orders.

"So, what, you just gathered what was left of the mascot and then fled? You're super lame!" Ram said, before childishly blowing a raspberry at Nepgear's team. Rom, at her side, merely nodded with her sister.

"Children, please." Mina gave them a stern look, before sighing. "I am afraid there is nothing to be done. As of right now, there are hundreds of Killachines hidden away, unsealed all over Lowee."

Nepgear's team paled at these words, while Ram gained a satisfied smirk. "Give me the word, and we'll blow 'em all to pieces, Rom, me and Gyone!"

I nodded slowly, before stopping abruptly. "You do know I'll be useless in fighting those giant robots made of indestructible metal, right?"

"Hey, you have magic too! There's no way that with our combined power, these things stand a chance!"

Rom merely said "uh-uh", nodding her head, as I tried to avoid putting my face in my hands. I managed. Barely.

Thankfully, Mina went to my rescue. "Now, children. While I would love nothing more than to let you three work together, this is an unreasonable course of action. There is a reason we sealed them all, after all."

"But the mascot is destroyed..." Nepgear said, before sighing. "Now, destroying them might be our only solution. If you're telling us there's to many of them to do anything..."

"We can do something, actually," I said, interrupting Nepgear. "ASIC's bound to have a commander taking full control of these things, right? Then, let's take him out. Problem solved."

"That's actually not a bad idea," IF slowly said, thinking about it a bit. "It won't stop them forever, but it will at least buy us some time to find a way to seal the Killachines again."

RED sniffed loudly, before raising her voice. "That's all well and good, now all we need to know is where to find this commander, and hope there's only one of them, then fight him and the Killachines he'll have nearby, and indispose him for long enough to essentially kidnap him out of his base. Easy Peasy. Except not really."

I heard a growl on my right, and noticed Mina had a hand on Ram's shoulder, preventing her from getting up. I couldn't hold a small smile from appearing on my face, but I suppressed it fast enough. This was a serious situation, after all.

"Well, unless our resident expert in plan-making has a better idea, I'd say my next move is already written." I said, before getting up.

But before I could start walking, a cold voice stopped me right where I stood. "And where do you think you are going, exactly?"

I turned to look at Mina, and gulped. She was in full mom-mode. Despite this, I still stood firm, and looked her in the eyes. "I'm heading back to the World Labyrinth, and I'll do my job properly. With some luck, I'll also get the commander in charge of this whole mess, and-"

"You won't."

I paused, and I could feel the shock drawn on my face. I could also see it on Ram's face, behind Mina... And while she herself wasn't shocked per se, she was definitely surprised.

"What do you mean, 'I won't'?" I asked slowly, being as cautious as I could.

Rom slowly rose up from her chair before facing me. "Every time you fight against ASIC, you end up almost dead. I won't let you go off this time."

"So, what, you want me to stay in the Basilicom, happily waiting for them to come with their massive robots?", I snarled, before heading towards the door. "Better to be proactive here, rather than wait for certain doom."

I started moving, but a weight on my leg stopped me. As I looked down, I could see Rom, nearly crying, muttering "please" and "don't go".

In the end, I agreed to let Nepgear and her team search for the commander, while I would stay in the castle with the twins.

The next day, as Nepgear and co left the Basilicom, I headed in direction of the training room, while thinking about that whole situation. For almost my entire time in this world, I saw them as enemies; ASIC goons, or lieutnants, or whatever, that I needed to either defeat or avoid. But Linda was wrong about the mascots, apparently; what if she was also wrong about them?

As I took out my gun to practice my aim, I kept thinking about Linda and Warechu. Didn't he say they were infiltrating ASIC? I wonder what they have learned, and where they are; maybe they're in Lowee, in some remote dungeon owned by ASIC...

For the next ten minutes, I did nothing but train my aim, and when my magic was drained, train my lance play. As it was still kinda early in the day, the room was almost devoid of life, with only a few fanatics here and there.

That was until a guard came in, out of breath, before yelling "intruders!" and collapsing on the ground, an arrow stuck in his shoulder. The room was silent for several seconds, before someone rushed in to try and heal the guard. That sent of a reaction chain, in which everyone grabbed their weapons, and started leaving the room, yelling "for Lowee!", or "Protect the Candidates!". I started heading out myself, but paused to look back to the wounded guard and the guy healing him.

They seemed to be ok, so I turned back to follow the other guards, before an explosion threw me down. I barely managed to hold onto my lance, and as I got up, I saw that the corridor in front of me had a new window into the outside. Along with most of its floor gone.

It took me more time than I'd like to admit to notice the bodies thrown along everywhere. Fortunately, they didn't seem to be dead, or dying, but it was still a nasty surprise. I got closer to the massive hole in the corridor, and looked outside. I was then face to face with a giant hunk of metal, pointing a huge-ass canon at me.

I jumped backward, and not a second later, an explosion destroyed the part of the corridor I was on, throwing me further down into the training room. I got back up, and heard the healer yell "this way!". I looked at him, and noticed him opening a secret door on the other side of the room.

Giving one last look at the broken corridor, I ran to the new entrance, which conveniently sent us into the main hall of the second floor.

"I will help the others contain the threats into the lower parts of the castle, you go up and tell the Candidates and the Oracle that we're under attack!" he yelled, before running in a direction. I shrugged, and started heading towards a staircase that I knew was going up.

As I neared the staircase, I heard a click, and, following my instincts, I dropped to the ground- just in time to avoid a magic bullet that sailed right above my head. I looked around me, and noticed it was an ambush- four ASIC grunts, two of them with guns, and two with swords, were blocking the exit.

"Sir Trick said nobody is going up," yelled one of the goons. "Which means you're going down, Wild Card!"

They started laughing, but I didn't wait for them to finish. I threw my lance at one of the gun wielding grunt, and then started shooting the two sword-wielders, who went down in a few bullets. I dodged one of the last grunt's bullets, and tanked a second one to use Callback, knocking the guy down in the process. I caught my lance mid-air, and ran towards the guy before he could get up, and then kicked him in the face, knocking him out cold, and breaking his nose in the process. I looked at the other one, and sure enough, he was down, a giant burn marring the left side of his body.

I started going up the stairs, wondering what was happening.

"We have lost contact with Team Delta III, sir."

"Oh? Did they escape in the midst of duty? I believe we'll need to punish them... severely. Heeheehee!"

"Negative, sir! It appears they have been felled in battle!"

"Pah, how troublesome. Tell every troops to be at the ready!"

I was hearing more and more explosions, coming closer and closer, and decided that maybe staying in such closed space as a rotating staircase wasn't a good idea when something was destroying your castle. So I got off at the third floor instead of going up all the way, and decided to find another staircase, that stood further from explosions.

As soon as I got off, I was faced with a dozen of ASIC grunts wielding various weapons. A dozen. Probably more, to be honest. Still, I couldn't just leave- if they were already waiting here, then the upper floors were sure to be equally as defended.

But before I could make a move, a sharp voice stopped me on my tracks.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the Wild Card. Enjoying running as many of through your spear? Do you get off your bloodlust?"

Overflow. In our last fight, he absolutely destroyed me, and he didn't even look serious. Here, he was pissed, albeit with how much bandages he had on his body he looked more like some weird mummy.

"I took you for an inoffensive fool, you know? A bumbling dumbass, fighting against something far greater than him. But now I know. You only live to cause pain and suffering, don't you?"

He clapped his hands, and the ASIC goons formed a ring around us. And then, he reached down in his pocket, and pulled out a familiar remote.

"Let's cut to the point, shall we? You killed my brother, you son of a bitch!"

He slammed his hand on the remote, and I noticed a portal appear above me. I dashed forward, just in time to avoid a massive tank to crush me into a tiny pancake. Overflow then jumped on the tank, and then started the engine. In front of me, the goons, smiling, started getting out of the way.

"Let's do this! Wild Card, today is the day you'll repent for your crimes!" he screamed, and the tank started to move in my direction, its huge canon pointing towards me.

I dodged a first shell, which destroyed part of the floor, but the tank could also apparently fly above gaps. So I took the only logical course of actions I could find.

I ran away, pushing the goons out of my way.

"You can't escape justice, Wild Card!" Overflow yelled, shooting more and more towards me. By (a lot of) luck, all of those shells missed me, only further damaging the floor in front of me, forcing me to jump some gaps, or dodge some falling debris. Still, I carried on- running aimlessly, trying to just escape this mad man.

The goons were blocking all exits, forcing me to just go down this corridor until, ultimately, I would find a dead-end. I knew this part of the castle pretty well- in fact, I knew this whole castle pretty well. But not to this extent- there was no way I would manage to go to Mina or Rom and Ram like that!

I knew that if I headed left from where I was, I would find another another staircase going up- this one wouldn't bring me higher than the fourth floor, but it was good enough. As for the goons blocking the exit...

They are your enemies, aren't they?~

I stopped dead on my tracks, and faced the goons, who were openly laughing. I took out my gun, and with a frosty tone I did not know I was able to take, I just said "Zero Shot," and shot them again and again, freezing them in a thin layer of ice.

Of course, I knew they wouldn't die. Still, being encased in ice, even if it was so thin, would mess up their body a lot- hell, maybe they would suffer from frostbite, or lose a limb... But I found out I didn't care.

This world is turning me into a monster.

I pushed them off, getting behind them, and running towards the staircase. As I finally reached it however, a loud breaking noise shattered my focus, and I looked behind me...

To see Overflow's tank crushing his allies into pieces.

Even with how much distance there was between us, I could see the manic smile he had on his face. His canon was pointed straight at me, as I started climbing the stairs.

An explosion rocked the staircase, and I could feel the steps I was walking on threatening to fall. So, I ran up, as the staircase was crumbling into itself, and I barely managed to reach the fourth floor.

"Sir, Lieutnant Fail has gone rogue and is destroying the whole castle!"

"What? And we still didn't break this door open... Ghhhghgh... Fine! You there, the one looking in the dump, what's your name?"

"Linda, Sir Trick! How can I be of service?"

"GO STOP THAT INTRUDER RIGHT NOW!"

I took a moment to breathe. There were no ASIC grunts in the near vicinity, so I could allow myself this luxury. Still, I started running towards another staircase- Mina was probably in the control room, on the fifth floor, and the twins were with her. If she wasn't, I would have to actually go to the sixth floor, to their personal quarters. Everyone is forbidden to go there, but with this being an emergency...

I was cut off my thoughts when more ASIC grunts appeared. They didn't try to fight, though. No, they just blocked the road, and smirked at me.

Then, I heard a voice behind me. As I turned around, I felt something enter my belly, and then-

Pain.

I looked down, and noticed an arm holding a knife, which was penetrating my body. I looked up, and saw the manic smile of Overflow, who then let go of the knife and kicked it, sending me down.

I yelled in pain, barely managing to stay conscious.

"Does it hurt, Wild Card? There's nobody to help you now. No candidates to hide behind, no deus ex machina, no inventions working only for you... You. Are. Alone. And you will die that way. But first..."

He grabbed his knife, and pulled it back, before stabbing me again. I thrashed, and luckily managed to kick him away, and I used what little strength I had left to get up.

I had managed to kick him right where it hurts, and he was trying his best not to scream. I yanked his knife out of me (And fuck me does this hurt!), and started running towards him. He noticed me too late, and I buried his knife deep his stomach.

He opened his mouth, but no words escaped his mouth. I pushed him and he fell down, and as I turned around, I grabbed a healing pod to try and soothe the pain.

It was then that I noticed the goons blocking my way were down. And above them, in the same black suit as Overflow, was...

"Linda?" I grunted, barely recognising my voice.

She said nothing for a few seconds, before raising her trusty iron pipe. "My bosses still need me in ASIC, so I'll have to kick your arse. I really wanna help you, but-"

"I get it," I said, letting out a sigh. "Your mission above all. Please, go easy on me- I'm already dying, I reckon."

She smiled, and then started rushing me, yelling "Killing Blow!". Her speed augmented, and she was on me in a second, before slamming her iron pipe on my shoulder.

Suddenly, I felt ill, weak, and I could feel my own movements just becoming sluggish. I tried to dodge her second attack, but I couldn't, and another wave of nausea surfaced, as I fell to the ground.

"Lieutnant Green Mouse to Control, the Wild Card has been neutralised," I heard Linda say. I tried to get up, but could only barely manage to look at Linda, who was talking in a walkie-talkie. "I'm now gonna attempt to find Lieutnant Scientist. Over." She then stored her walkie-talkie, before she started walking away. Then, she stopped for a second.

"Dang, did I lose a healing drink? Oh, welp. Guess it ain't important."

And then she left. I tried to look around, and noticed a healing pod, near my broken body. Except it wasn't a pod, but some bottle with a pink liquid inside. I grabbed it, and started drinking it, and felt most of my injuries fading away, much quicker than with a healing pod.

I got up, and started walking towards another staircase. This time, I hoped there would be no more interruptions.

"Tch, this hag was way more trouble than expected..."

"Sir Trick, Linda has defeated the Wild Card, chu, but..."

"What's this dumbass done, left him alive?"

"No, chu. By all account, he was dying on the ground. But Lieutnant- erm, ex-Lieutnant Fail came to him and healed him, before leaving! He said he was the one who would kill him, chu."

"... Grab the Sharicite. We're leaving, and I hate to say this, but we'll get my cuties the next time."

As I neared the Control Room, I noticed some weirdo in a dinosaur power suit closing the door, and then jamming it shut. He then turned around, letting me see what was on his back.

It was the Primal Sharicite. Not a shard, no- he was apparently more ambitious than me. This motherfucker had stolen what appeared to be the whole fucking sharicite.

I started running toward him, but before I could do anything, he turned around to look at me, and with a mocking smile, activated an eject button. As he disappeared, I was left with this sinking conclusion.

I failed.

Lowee was doomed to disappear.

Because I was weak.

Before I could wallow in misery and self-depreciation, a loud rumble started shaking the castle. At first, I believed this was merely the beginning of Lowee's final hour, but then an explosion destroyed the wall in front of the control room.

I shielded my eyes from the blinding sun, and then tried looking outside, before gaping.

"HOW IN THE FUCK ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?"

Because looking down on me, on top of a massive robot, was Overflow, his knife still stuck deeply inside his stomach.

"I swore I would take you down, Wild Card. This traitor may have let you escape alive, but know this: I. Will. Kill. You," he said, before his robot raised an arm and brought it down on me.

I jumped to the side, and a massive chunk of the floor disappeared, crushed into dust by Overflow's robot. Its other arm reeled in for a punch, and as I went down, it sailed above me, destroying the wall behind me and running rubble down my body.

I went up, and tried to think of something, anything, but I came up short. How am I supposed to destroy a robot? Beat him to death?

I figured that my best bet at victory was by defeating Overflow himself, so I grabbed my gun and started shooting him. Unfortunately, he dodged the first few hits, and a barrier then appeared; one that would redirect my magic bullets towards me.

"Just accept your death, Wild Card!", he yelled, "Just accept that you are nothing, and that your life amounted to nothing! Accept your death like a man!"

His robot's left arm turned into a canon, and he started shooting at me. An idea came to me, one so dumb past-me would be yelling at now-me for even thinking about this. But now-me had no other options.

I dodged the first shell, stashing my gun away, and let the second shell sail past me as I reached for my lance. By the third shell, I had already started spinning my lance, and with all my energy, I screamed "Twinkle Star!" and...

Was sent backwards by the resulting explosion.

I heard a loud "crack", as my back hugged the wall. I got up, barely standing, and shot a dark look at Overflow, who was grinning like a mad man. His robot reeled in for another punch, and I braced myself as I saw the arm coming closer...

"EXE Drive: Absolute Zero."

A massive whirlwind of ice appeared, slowing the arm down until it stood still, and then incasing it in ice. But not the thin layer I could manage, no- this was a massive block of ice, one that would take weeks, or even monthes to melt in the sun.

I looked behind me, and noticed Mina, with her staff raised. She was pissed. Scratch that, she was livid. She then turned to look at me, and only said two words.

"Eliminate him."

I gulped, and climbed on the frozen arm. Overflow panicked, and started to raise his other robot's arm to crush me, but I dodged it- once, twice, thrice, until finally I was just in front of him. He looked at me, terrified, before meekly muttering "Please? Mercy?"

I smiled, and grabbed him by the collar. He let go of his remote, and the robot went still; and he kept muttering "please", "I'm sorry", "don't hurt me", "mercy", "show mercy"...

"I'll show you the same mercy you all showed me." I said, and then I punched him in the face. I punched him again, and again, and again, and then I grabbed him with both hands, and got close to the edge of his robot. I looked down, and sure enough, this was a five floor drop. Enough to kill a healthy man. And healthy he was not.

Drop him~

"Any last words?" I snarled, and he suddenly tried to go for his knife, all pleading forgotten. I gave him a hit with my knee, and then grabbed his knife and threw it to the side, before grabbing him again and holding him above the void.

Drop him!~

But then, doubt crossed my mind. Could I really kill him? Should I? I looked at Mina, sure that I would see her in mom-mode, frowning at my actions... But then, I heard her scream "drop this fucker down or so help me I will drop you off!"

I looked at Overflow, but he had closed his eyes, finally having accepted his fate.

DROP HIM!~

I let go of Overflow, and went back to Mina's side, not once looking at the falling man. Not when he was screaming. Not even when the screaming stopped, and a loud "thud" resonated in the silence of the aftermath of this battle.

It took you some time, but you're finally at two~

Author's footnote

Lowee's arc was getting way too long, so I decided to just not do the last raid I had planned (with my own unique dungeon too, I actually already talked about it it was called the Maryo Themepark) and jumped straight to the finale of this arc. Or, well, the finale, part 1.

That aside, it took me a whole fucking long while to write this one chapter. There's honestly so many valid reasons for once, I'm kinda surprised. To make a long story short, I may have started my summer, but I have absolutely no time left for anything. I barely managed to finish Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force. Which by the way, I'll write a Spin-off or even a whole sequel of Afar From Home on this game, definitely.

Review Time~

Ace-Of-Weeb: Remember, Gyone may be dumb, but he's not stupid. No way is he willingly gonna go against a giant machine alone and with nothing but a gun and a melee weapon. Wait-

Gehaburn might appear, it might not; I haven't decided if this story needs (more) pointless drama or not. Definitely in a special "what if" chapter, tho. Same with the amount of killing that will be done- drama, no drama, depends. I definitely won't kill main characters tho. At least, I'll wait a bit.

Ah, and it's pretty obvious why lesbian harem master RED is unhappy with resident dumbass room-mate Gyone. He did try to stab her wifeys.

AzuMazu: Glad to know you liked my character development!

I know the action is bad, but I'm a bad action writer- when ironically, most of the good scenes are supposed to be action scenes. I'll have to learn on the fly, I guess. I also wanted Suleimu to suffer a death that was the exact opposite as he was. He is flamboyant, loud, and strangely charismatic when you think about it- had things been a tiny bit different, he'd probably have led his own team of ASIC members as a commander. So, I made his death something so unremarkable that the MC just... blanked when doing the deed. And there Suleimu lays. Forgotten, unseen, unheard of.

I wanted to show Nepgear's team's journey too, but then I realised that nothing really changed from the game's story, apart from maybe one or two lines of dialogue. And the only way I'm doing canon rehash is by breaking it into pieces with my own characters and ideas.

blee7442: Thanks! And according to my planning of things to do (which totally does exists, I swear), we're getting real close to the revelation of Linda being, you know, not a good guy.

end5: Glad I managed to make you enjoy a setting you normally dislike. Also, justice is an illusion and exists only for those in power to be virtually invulnerable. Or something something.

Jokes aside, there probably won't be much retribution until the end of part 1, but after that? Definitely.