I Can't See Your Love 2: Revelation of Sins

[King Weavel]

*Anubis base, factory room*

Magnus and Salika had made it to the next room after a long walk. They entered a strange room full of all sorts of machines, a conveyor belt, a melting pot for wielding, a large mechanical crane, pieces of steel were scattered all over the room.

There was also an supervisor's deck, a balcony like structure that overlooked this factory room. Kiyoshi emerged from it and began to ramble,"God Kiyoshi is ready to take you all on. Prepare yourselves, for GOD KIYOSHI! Hurghhhhhhhh!"

Kiyoshi stabbed himself a few times with a drill he found to induce his transformation. He grew one wing made of ice that sprouted out of his back and a crown around his head."The Angel Beast GOD KIYOSHI!!!!!! You will suffer, sinners! Today is the day for your judgment!"

Magnus and Salika were unimpressed with Kiyoshi's new form. Magnus commented, "One wing? You can't fly with one wing...Even a non scientific guy like me realizes that!"

Kiyoshi jumped off the deck and glared at Magnus and Salika, "Of course you sinners..Don't realize just who you are doing with here! I am a God, a figure of greatness, everyone wants to be God Kiyoshi, from the slaves to the Zaka Clan beasts themselves! I am a real beast of greatness!!!!"

A loud rumbling and a few screams were heard as some slaves emerged from the back room. Kiyoshi ignored this noise and charged up his ice energy.

"Trial by Ice!!!!!!" Kiyoshi called out as he created several sharp icicles around him that formed a makeshift barrier around him for the time being. However, he decided to send them flying at Magnus and Salika in hopes of impaling them. Magnus used his fire energy to pull off a fire breathe attack, melting the icicles before they could even get too close. Kiyoshi was stunned.

"You!!!!But ohohohoh, that's not the best I can do!!! You've yet to see my full power.. Now..Tremble, like dogs!!!!You sinful surface swine! I'll purge your souls from this world fo-" Kiyoshi was interrupted.

Salika tossed a vial of acid onto Kiyoshi's face causing him to cry out, "AHHHHHH! HOW DARE YOU? Foul wench!You will die first! You bitch, you WHORE! It's a grave sin to toss that shit onto the face of beautiful GOD KIYOSHI!!!!"

Magnus ran towards Kiyoshi and began to pummel him, surrounding his fists with fire energy. He smashed Kiyoshi's nose with his fists and then he nearly shattered Kiyoshi's skull with his fists. He then slammed Kiyoshi's head onto the floor. Kiyoshi went unconscious for a few moments after Magnus's assault.

"He's a manipulator, not a fighter. Final beast or not, he's got no instinct." Magnus spoke to Salika.

"Yeah he has no common sense either. He didn't expect me to do that by now? Well now Magnus..We best finish the job here...We can't let Kiyoshi live,he'll just pull something like this again." Salika commented.

Magnus agreed but before he could do anything, a group of slaves grabbed Kiyoshi, one of the slaves slapped him and woke him up."Wake up, you bastard!" One of the slaves ordered.

"Wh-wha-what is this? Unhand me, unhand me now!!!How'd you all get free-?" Kiyoshi questioned. "Because your guards weren't strong enough to handle us after we heard you killed my sister!You made a mistake having all those dark beasts outside and not in here guarding us slaves!" The slave replied. The slaves then approached a large melting pot, they removed the covers as Kiyoshi's face turned pale as he realized what they were going to do to him.

"Urgh!God Kiyoshi demands you sinn-" The slaves covered Kiyoshi's mouth as they tossed him into the pot. Kiyoshi screamed in agony as he felt the intense heat of the lava in the pot,"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! H-h-help! Someone! I'm not all that bad, I'm a God!

Kiyoshi cried out as he sunk into the boiling hot lava, "The world needs me! Why don't you love me? Lord Harkennnnnnnnn HELP! SAVE ME!! You're like my father, Harken, you have to help your son!!! I don't want to be melted! This is hell for an ice beast!" It was all in vain, no one saved Kiyoshi, the slaves just watched him sink in.

"Over here! I found the exit they used to bring me back in here after I escaped! Leads right to the Soma Plains! We'll be able to find the Underworld Guard HQ from there!" One of the other slaves called out as he discovered a button in the wall and pressed it.

A part of the wall opened up, revealing a staircase that went underground. Before they left, the group of slaves who grabbed Kiyoshi gave thanks to Salika and Magnus, they then joined up with the other slaves and escaped the base via the passageway.

"Well. Looks like he had plenty of enemies. I'm sure those beasts will be fine. We should just go back and see if we can find Rai and Alastor. They may need help dealing with Mara." Salika commented.

"Yeah..Sounds good to me. This passageway will make a good escape route once we're done though." With that, the two of them headed off to search for Rai and Alastor.

*Shintaion Skies*

A fleet of Forbidden Alliance airships were positioned at nearly all angles, ready to fire if the moon fell and reached the point of no return. There were around fifty airships in total.

On the main ship's deck, the Crimson Ten were all gathered along with Sylvia. The Warriors were gathered in another ship near by. The entire fleet of Wind Beasts had also gathered, their purpose was to use their wind energy to create tornadoes to lift and hold in place any pieces of the moon.

Sylvia prayed to herself, "Greg..I'll do all I can to protect Shintaion while you're not here...But this moon...I believe in you and everyone in the Underworld, please, stop Mara!"

"When even a goddess is praying...That is when you know the situation is dire." Cruso commented.

The moon was easily visible even in daylight now since it was so close. But it had yet to enter Shintaion's atmosphere. Once it entered the atmosphere, it was speculated that was the point of no return.

Sho announced, "The plan is this. Once the moon enters the atmosphere, we'll fire on it with the airships all at once! Then any pieces of it that are left will be destroyed by our energy attacks. We can't let a single piece fall onto the planet, it would be devastating none the less. Our main ship will launch the flare once it's time to strike the moon, if the moon reaches the point of no return..If we destroy the moon, many natural disasters will occur but if we don't destroy it once it reaches the atmosphere, it'll be even worse. We cannot let our world be destroyed and we won't! After this, we'll think up other plans to find some way to save as many people as we can. We're fighting for our world, our families and everyone in Shintaion!We will prevail, we cannot falter at this point!"

"We will do this! I know we can! We'll stop the moon, we'll find a way to deal with the coming disasters and and we'll all get see our children and families again!" Scarlet added.

The Crimson Ten and Sylvia all cheered and rallied. They then stood and watched the moon in silence for the most part.

A fleet of United Surface Army airships arrived, it was around only twenty ships.

"Great! Now these assholes are here to bother us!" Shine commented. However as soon as he said that, a carrier pigeon delivered a message to Sho.

The message stated, "We of the United Surface Army wish to help. We'll surrender after this situation is dealt with."

"Shine, don't worry about it. They're not here to fight us. They're here to help, believe it or not." Sho Natu commented as he began writing a letter to United Surface Army fleet so they could be included in the plan. He wrote the letter and sent it back with the pigeon.

*Anubis base elevator room*

"Rai..Are you foolish enough to believe I'd let you transform?" Mara lifted Rai in the air with her energy and held him in place, preparing to hurl him into the wall yet again.

However, she was interrupted as her barrier was shattered by a several light bullets from Alastor's gun. This gave Rai the time to complete his transformation. Rai grew more muscular and three icicles that resembled hair appeared growing from the back of his head. He smirked as he saw Alastor had helped him.

"Berserker Beast..That's what I'll call this form...I am in control!" Rai commented.

Mara let Rai go as she was shocked to see Alastor. "You're..Where did you get bullets?"

"The weapons room of course. The Zaka Clan beasts aren't good at strategy, it was rather unguarded and filled with these same type of bullets. Looks like they either stole them from the United Surface Army or they have the same supplier. Now you stop the moon from dropping, Mara!"

"Never! You two can't stop me, this is my destiny, this is what I was born to do! Born to die for the sake of the ritual!"

Rai told Mara, "This mind control stuff is driving me insane! Harken has really messed up your thought process..You're going in circles, I convince you this is wrong, you get zapped and go right back to dropping the moon! The cycle is going to end here and now, Mara!"

Mara shouted, "Infinite Fields!" Mara created several force fields around her at all sides and even above her. She even created a visible small orb shaped barrier of energy that protected her directly.

She then readied her staff and aimed it right at Alastor, launching a freezing mist of ice energy that even froze some of the floor in the room as it blew towards Alastor's direction.

However, Rai jumped in front of it and absorbed it easily. "Hey Mara, thanks for helping me stay frosty!! Don't even try ice energy from that staff of yours!!!" Mara looked annoyed.

Alastor fired off his bullets at the fields but this time, no effect on the fields. Alastor then reloaded his gun but with a different box of bullets he had taken. There was no writing on the box for some reason.

Rai shouted, "Ice hammer!" He created a medium sized hammer of ice that he held with both hands and began to spin around, preparing to do a hammer toss.

"You fool. That will not work. Your energy hammer..I can manipulate it's movement once it leaves your arms!" Mara warned Rai.

Rai laughed as he continued, "Mara...I know this transformation..It's cut you off from reality, it's made your personality and powers unstable. You can't focus on both my mind and Alastor's at once!"

Mara decided, "Even so..Do you even have anything that can pierce my force fields any my own personal barrier? I highly doubt it. You two are so laughable. But I only wish to die with Rai by my side..Alastor, you're not invited to be entombed with me!"

She used her energy and lifted Alastor up into the air and slammed him against the ceiling then the floor before dropping him violently. Rai took this opportunity to toss his hammer, it managed to shatter through the the force fields. Alastor got back up and looked mostly unharmed, although in pain.

"Listen, Mara, this isn't about you, this is about stopping that foolish ritual!" Alastor shouted at Mara.


Mara growled as she prepared to go on the offensive once more. But she decided aganist it.

"I can see your plan..This battle is indeed taking away some of my energy I could use on the moon..So instead..I shall focus on the moon....I shall drop it immediately!" She quickly replaced the fields that Rai destroyed and closed her eyes as she focused on the moon more, hoping to pull it down further.

"Rai, I don't care even if you've got feelings for this girl, she has to be knocked to her senses somehow and if it takes a fatal wounding to do it, I'm willing to take that chance to stop it!! Break those barriers now and I'll finish things here!" Alastor ordered Rai.

Rai looked truly concerned now as he told Alastor, "I don't kill her or let her get killed, Alastor! Just give me a chance to get through to her!!!One last time!" With that, Rai used his energy to change his hammer, it became spiky now and now it was a large sized hammer now.

Rai charged and swung the hammer with all his might, he smashed through many fields as he continued breaking them all down. Finally, he broke them all down and stood face to face with Mara. Alastor crept up from behind and readied his gun to fire. Rai stood back.

Alastor unleashed a barrage of red bullets that exploded upon impact once they hit Mara, destroying her personal barrier with ease and easily denting her armor.

"Aghhh! Explosives?" Mara struggled to remain levitating due to the explosions. She lost focus on the moon. She tried to regain focus on it as she resumed normal levitation.

"No. I didn't plan this. I just got lucky, these aren't just fire elemental bullets they explode upon impact! Now Rai, get through to her! This is your last chance before she recovers!" Alastor warned Rai.

Rai nodded as he poured more and more energy into his hammer. He aimed it steadily at Mara, jumped in the air and smashed Mara's armor to pieces and knocked her down easily. "Ice Hammer break! Mara, this is for you! Break free, come back to reality! Now stop the moon! You don't deserve to die! You can change your destiny and make your own future from this point on!"

"Rai...I..Oh..Ahhhhh! My head.." Mara struggled as she saw her life flashing before her eyes.

She then saw memories of just before her parents deaths in Aken Village. But she noticed something different, she saw Harken escaping the large watch tower that fell on top of her parent's home and killed them.

She began to cry as she realized the truth.

She spoke to Rai, "Harken..He did this..He was the one who knocked it down..It wasn't my power that day...It's true I caused some damage in the village but that wasn't. He planned all of this out. He wanted me and Kiyoshi to be exiled from Aken Village.. He wanted us to have to resort to working for him to survive. I didn't kill my parents. But that doesn't change the fact I killed people working for Harken..I regret it all..But..I will not make another mistake! I will not take anymore innocent lives!"

She broke free of Harken's mind control permanently as Mara became herself again!
She turned back to normal but she looked rather weak as she stopped levitating. Rai ran up beside her and held her hand, "Mara, you can do this!!!You've got enough energy left I can feel it. You're a strong lady! You broke free of Harken's mind control!!"

Mara smiled as she nodded and focused her energy on moving the moon back, "Ok..Rai...I am ready. Here goes everything! Please, wish me luck, Alastor."

"Hmpmh. Just hurry up and fix this mess!" Alastor commented.

*Shintaion skies*

The moon began to enter the atmosphere violently. However, before Sho could launch the signal flare, he noticed the moon was now coated in some sort of green energy.

"Mara, she's moving the moon back herself! Yes! She might be able to do it! Don't launch the flare!" Sylvia commented.

The moon was shifting between going down and being pulled back into it's orbit, back and fourth, back and fourth as Mara struggled to move it back. She was going up against the forces of gravity after all.
Finally, she overcame it and pushed the moon back into space and back into it's rightful orbit. The moon moved was sent hurling back into it's orbit and was put back safely.

Loud rejoicing could be heard coming from the crews of the airships.

"Yeaaaaaah! Allright! First I'm gonna help everyone fix up the problems caused by all this panic. Then I'm gonna see our kids. Then I'm gonna get some loving tonight! Ruby, I hope you're in the mood! It's the only correct way to celebrate the survival of our planet!" Duo said aloud joyously. Ruby promptly smacked him. He wasn't too bothered by this, he saw it coming.

"Heh..Sorry got a little carried away there." Duo commented to the others..

Taiyo laughed, "Duo. I can't blame you for saying that out loud. I'm excited too but we've still got lots of work to do.."

Sho nodded as he said, "We've got to restore order now to the cities, towns and villages and cal people out of the shelters. We'll also have the Underworld affairs to deal with after this...But I believe those we sent down there take care of things for now...But we have to aide them soon, they'll need all the help they can get dealing with Harken...But for now..We can rejoice! I'll tell Zigus to take us back to Tania and we'll get started on everything right now!"

With that, Sho went into the cabin of the airship to inform Zigus of the situation.

*Flagship, Control room*

Finally, they had made it to the control room. Before they could move in to stop him Tegan noticed them. He took his hands off the steering wheel and pressed a button to drop the bomb, he smashed the bomb controls and then he smashed the altitude controls. He also tried to remove the steering wheel but Akio stopped him.

"You scum! It's too late to stop me now! The Underworld is as good as gone, the bomb is being dropped and you can't stop it! Everything you've done was for nothing in the end!! I will have my revenge on the dark beasts and you cannot stop it now!!" Tegan taunted Akio. Akio didn't dignify his hate filled words with a response.

Carlin took control of the steering wheel as Lowe tried to do something about the bomb's controls to stop it's launch.

"It's...No good!!!Dammit!He broke it..The bomb is going to drop now and there's no stopping it..." Lowe commented.

He then said, "However...If this bomb is dropped into the river..It won't do so much damage..It's rendered relatively ineffective underwater according to those blue prints. But..." Lowe looked at the altitude controls and noticed the ship was going up and down rapidly despite Carlin's efforts to stabilize it.

"The altitude controls...They're beyond repair as well..If someone stays behind to steer the ship over the river and keep it there, there's a large chance they'll crash and die.. Landing is neigh impossible with the altitude controls broken.... Someone has to stay here and pilot this ship...I think it's best if I am that person to stay behind." Lowe said.

"No! Let me use my power..I'll slow down the bomb's drop!!!" Eve used all of her remaining energy she could on the bomb to slow it down.

"Thank you for your efforts but...That'll allow you guys time to escape but...Someone still has to stay...And I will be that person.."

Katsugi didn't like this outcome, "This isn't any fair, can't someone else stay?"

"No, this is our world, we can't let someone from the surface be sacrificed to defend it, that's not right! So I will be the one who stays..We can't argue about it as we're running out of time! Take these keys, they'll open the door to our airship, the Raven,you can't miss it! It's the biggest ship in the docking bay and the most unique! Now get out of here! Please, only one person has to stay here..I appreciate and thank you all for what you've done but you must go!" Lowe commented as he tossed the keys to Katsugi.

With that, Hishin, Hannah, Marx, Katsugi and Eve headed to the docking bay. Tonya, Veril and Aurora were already at the bay.

Now, only the Underworld Guard trio and Tegan remained in the room.

Tegan was laughing at all of this as Carlin punched him. She then pleaded with Lowe, "No! You shouldn't have to be the one who stays..Let me stay instead, Lowe! Your life has more meaning.. Me? I may be stronger but I'm not quite as good as you are with airships and machines.. I'm better at killing people than saving them, Lowe. You should let me stay!!Please! You're too important to me...To die like this..I'm too cold hearted to deserve to live over you..." She began to tear up.

"Carla...I'm sorry. But I should be the one to stay. I'm just not strong enough, I couldn't save people when it mattered. I couldn't save Felix. I may be kind but I am weak. I'm no good at fighting. I'm good with machines but that's it really..This is what I was born to do...This is how I can be useful, this is the only way I now to save lives! I'll drop the bomb in the water and crash this airship away from civilized areas! I have to do this..Carla, you can keep my pendent, my goggles and my toolboxes. Take care of the airships for me, they'll be essential in dealing with the Zaka Clan." Lowe handed her his pendent that he got from Felix with the drawing of Lowe on the stone.

Lowe teared up as well as tears began to drop from his eyes.

Lowe stopped talking for a second as Carlin leaned on him and began to cry. He comforted her and told her, "Carla..I'm sorry it has to be this way. But either way, someone dies. You're not a heartless killer, don't let anyone tell you that! You are a kind and strong person. You don't need me to live a fulfilling life. I love you Carla..But it's time to say goodbye...Just take care of things for me. I know you'll do fine. I'm sorry we can't rebuild the Underworld together like I promised...But things change.." Lowe held Carlin one last time as she kissed him.

Lowe then spoke to Akio, "Brother. You can split my possessions with Carla. I want you to look after her..I know you'll do it fine, you're reliable. Just make sure she gets out of her..She really wants to stay with me..But I can't allow that..I'm sorry Carla...You two have to get going. I know you guys will do your best and keep the Underworld save..I know one day it'll be a better place without the Zaka Clan and without enemies from the surface coming down to kill us like this. So, goodbye Akio. Goodbye Carla!"

Akio was troubled by this as well but he held back his tears. He continued to restrain Tegan. He replied, "Allright brother, I'll do what I can, Lowe...But you have to try to make it out, there's one of those parachutes on this thing. You have to promise me you'll try and escape at least." Akio pointed to a container with a parachute in it that was attached to the wall of the airship.

"I'll..Try..But please, go now!" Lowe said. Carla left Lowe's side regretfully. She told Lowe, "Lowe...Please, come back alive! I'll search for you..I love you, Lowe!!! Please don't die!"

He nodded. "Carla..I'll do my best...But I have to focus on making sure this bomb lands deep in the river and I have to make sure this ship won't crash anywhere it could hurt innocent people...So it won't be easy..I don't honestly think I can make it. So please, for the last time, get out of here!!!!! I don't want the two of you dying with me. You two are necessary to saving the Underworld! Me..I'm weaker..I can be sacrificed..But I do this on my own will, for the good of our world! This is my way of saving the people of the Underworld!I will not fail!" Lowe shouted.

With that, Akio and Carlin left and made a mad dash for the docking bay. Tegan tried to break free during this time.

"Ahaha! I win either way, a dark beast gets to feel my pain. Just like when they killed her..When they took her from me! I get revenge either way, maybe not all dark beasts will die off, but at least I've killed one of you! That's a victory for me! Aahhaha! I will never apologize! I'll plead innocent in court as you can't convict me of attempted genocide since there will be no proof left! The explosion of the airship will leave nothing, not even a fried skeleton your precious Lowe! I will get my best lawyers and win the trial!" Tegan boasted.

"I've had it!!!You..You have no remorse! The people of the Underworld didn't kill your damn lover!!! There's no reason to destroy an entire world just because of the actions of a few wicked dark beasts! I may kill people, but I only kill those responsible for tragedies like this! The guilty! I don't kill innocents! You see, this is the Underworld, Tegan, there are no trials here! You won't become a hero to dark beast hating racists on the surface! You won't get away scout free for this! You'll be executed here and now!" Carlin grabbed Tegan by the throat. She was sad but angry at the same time. She materialized a rifle of dark energy and held it at Tegan's head.

"W-w-w-ait!You can't do this! You can't! I'll give you anything, money, more airships? Maybe even United Surface Army support so we can kill you destroy the Zaka Clan? Ohhh, maybe food? A handsome man to replace your dead lover?"

"GIVE ME BACK LOWE! Bring Lowe back you son of a bitch!!!!!Go back there and take his place and drop that bomb in the water and crash the ship into the river too!" Carlin yelled at Tegan in a fit of rage.

"Ahhh! Ahhh! Now wait now, Akio if that's your name, stop her! She's mad, isn't this ship going to crash soon or something? We have to go! She can't be doing this now! I can't go back, it's too late! Besides, I'm not that good of an airship pilot, only he can handle it! And I won't do it even if you force me! I-i-i-i- will die before I stop my own plan!" Tegan said nervously.

"No more of your insincere excuses and bullshit! If you can't bring him back, what good are you? You're useless!!!You'll die now!" Carlin yelled.

"AHHHHHHHH! Please, help me!!!!I'm a high ranking politician! You can't let her do this!" Tegan cried out.

Akio said simply, "I can't feel any sympathy for you Tegan either. Even if people like Veril and the others got along with you..Even if you were a good person at times, you've gone too far and you have to be punished for it.. Carlin has the right to kill you as far I'm concerned."

Carlin pulled the trigger of her energy rifle and shot Tegan's head clean off with a powerful energy blast. She calmly said, "Dead." She quickly cleaned the blood off herself and her clothes before resuming running with Akio to the docking bay.

Eventually they made it and took off in the Raven with the others. They made it out safely before Lowe even dropped the bomb in the water. They spoke not a word of how Carlin killed Tegan. They kept intended to keep it secret.

Lowe managed to drop the bomb in the river, it created a large splash as it went off but no truly major repercussions.

"Dammit..This altitude is no good...I can't land in the water with it going down this fast!!!But there's too many structures around here to risk it..Yomi City..What remains of Peklo. Or Aken Village....."

He then noticed Anubis in the distance.

"If can't land..I might as well take out their base with me!" Lowe thought. He steered the ship towards the Anubis base. As he closed in on it, he smashed open the container and put on a parachute, ready to jump when the time came near.

*Anubis base*

Magnus and Salika arrived in the elevator room. Mara simply said, "It's done..The Moon won't hit Shintaion...But now you all have to get out of here...An airship is about to crash onto this base....I'll teleport you all away now...I don't have very much energy left so I won't use it on myself....And the others above..Whom I can sense are friends of yours..."

"Don't bother sending me,I'll stay here with you and make sure you get out, Mara!" Rai spoke up.

Magnus didn't look happy as this all played out but he sighed and accepted it. Rai was his step brother but Rai was his own man, he wanted to risk it all and help Mara, it was his decision to make.

With that, Mara teleported Alastor, Salika, Magnus away into the secret passageway. She also teleported Dion, Camack, Arisa, Armand and Kington as well. She spoke to them telepathically and said, "Take this passageway now, Anubis base is about to be destroyed, hurry!"

With that, the others escaped but now it was Mara and Rai who had to get out of there. Rai smashed a hole in the floor with his hammer and saw the factory room in sight. Rai grabbed ahold of Mara as she nearly fell. He carried her on his back and continued onward.

Mara looked burned out and struggling to stay conscious, "Rai..If we survive..I'll gladly go up to the surface with you and see the City of Warriors. Once this is all..Over.. You really care for me and I appreciate it. You and I...think we have a future together if we get out of this.."

"Yeah Mara, sounds great! But let's get outta here then talk about it!" Rai said was he looked for the secret passageway and ran towards it.

However, at this same time, outside the base, Tegan's flagship was within a minute or so from crashing into it.

"What the fuck? Who the hell ordered an airship to fly around so low? And where did all those people we were fighting go? Hey! What's it say on there? United..Sarfice Arumy? Huh?" One of the dark beasts questioned.

"AHHHHHH!RUN! IT"S GONNA CRASH! AHHHHHHHH! EVERY BEAST FOR HIMSELF!" One of the dark beast screamed. The Zaka Clan Beasts entered a panic as they scrambled to run. But it was too late now...

Lowe punched a hole through the airship's window and jumped out with his parachute. He said aloud as he began to fall, "Carla..Akio..Maya..And everyone else..This is for you! I'll try to make it back...But if not..I'll miss you all..Protect the Underworld and bring hope back..I know you all can do it...Even if my life ends here..I am at peace knowing you all are here and alive to protect the Underworld and it's people! And those from the surface..I am grateful for what you've done as well...All of you, take care..."

Lowe's parachute took effect but a few seconds later, the ship crashed and an explosion consumed the base. There was little chance Lowe survived.

The wreckage of the base was in flames, very few Zaka Clan beasts escaped but all the slaves had escaped earlier.

*The Raven*

The mood in the airship was somber and depressing. No one uttered a word the whole trip, not even Tonya. It felt like a loss instead of a victory, even though they saved the Underworld. The Underworld Guard and Carlin lost Lowe.

Akio was piloting the ship now as Carlin was no in state to be piloting.

"LOWE! Why'd you do it? Why'd you do it Lowe? Maybe you could have landed...You were good with airships..Even if Tegan ruined the controls..You're too smart to die so easily! You had so much courage and a kind heart..To step up like that..To be willing to give up your life like that for us and this world." Carlin cried out as she heard the explosion. She was suffering from a undying anguish.

Hishin tried to comfort her as she told Carlin, "Please, don't be so sad.. He might have survived.. You can't give up hope like this even if he didn't, he wouldn't want that." No reply from Carlin, she was just couldn't get over it so quickly.

"This is what happens..When you get attached to people...They die and that's it..You never see them again, you can never be with them again. I should never open myself up to this type of pain ever again..I already had to experience it once before..My family was killed..Now Lowe is gone. I'll never find anyone like you again, you were the smartest beast I knew and you loved me so much. Never..." Carlin said to herself aloud.

"Poor thing..She's going truly hard times..She really wasn't heartless...She really has a reason for acting the way she does.. That's why she couldn't kill me, she'd feel like a monster for separating a child from her mother." Aurora thought to herself.

"So what happened to Tegan?" Tonya asked.

Akio said, "He fought with us..He insisted...The struggle got out of hand and we had no choice..But to kill him." He covered for Carlin as he didn't want people from the surface to harass her about killing Tegan. He was prepared to take the secret of Tegan's death to the grave.

"Oh..." Tonya looked sad. Aurora comforted her and said, "It's ok honey, he's in a better place now....He was a troubled man."

Carlin looked angry as she heard talk about concern for Tegan but she ignored it and continued to cry. Akio wished he could do something to cheer her up.

"What's the plan? Where are we heading after this?" Veril asked.

"You guys are free to do what you want, you three can go home for now, it's probably best if you do. I don't think the others would forgive you or like you. The rest of us however...I think we have to get ready to deal with the Zaka Clan. Maya had plans for that..So we're heading to the Underworld Guard HQ. After that we will do a complete search for Lowe and a funeral if he's not around, so we can honor him at least...So Carlin, don't mourn for Lowe yet..It might seem hopeless but it's not over yet. We can't confirm he died.. I won't mourn for him until I know. Just try to keep the faith up that he's alive, Carlin.." Akio said.

No reply from Carlin. Nothing could cheer her up.

Hannah thought, "Maybe only time can heal her wounds. I wouldn't understand a loss like that though.. I can't imagine what she's going through.."

Marx looked out the window and saw all the remaining United Surface Army ships were retreating into the rift, waving white flags. "Well, at least this is over...The United Surface Army is done....Nothing like this will happen again."

Carlin got up from her seat and stopped crying for now as she wiped her tears, she went into the cabin of the airship to be alone.

"Is she going to be allright? Maybe I should look go follow her." Katsugi questioned.

"Yeah..She's strong...I never saw her get like this though...It's hitting me hard too..But I can't be breaking down, not right now...I have to pilot this airship. I have to focus at the task at hand. Even there's only a little chance of finding him alive, I have to take it! I won't give up hope I know he's gone." Akio said honestly.

*Soma Plains*

Dion, Camack, Arisa, Armand, Kington, Alastor, Salika and Magnus had made it through the passageway in time thanks to Mara. All they heard was a ear-shattering explosion as the Anubis base was destroyed in the distance. After recovering from the noise, they spoke amongst themselves.

"Damnit! Did they even make it out? Rai...I never got to tell him about his father! And Mara, she didn't deserve to die...She turned back the moon and she saved us too.." Magnus commented angrily as he slammed his fists on the ground.

"Well. I think they made it out..They just are still in the passageway now..Or maybe it might have caved in. We should go back in there and help them!" Salika suggested.

Alastor shook his head. "These plains are rather close to Harken's castle. We can't just hang out here and wait or go down there in help them, we'll be caught! We're in no shape to fight. If they're alive, they'll find us and out out of the passageway themselves!"

Arisa questioned, "Mara? One of the Monarchs of the Underworld? So that was her who spoke to us with her mind. Ok. We'll catch up later, guys. We must have missed a lot being separated...But for now..Let's follow those beasts. They clearly know some sort of safe place around here." She pointed out to the now freed slaves whom were heading for the Underworld Guard HQ. With that, the group spoke and began to talk about all that happened on the way to the Underworld Guard HQ. There was no sign of Mara and Rai.

 

[Pirogeth]

-Soma Plains

The chatter between everyone quickly died out as the their stories of what they done came to an end. It was now nearly complete silence over the entire crowd. That was until Salika looked at Alastor's face. He seemed calm, almost as if he had already got over Rai, Mara, and everything that happened with Kiyoshi. "How can you be so calm right now? I mean not even a single tear shed for anyone Alastor?" Salika said her emotions getting the better of her. Alastor looked at her, confused at her sudden outburst.
"I have no need to shed tears. I cannot so long as this war continues."
"War!? We came here to prevent just that Alastor!" Salika said beginning to well up. "How can you be so heartless?" Everyone else had stopped and took this chance to rest. Their friends tried to stop the fight.
"Come on Salika calm down." Arisa said hoping to resolve the situation.
"No! This brat has been acting like this ever since I seen him back in Peklo. He needs some sensed knocked into him."
"And would you honestly try to take on me?" Alastor questioned. "Alone, just you and that pathetic excuse for a chemistry set? I highly doubt you would be able to do lasting damage. But I will let you fight me. Defend their honor, Salika. I would like to see what power your tears have over my emotional stability." Alastor said spreading his arms apart and backing up. "I'll even let you have the first strike."
"I do not need any free shots!" Salika said throwing a vial on the ground. A large plume of smoke covered the area. In a matter of seconds she was behind Alastor. The vertical slash did not hit a thing. He had dodged it by ducking and rolling ot the left. Using the ground as a launch pad Alastor simply tackled Salika and pinned her to the ground. To break free Salika punched him in the face then shoved her knee into his gut. To the rest the smoke blinded them but they heard the grunts from Alastor and the quick footsteps across the ground. As the smoke cleared Salika was holding both of Alastor's guns each pointed straight at his head. "I've loaded this with enough stones for the appropriate reaction. If I pull the trigger the chamber will ignite setting off my chemicals stored behind the rocks I shoved into the barrels. The rocks will quickly liquefy into searing hot magma, then we'll see what lasting damage I do." Alastor blinked once and dusted himself off. Afterward he held his arms in the air.
"Alright I give." Salika wore her serious expression for a few more seconds before smiling brightly. "So that is the power of your tears huh? Well I mourn their deaths in my own way." Alastor said taking off towards the rest of the crowd. As he left he brushed his coat to one side. The only one looking at him that particular moment was Magnus. It was only a brief second but he caught a glimpse of at least one gun.
"Clever son of a gun." Magnus said smiling as he got up. Just up ahead was a cave entrance that the beasts were filtering into. "We might as well follow. Hopefully we all get a chance to finally rest."

-Harken's Castle

The hallways were eerily quiet. The only sounds they could hear were the footsteps they made and the slow burning of torches on the wall. "This is just wrong. I would think he would keep more guards to himself the way he acts." Helen commented leading the group through the halls.
"You think he is planning to ambush us Atoshi?" Nina asked keeping her hand close to her weapon.
"I am not completely sure." Atoshi answered as he continued to follow Helen. Looking from side to side he made sure they were not being followed or watched. Kraw was doing much the same thing. Neil seemed to be at the ready to attack as well. With their final turn they stared down the hallway to the large chamber door.
"Once we pass through that door we will be in the throne room." Helen pointed out. Her navigation did come in handy. It felt like a maze in Harken's castle. Everywhere they went there were several different ways to go. She must have had the hallways memorized by heart, at least what was possibly left of it. The doors creaked open with a haunting echo throughout the throne room. It was completely dark inside, there was not a light to be seen. As group entered the candles in the room lit up in a wave. Each of them lit the room up with an orange flickering glow. At the center point between the rows of candles was Leo sitting on the throne like he owned the place.
"Welcome Atoshi, Kraw, Neil, Nina, and welcome back Helen. I must honestly say you do not look like a remarkable bunch." Leo said getting up from the chair. "Who would have thought that my Lord would have so much trouble with a ragtag group like you." Leo started to walk down the steps. As he proceeded forward each candle behind him turned into a mix of black and purple color, Nifire. Even though it was a black flame it still lit the room up with a blue and violet glow.
"Where is Shini!?" Atoshi demanded stepping forward.
"What not even a greeting? Good warriors are hard to come by now-a-days." Leo shook his head and approached within five meters of the group.
"Tell me where Shini is." Atoshi restated in a monotone voice.
"I'm afraid I cannot tell you that just yet. You see this castle of mine is my first priority. Even though I may not have soldiers capable of verbal communication they still are my army." He started to pace to the right as he continued talking. "I do not think we have been formally introduced so let us restart things on a more honorable note. I am Leonis Ardien, General of Shinigami's Army and Second in Command. Even I, The Great General Leo, still do not nearly come to rivaling the power of my Lord. But my power is enough to destroy the simple soldiers I see before me."
"You cocky bastard." Helen said her hate flourishing forth.
"Well if you think I am just all talk then why do you not try and attack me?" Leo said as he paced back to the center of the group. He had even backed up a few more meters.
"I would be glad to." Helen said as she prepared for a simple claw strike. She lunged forward hoping to hit him with the attack. Instead she missed Leo by a mile. He had thrown a katana up into the ceiling of the throne room. Using his retraction method he was able to dodge her by pulling himself up to the ceiling. Once there he used his other blade to cut into her right arm. He quickly retracted the blade as she turned around and tried to grab it.
"Too slow my dear. You see my blades do speak with the same power as my words." Leo said now lowering himself down and retrieving the katana in the ceiling.
"Helen we will have to attack him together." Kraw said pulling out his axe.
"True it will take our pooled effort to stop this guy." Atoshi said readying his chakrams. Nina and Neil both readied themselves as well. Helen nodded in agreement turning to face Leo. He was now stuck between the group of four and Helen.
"I see, a five on one match does sound fun but I do need to get done with you all efficiently. So I think I'll turn it into a three on five." Leo said. He whistled for some help. Soon two Jades made their way into the room. Neil and Nina took first offensive on the Jades as Kraw, Atoshi, and Helen went after Leo.

Neil formed a blade of ice and Nina started to swing around her bladed whip. The two Jades lunged at them like before. It was easy for the two to dodge the initial strike. Nina wrapped the blade around the throat of the beast and pulled tight killing it. Neil slide to the side a bit and jabbed the Jade in the side with the icicle blade. "Shatter!" Neil yelled, as he created a small explosion hear the cold hilt of the blade. The explosion sent out tons of tiny icicles into the rest of the side of the beast. Very soon it was unconscious. "Those were generally weak." Neil said turning around getting ready to help the others.
"Neil wait!" Nina yelled getting his attention back over to her and the door. Two more Jades jumped in.
"Do not tell me we actually have to keep fighting a whole horde of these things." Neil said constructing ice claws.
"We should just try to stall them as long as we can. Once they take out Leo they should no longer be a threat…I hope." Nina said. The beast once again attacked her. Quickly she retracted the whip turning it into its blade form and jamming the whole thing right through the neck of the Jade. A quick thrust backward and the blade came loose. She barely had time to wipe the blood off her face as the next one attacked.

The others were having a bit more trouble. It was nearly impossible to hit Leo. His blade and string combination allowed him to be extremely evasive and offensive. "There has got to be a better way to attack this guy." Helen said as Leo flipped in the air and landed on his feet a good fifteen meters away.
"We will have to try and flank him, but with only three people we can only cover the ground. He can just jump over us if he sticks that blade in the ceiling again." Atoshi said.
"I have a plan, Atoshi, Helen, you guys just need to get him to do just that." Atoshi was puzzled for a second but agreed. Charging in with Helen they attacked. Atoshi went in with full intent on forcing him into a corner. His attacks had more power than precision. He thrust the blades forward hoping to at least land something. Helen jumped over Atoshi and tried to claw Leo. A big leap backward had her only scratching the stone floor. Atoshi did a flying kick landing it right in Leo's chest. He was sent back a meter or two. His feet skid on the ground as he was backed up into a wall. He managed to stay balanced. Helen quickly took the left flank as Atoshi took the right. There was only one escape route for Leo. He took his chance with the ceiling and stuck the blade in. He once again retracted the string lifting him to the ceiling. This time he was met with a little surprise.
"Blast Axe!" Kraw shouted as he charged the end of his axe blade with a large amount of energy. He tossed it right at the spot where the katana was stuck in the ceiling. Once the axe landed there was an explosion and the ceiling crumbled. There was a large hole made allowing some natural light into the chamber. The axe landed at Kraw's feet and Leo landed near the steps of the throne.
"I love it that is what I call strategy!" Leo said. "Now let's see it one on one." Leo said as he created an intense Nifire blaze. The flames made a wall blocking off Atoshi and Helen from helping Kraw.

 

[King Weavel]

*Harken's castle*

Helen growled as she said, "He's separating Kraw from the rest of us. Looks like we'll just have to help the others deal with those monsters then since we can't take down that wall!"

Atoshi agreed. "Yes. Let's get over now, Kraw will be fine as long as he doesn't underestimate Leo.."
Atoshi and Helen saw Nina and Neil dealing with many more Jades than earlier.

Helen spewed a breathe of dark energy that paralyzed one of the Jades. She tossed her energy tomahawk off at it and cut into the creature's neck, decapitating it.

Atoshi told the others quickly as he fought off some Jades, "We're here for now. But once Leo's wall comes down, we'll be able to go back to fighting Leo again! Kraw is fighting Leo on the other side of that wall.."

"I see! Well thanks for the h-" Neil was interrupted as a Jade nearly pounced on him, he avoided it just barley in time.

"These things are vicious and endless. That wall better come down soon. This'll just tire us out fighting all these monsters!" Nina thought.

On the other side of the wall, Leo and Kraw began their fight.

Kraw prepared himself as he readied his axe, before he could charge at Leo however, Leo jumped away from Kraw. He then used his strings to send his two blades hurling at Kraw. Kraw blocked the blades and hit them with his axe, sending them backing away from him.

"This guy. It's hard to get in close but I don't have that many long ranged techniques of my own. That's an issue here. Heh. I'll just have to think up something new or just caught him off guard. The Blast Axe is too costly at the moment to keep using." Kraw pondered how to confront Leo.

He looked around and saw one blade coming at him from the left and another from the right, he ducked and dodged both of them and attempted to cut the strings of Leo's blades with his axe, however it didn't work. "Heh of course the bad guy won't give me time to think. Just time to improvise then!"

Leo darted around the room and attacked Kraw again, this time with both blades coming from the same direction but he spun them around where Kraw was, managing to graze Kraw before he escaped the range of the blades.

Kraw took his axe and put some energy into it. He slammed it down into the ground, temporarily stunning Leo. A energy shock wave was produced on the ground and rushed towards Leo. Leo however recovered in time to avoid it.

Looking rather desperate to hit Leo. Kraw used up a large amount of his energy into his axe and began to spin around with his it. He tossed his axe off at Leo after a few rounds of spinning, the axe flew towards Leo but missed. However, it came back around behind Leo and this time fired off crescent shaped cutter blades at Leo, a few of these managed to hit him and cut him.

"Very good this time. That's an attack that works only once however. You cannot surprise me again!" Leo warned Kraw. He didn't seem to have taken too much damage from Kraw's attack unfortunately.

Kraw didn't bother to reply to Leo. He instead focused on his next move, his next course of action. This time, Leo moved in closer to Kraw and spun one of the blades in front of Kraw as the other came swinging at Kraw from his left side. Kraw jumped away from the spinning blade but the other blade managed to cut into a bit of Kraw's armor but Kraw pulled it out before it could cut directly into his flesh.
Leo continued this attack but this time moved in close enough for Kraw to almost attack him. He swung at Kraw with both his blades, thus Kraw had to keep being defensive with his axe and was unable to attack.

"He's attacking differently now. I can't use long range but I can't really get him like this. Might just have to take one attack so I can dish one out!" Kraw thought as he kept his guard up and defended with his axe.

Kraw temporarily let down his guard, allowing Leo to pierce more holes in his armor but Kraw was able to swing his axe at Leo, forcing Leo back a bit. Now Kraw went on the offensive and was able to corner Leo. He swung his axe at Leo but Leo blocked it with his katanas each time.

Leo eventually managed to jump over Kraw and he once again, was going to attack him with ranged techniques. "This again! I can't finish it like this...There's one way to do this. Good o'l Roy. Heh, inspired me to pull this off!"

Kraw put a medium amount of energy into his axe and tossed it into the wall that had had Leo cornered against earlier. Then the axe generated an explosion similar to the blast axe technique but of lesser power. Kraw used this explosion to propel himself into the air, he went hurling towards Leo, Leo tried to whip his blades at Kraw but Kraw was moving too fast now. Kraw grabbed his axe in mid-air and performed his Meteo Impact technique, slamming down his axe onto Leo and creating a medium explosion so as not to destroy the floor.

As the smoke cleared. Kraw took a breather and let out a sigh of relief. However, he soon noticed Leo's figure remained standing. This didn't shock him too much. Leo still did not look too injured as he straighted himself out.

"You're not the best but certainly formidable, Kraw. I commend you for this entertainment. It was a good battle. But to continue it or end it here. That is the question." Leo spoke out to Kraw.

Kraw told Leo off, "You're acting like you can finish me off in an instant, well let's see it! Heh, I was just getting warmed up. It's not easy to fight when you have to worry about your surroundings crumbling around you if you go too far. Can you even do it? I'm not here in the Underworld to play games or be an entertainer for you, punk! You're good at fighting I admit but for you to kill me, it'll take more than this!"

The wall of Nifire that was blocking Kraw and Leo off from the others was almost fading now. Leo seemed to be focusing less of his strength on it.

Leo seemed amused at Kraw's reaction. In in his mind he was quickly deliberating on whether to continue his one-on-one with Kraw or get the others involved.

*Soma Plains*

Arisa was in front as they were just about to enter the Underworld Guard's HQ.

One of the guards noticed Arisa and the others, "You....You must be...The people from the Forbidden Alliance!! You're not all beasts and nor are you slaves.."

"Yep, we're with the Forbidden Alliance! Most of us, anyhow, we all just want to put an end to the Zaka Clan so please let us through sir. We need to rest..We've been through a lot...We came from Anubis as well." Arisa explained the situation briefly.

"Very well! You may enter! The Forbidden Alliance has allied with us, you are allies! This is the Underworld Guard HQ! Go speak with our leader Maya if you can." The guard commented.

"Underworld Guard....Must be a resistance group against Harken... I think I heard about them when I was a Forbidden Alliance officer in Azull.." Camack thought.

Arisa nodded and said, "Sure! Ok everybody....Let's go!" She sounded somewhat cheerful or tried to. She was glad this Underworld ordeal was almost over or so she hoped. She tried to light up the gloomy yet tense mode the rest of the group had.

"Are you sure I may enter? I am Dion..I was your enemy at one time. And I temporarily allied with Harken recently for...Reasons of my own...I do not wish for my presence to be a obstacle." Dion questioned.

The guard said, "Yes you can enter...We were informed you are working under contract for the Forbidden Alliance now. We know you cannot and will not betray us now. We can't be picky in times like these, we have to have as many skilled fighters as we can if we want to defeat the Zaka Clan once and for all!"

Most of the group was rather surprised by Dion's honesty. They went in none the less. As they entered Magnus questioned Dion, "Why were you working with the Zaka Clan earlier?"

"At first I was forced to as a young beast. But if you're talking about before the whole Goto Jungle attack, I joined because I wanted to kill Harken myself. I wanted to build up trust with him so I could easily assassinate him..But plans changed. That plan was not meant to be, I could not allow myself to commit genocide just to kill Harken. Assassins have standards and codes. I would not kill a person unless I have no regrets in doing so." Dion explained.

"I get it now. You're not such a bad guy after all." Magnus commented. Dion didn't respond at all, he shrugged it off.

As they entered the HQ, they heard an airship fly overhead and heard it land in the Underworld Guard HQ.

*Underworld Guard HQ, airship room*

Those inside the Raven exited as the airship was landed. The top part of the cave closed, covering up the hatch that let the airship in.

"Aurora, Veril and Tonya, see that smaller airship in here? It's the Crow, Lowe built it himself. It's a good ship but a small one...You can take it back up to the surface, that rift is still open. I'll arrange for someone to take you there now." Akio commented.

"But...What if we want to help with the search effort? It's the least I could do..." Aurora asked Akio.

Akio shook his head and told her, "We might forgive you guys but the others might not. I'm sorry but it's for the best you guys head back. The others might blame the United Surface Army for Lowe's death....I don't want you guys to get harmed or anything for it since it was truly Tegan's fault.. But the others may not listen..So please listen to me, I don't want to take risks at a time like this. We appreciate how you want to help us it but this is for the best..."

Aurora accepted it and said, "Ok we'll head back home..I get the point."

"Mommy...We will see these people again? They're my friends!" Tonya asked.

"Yes, we will. They can come and visit us later, for now we have to get back..So say your goodbyes for now.." Aurora commented.

Katsugi and the others who befriended Tonya bid farewell to her.

Veril told Akio, "You sure you don't want us here to at least help with fighting Harken? I think we could handle him!"

"No thank you, we don't want too many others involved in our war with him although it's good you're willing to take him on...Besides, we don't even know if Harken is alive...Now if you all excuse me, I have to get the others so we can get a search party going! You guys can rest for now, ask the other guards for directions!" Akio stated, talking quickly.

Hannah looked around and questioned, "Where's Carlin?"

She came out of the airship, with wearing Lowe's pendent and looking somewhat better, although she still had tears running down her face. "Akio, I'm going with the search party too. I'm up to it now. Let's find the others and get going!"

Akio nodded as him and Carlin ran off to find the others.

One of the guards whom knew how to pilot the Crow spoke to Aurora, Veril and Tonya, opened the hatch and flew off, taking them back to the surface.

"Well. Maybe we should rest, if they'll let us help in the search party, I'm all for it though. I know what's it like to have that feeling Carlin has...That uncertainty of whether someone is alive..I went through that since Kraw didn't tell me he was training here for ten years!" Katsugi commented.

"But...We have to rest up if we want to take on Harken..I don't think we're in any shape right now to really be of much use..I'm all out of energy myself.." Eve commented, she looked sad since she hadn't the energy to slow down the entire airship.

Marx agreed, "Yeah, it's best if we get some rest." Marx wasn't too sure what to do as this wasn't a part of his or Hannah's plans, they hadn't come down into the Underworld to get involved with fighting Harken. But it seemed they were willing to do it now.

"Yes. We have to rest. We'll only hold them back now." Hannah commented.

Akio and Carlin came back with their fellow Underworld Guard members Mary, Marie, Alroy and Nora.

"Allright! We're ready to go now.. Let's get to it! This is the perfect time, while Harken's away and the United Surface Army is gone...We should have little interference." Akio commented.

"And if any dark beasts survived that explosion. I'll deal with them myself.. It's a crime evil men continue to live in this world where people like Lowe....Perish..." Carlin said with some sadness in her voice, she was not at all optimistic with the search.

Akio noticed Katsugi and the others, he told them, "You guys...Listen, you go and get some rest! We'll handle the search party, you guys did a lot back there up on the airship and we're grateful, you've earned the right to rest. You guys just worry about facing the Zaka Clan if Harken is alive..That's what your original purpose in the Underworld was anyhow."

Katsugi and the others left the room and went searching for the resting area, they spoke to a guard and were shown the way.

As for the others, they boarded the Raven and lifted off. Carlin piloted this time, putting on Lowe's airship goggles. She put the ship on full speed and flew off towards the Anubis base's remains.

"Carlin..Are you ok? You've been awfully quiet..." Nora asked Carlin.

She shook her head and said, "I cannot lie. Lowe was important to me, you may not have known it as I tried to keep it under wraps...I regret such a thing. I should have been proud to be with him...That is why this mission is most important to me. Even if we cannot find him alive..It can give me some sort of closure." Nora nodded in response to what Carlin said.

Akio looked rather stressed out as he caught his breathe. He was working almost no stop, had hadn't taken a break or a real rest in a while. Mary noticed this and told Akio, "Akio, relax. I can see you're taking this hard too. Let me handle anything for you I can, it's not fair for the burden only to be on you and Carlin. We didn't know Lowe as well as you did..He's a brother to us too. Maya raised us together. Let us handle the hard work. Me and Marie can put out the fire around the base's ruins and handle searching the water." She hugged Akio gently.

"Thanks Mary. That means a lot to me" Akio said simply. He composed himself and looked somewhat less stressed out.

"Hey! We're doing our part too. Any heavy debris I can easily lift them! Or gently blow them to bits and pieces if they're a bit much." Nora added.

Alroy said, "I will look from the skies and see if I can find anything. Although an airship can fly, it's hard to see every little detail from this high up.. We all will do our part, you can rest assured..."

Carlin focused on driving primarily as she told them all, "We're here..I'm going to land now.. Me and Akio and Nora can handle the general area around the base...Just be careful, we don't know if any Zaka Clan beasts survived that explosion or avoided it....We don't want to get attacked at a time like this..But if we do, inform the others immediately and we'll take care of them together!

She continued, "If Lowe is alive...Protect him with your life and get him to the ship. If not, if you find his remains..Take him back so we can at least give him a proper funeral. That man is a hero, dead or alive. We have to make haste as well, there's no telling if or when Harken is coming back from that Sealed Realm..Understood?" She looked sad but she held back her tears so she clearly could give the others orders.

All the others nodded and said, "Yes ma'am!"

Carlin landed the ship and they all got out and began the search. There wasn't much hope of finding Lowe alive but they were all determined to do their best to at least find.

*Aken Village*

The dark beasts Kiyoshi had ordered to surround the village were running from Greg now as he had launched a sneak attack on them.

"Shit! He's still chasing us! He just doesn't quit!!!!! If only Lord Harken or one of the Monarchs was was here....We'd be saved! Lord Kiyoshi is at the base though so if we get there, we'll be save!" One of the dark beasts said.

They stopped running as they noticed Greg stopped chasing them. However, they felt the ground underneath them rumbling, they paid no attention to it.

"Hah! Chump! He's all out of breathe!! Let's make a break for it, boys! We can head back to Anubis! He's given up all hope! Huh? What's that sound?" One of the dark beasts commented.

However, they all screamed as they set off a series of energy mines Greg had set. An explosion of light based energy consumed them. The mines were rigged to move as they were energy based and Greg manipulated them.

"They seem helpless without a real leader...It's no wonder these cowards rallied around Harken, it's what they had to do to survive. Pathetic." Greg thought.

Some other groups of dark beasts had managed to get away but they no longer posed a threat to Aken village at least as Greg had scared them away.

He then noticed the Anubis base in the distance and saw the smoke coming from it. He also noticed the skies were free of United Surface Army airships.

"So the destruction from the weapon was averted...But the base..What happened there? And what about the surface? There's only one good way to find out...The Underworld Guard HQ, they'd know what's going on..They're in contact with the Forbidden Alliance..My work is done here, this village is safe and these thugs are only concerned with running, they'd be daft to pick another fight."

Greg teleported off to the Underworld Guard HQ.

 

[Pirogeth]

-Harken's Castle

Leo was still debating to continue his fight with Kraw or to get everyone in on it. The Jades were playing their part well as distractions. So Leo thought it would be interesting to take on the three again. Kraw did not seem to have used up an ounce of energy anyway. He let the Nifire subside and the Jades slightly backed off giving only enough to still have Neil and Nina busy during the fight. Seeing that the two were now ok, Helen and Atoshi returned their sights on Leo. "It seems that just fighting one alone does have its cons, so I will allow you two to join this fight again." Leo said smiling. "After all I do not want to finish this battle too quickly." He stepped back one step and got into a fighting stance. He looked relieved almost, however, nobody could tell if this was good or bad. Atoshi stepped forward in front of Kraw and Helen.
"Let your fight be with me. The rest have no need to waste their strength on you." Atoshi said ignoring any pleas by the others. Turning back to Kraw he proceeded to explain himself. "Both you and Helen have an enemy still waiting in the shadows. Let me take him on in your place. At the very least one of us will be at full strength." Kraw was hesitant but nodded. With his acknowledgment Atoshi returned his gaze on Leo. "Leo your fight is with me."
"This is quite unexpected, but being that my Lord is your enemy I did not doubt your eagerness. So we are to cross blades one on one? So be it, become stronger Atoshi. Show me the true power that my Lord sees within you. I must see it with my own eyes, a true warrior in battle." Leo's first strike came from his sword being hurled at Atoshi. He unhooked his chakrams from his waist and dodged the blade by jumping over it. As he was in the air he noticed that the string had a bit of slack and that Leo was retracting the blade. Quickly Atoshi tried spinning in the air. He was just in time to knock away the blade that was ready to pierce his back. The sword fell against the stone floor with a resounding clang. Leo readied his other sword as he retracted the failed attack.
"You can do better than that Leo!" Atoshi yelled out full of anger. Leo shot his blade straight up into the ceiling again retracting it so he was once again on height advantage. Unfortunately for him Atoshi flew up using his wings that had just morphed out of his back.
"Exquisite, he can take to the air and not worry about my advantage." Leo said grinning as the fight continued to get more intense. Atoshi was gunning straight for him. Rather than let him through Leo began whirling around his second blade extremely fast. This stopped Atoshi before getting too close. It almost looked pretty how the second blade formed a ring around Leo. "You are too short ranged Atoshi! You will never be able to pass my Cutter Sphere without injuring yourself. And if you get hit once I promise I will hit you ninety nine more times before I am done." Atoshi stayed just on the edge of the sphere hoping to find a way through. "I do not like your dawdling. Hurry up and find a solution!" Leo said extending the blade slightly; just enough to hit Atoshi's chest with the tip of the blade. Atoshi backed off still keeping in the air. It was then a plan dawned on him. One arm was stretched back with a chakram in hand. With a ton of energy Atoshi tossed it forward directly for Leo. The blade spun just the right length to knock the chakram straight into the wall. Leo took a look at where it landed then looked back toward Atoshi. Instead of Atoshi he found the other chakram was only half a second away from shooting straight through his chest. A tight pull on the sword in the ceiling allowed Leo to avoid the fatal cut but not the entire attack. It ripped through his clothes and armor like it was nothing. In the end Leo was left with a vertical cut on his chest and Atoshi a horizontal one. Atoshi went to retrieve his weaponry while Leo recuperated. "It has been several years since I have been hit like that. Amazing and I mean that in every sense of the word. You are truly a formidable foe Atoshi. I can see it from both you and that other fellow I was up against earlier. You both have that spark of mid battle intuition."
"Enough praise Leo, I am here to defeat you and that is what I will do." His attitude was quite dark. Atoshi did not seem to care for Leo's praise.
"Hmm, well if you cannot accept my words then I will just have to see the extent of power from the demon." Leo was taking in a breath to say something else but was assaulted by Atoshi at close range. A vertical slice with his right chakram, blocked by a horizontal defense from Leo's left katana. A horizontal from Atoshi's left blocked by a vertical from Leo's right. The blades rattled against each other as the two put more strength into holding the attack. Sliding the swords away with sparks lighting up the corners of the room Leo pulled back both the blades and thrust them forward. Atoshi kicked them upward with his chakrams letting them only graze each shoulder. Leo, in a moment of nostalgia caused by nearing victory, turned his blades inward and tried to cut off Atoshi head. Atoshi could not fit a chakram through the small gap so he dropped his weapons and let his bones be his last defense. Both blades cut deep into Atoshi's wrists. The blood flowed down his arms in an almost artistic way.
"You are foolish Leo, to think that I would leave myself vulnerable."
"You defend yourself at the cost of your own hands, the tool of which you use to do everything every day. A true warrior would be nothing without them." Leo said nearly shocked.
"If I cannot beat you then there is no need for these hands." Atoshi said struggling with the pain.
"A true statement indeed." Leo said forcing his blades closer and closer to Atoshi's neck. Jades now blocked off Atoshi's and Leo's fight. It seemed that their numbers increased as the battle continued on. One thing Atoshi noticed is that Leo was now getting tired. His power behind his blades was nothing like that of his original strength. Atoshi was now actually able to push the blades aside. Ignoring the continued amount of shock delivered to his body from the blades inside his wrists he managed to push away both katanas from the fatal blow. Leo backed off sliding his swords through Atoshi's wounds. He let his arms hang to the side blood dripping onto the floor. He could not even pick up his chakrams at this point but that did not matter. Leo went in for another strike expecting to be slicing a useless body. Instead he was in for a surprise himself. Atoshi ran forward slightly and kicked one of his chakrams with all his might. Like a hockey puck the chakram gained some height and was lodged right into Leo's chest. The blow was so powerful the chakram nearly went through Leo, but instead it was only half way in.
"Do not tell me that was it Leo, I know you have more pride than that." Atoshi said to the man now laying on the ground. His chest began to slightly bounce up and down. Atoshi could not tell if he was coughing or laughing. Soon the sounds that echoed revealed the truth.
"Mmmhmmhmmhmm. Ahahahahahaha! That was simply brilliant." Leo said hacking up some blood right after. He slowly pulled out the chakram and dropped it to the floor. He did not look to be in any better condition than Atoshi but his attitude definitely seemed brighter at this point. "I think it is time we both step it up one more notch right Atoshi?" Leo said engulfing his blades in Nifire. Leo tossed both blades at Atoshi. The blades managed to cut through him with ease. Instead of a blazing hot feeling the cold fire began to freeze up the wounds he was given. Leo retracted both blades to see what damage he had done. "Best thing about Nifire is that the enemy lasts longer against you. You can really see the true warrior spirit just before the wounds thaw out and their blood comes out of all the holes I created." As Leo finished Atoshi's wounds thawed out. The blood started to fill the empty gap.
"This will not finish me Leo." Atoshi said as he now dropped to his knees.
"I will be taking that head of yours now Atoshi." Leo said walking over by him. His blades both were out a good foot from each shoulder. "It has been a pleasure." Leo swung his swords inward only to hear the sounds from before, a clang and surely that was not the sound of metal piercing flesh. On either side of Atoshi was a small but effective pillar of silver colored blood. The blood had blocked the blades and moved them back enough so Atoshi could now stand.
"You wanted to see the spirit of a true warrior Leo, then I'll show you." Much like snakes ready to strike the small blood spires attacked Leo. He tried to defend with his blades but it was like he was simply cutting through water. Each time the blood made snakes made a strike they punctured a hole through Leo's chest. Leo looked to be on his last legs when he was shoved up against the wall.
"So this is it, the true power that he sees in you. It is actually kind of beautiful." Leo said as the spires jabbed through Leo pinning him to the wall. As Leo's head went limp Atoshi called back the blood letting his body drop to the floor. It was soon engulfed in Nifire and disappeared from the room. Very carefully Atoshi picked up his weapons and hooked them to his waist. The Jades had all left for the town and the throne room remained empty.
"You feeling alright Atoshi?" Nina asked expecting an obvious no. Atoshi was put up against a wall and allowed to rest.
"The Jades were nothing, but that Leo sure gave you a beating." Neil said trying to help Atoshi by bandaging up some wounds.
"We are lucky to come out of this one alive." Kraw said. His words of praise were interrupted by Helen clutching her head.
"No, NO, NOOOO!! I WILL NOT LET YOU IN!" Helen began spinning around the throne room trying to subdue the attack on her mind.
"What is wrong?" Nina asked.
"He NO! I CANNOT BE A SLAVE AGAIN!" Helen then let out a shriek before passing out on the floor. The reason behind it was just about to enter the room. A portal formed near the throne as Harken stepped through. He floated in the air like some sort of god.
"I have obtained my POWER! Fear my greatness all inferiorites. Your women, your children, your everything is now under my control. But first all of you need a demonstration of the length of this godly power!" Harken said nearly ignoring everyone in the room. "I will show all of you the greatness I have become. They can think of it as a gift to be destroyed by something this magnificent! Fools only take arms to me!" Harken blasted a hole in the wall of the throne room. From their he exited and took off towards the Underworld Guard Head Quarters.
"I can't let him go!" Kraw said rushing after the beast. Atoshi was left alone with Nina and Neil.
"At least he did not focus his attention on us. In our condition we cannot fight someone like that." Nina said now tending to her own wounds.
"You cannot even fight someone like me." A muffled voice came from the center of the room. Helen got up her eyes were now that of a crazy, blood craving beast. "I will be sure to end you all!" Nina and Neil both jumped in front of Atoshi.
"We will not hesitate one bit." Nina said unhooking her blade once more.
"And you will not be killing anyone today." Neil said preparing his ice claws.
"You two…do not be reckless." Atoshi said.
"Do not worry brother. I'm just learning from you." Nina said giving a bit of a smile. Atoshi nodded as Nina, Neil, and Helen took offensive stances.

 

[King Weavel]

*Soma Plains, near the Underworld Guard HQ*

Harken laughed to himself as he grew four sets of wings and flew towards the HQ. "I AM.. THE TRUE GOD BEAST!" He yelled out and heard his voice echo.

He aimed at the Northern Niflheim Mountains, the area that the HQ was built around. Before that however, he used some of his own energy on himself. His flesh around his face healed and was restored. He also regained his youth. Harken now appeared to look twenty five years old. He commented to himself, "Ah yes. This is the energy of a God! Immortality! Ahahaha!"

He shouted, "INFERIORTES and weakling dark beasts who support them. Are you prepared for a confrontation with a GOD??"
"Apocalypse Burst!!" Harken yelled out as he unleashed a gigantic wave of energy, it was comparable to a tsunami but instead it floated towards the mountains and made of dark energy, not water.

As the mountains were hit, the energy exploded several times, causing cave ins in the Underworld Guard HQ.

"AHAHA-HAH!! If only I had enhanced hearing, I could hear your screams. Oh but this is boring now, all of them are probably dead. There goes all my fun and entertainment!" He then looked around and saw no one was around.

"I need someone to witness this..My remaining minions and Erika will do. With my new found abilities, the power over time, dimensional energy, psychic energy, song energy, sacred energy, dark energy, all elemental energy! My body is tougher than steel, my mind filled with the knowledge of Arlon and all his descendants! I am The God of the Underworld, Harken ZAKA! Nothing can defeat me. I am the product of evolution, what all beasts must become! All life should have been made in my image!"

With that, Harken teleported his remaining minions and Erika right in front of him. They were terrified and shocked to see him. There were very few grunts remaining. Only around four hundred dark beasts at most.

He then decided, "This is it? It seems many of my minions have perished. This will not do. A god can ignore the laws of death and life!!!!I need my Monarchs! The rest of you, guard the fortress! Erika, escort me!"

They all obied him and bowed to Harken before going off to surround the fortress.

With that Harken resurrected Rondo, Jaeger and Kiyoshi. They each looked more powerful than before as well, just like how Erika's technique empowered the person it revived.

Erika was shocked and said, "My Lord...You are..A god.....Jaeger, Rondo and Kiyoshi..Their bodies were totally destroyed or so I assumed..How did you do that?"

Harken laughed. "Yes, praise me! I am amazing! Now Rondo, Jaeger, Kiyoshi! Go scout the ruins of that base, kill any and all survivors!"

"Yes Harken, our Great and Kind God!" They all said in unison. Harken had also taken control of their minds and made them 100% loyal to him just in case. They all made their way to the ruins of the HQ.

Just as the three of them scouted the area, a pair of energy fist broke through rubble surrounding the entrance to the HQ. It was Maya but no one else seemed to be behind her. She looked exhausted. She began to look worried as she saw the three minions of Harken in front of her.

Rondo quickly backed off as he saw her, "We've got a live specimen here! A female. Oh a pity, we have to kill anything that moves as per our God's orders!!!! Jaeger, allow me to step back. I want to see how quickly you can kill her! I'll make sure there's no one behind her who might help!"

Jaeger teleported in front of Maya and asked her, "Before you die..Arisa, is she alive in there? She should join the Zaka Clan and we will spare her and Jackal and Mia! Yes. We will create a better Underworld!"

Maya kicked Jaeger in the face and did not answer him. She charged up a great deal of energy in her right hand and then in her left hand. She released a small spark of energy that paralyzed Jaeger's body before he could react. The left hand gave off a glow of green energy, the right gave off a color of orange energy. Rondo and Kiyoshi had no intention of helping Rondo or so it seemed as they watched it all unfold.

Maya said simply, "Two become one. Love in one hand, hatred in the other! The desire to protect, the desire to destroy! The protecting left! The killer right! Go forth... Goddess and Devil!"

She clasped her hands together and charged at Jaeger. With the right hand, she punched through Jaeger's chest with her right hand, killing him. The left hand ripped out Jaeger's soul and crushed it, destroying it instantly.

This attack had a tremendous draw-back however as Maya began to feel a strain on her heart as she nearly collapsed. She began to breathe heavily.

Rondo clapped, "Killed him in one move, impressive. You must be Maya, leader of the Underworld Guard!! A beauty, a good fighter, yes. Perhaps you can offer yourself to Harken as a bride and he may spare you!"

Kiyoshi nodded, "Yes. Our God will spare you if you do so..Your sins can be forgiven if you join us! You're the only survivor, Maya! You can't win. It's over, please accept it and just unite with us, all of us can be united and celebrate the love of our god Harken! I am Pope Kiyoshi of Harkenism!"

Maya remained rather silent as she walked up to Kiyoshi. She clawed into his back and said, "No way in hell! I will oppose Harken and the Zaka Clan until the day I die! I will never change my opinion on them! They took everything from me! The man I loved. Our children..Countless friends!!"

Kiyoshi laughed as he said, "Oh poor little wench! Was that suppose to hurt? Look at me! My wounds are regenerating, my God Harken has made us almost immortal ourselves! Silly whore, you cannot oppose servants of a GOD! OHOHOHOHO! I will handle this myself, Rondo! I will impale her, this weak woman with a cross of ice!Die, sinner! Pope Kiyoshi will execute you!"

Before Kiyoshi could use his energy. He felt strange. "Wh-h-hat's happening to my..Body?"

"Parasitic bomb. It's expanding before it detonates. Let me help you ease the suffering, you can join your comrade in death!" Maya picked Kiyoshi up and tossed him at Rondo. Kiyoshi's body then exploded from the inside, killing him. The explosion did not hurt Rondo very much but it horrified him and covered him with some of Kiyoshi's blood.

Rondo commented, "You clawed him as a diversion..You planted energy inside him..But this game is not over, I will not die like that! Ahahahah!"

He fired off a few lasers that managed to hit Maya's shoulders. She was in pain but did not cry out once as she moved forward and kept her eyes on Rondo, intending to kill him even if she took heavy injuries in the process.

"You don't know when to quit! What are the hell are you doing? You can't kill all three of us, the other two perhaps but not I, Rondo the great! The knowledge of the new world, I am that knowledge itself!"
Rondo created several of his doubles and they surrounded Maya as the real Rondo charged up his energy, ready to kill her.

He then heard a strange noise, the sound of a landing airship in the distance that distracted him.

"What is this? Others who are alive?" Maya created an energy anchor, it drilled into and pierced Rondo's head, killing him, taking advantage of the situation.

She sighed and said, "No matter how many times Harken brings you cowards back to life, I'll be here to kill you! I have no sympathy or pity for you! There is no excuse for the things you've done!" She looked exhausted.

Akio, Carla, Mary, Marie, Alroy and Nora whom were searching for Lowe had returned. They had found Lowe's body. However, now they were more focused on the destruction of the Underworld Guard HQ.

Carla ran up to Maya, "Are you okay? What happened? What's going on here?"

Before she could speak, Harken and Erika teleported into the area.

"I attacked your base, my dear. I killed many people. But even if they are gone, they still live on within our hearts, right? Just like that Lowe fellow I saw in your minds. Oh what a load of shit! But now I've got some live ones to play with, it's a shame, there won't be much resistance after this, I won't even get to use my powers on anyone since all of my enemies will soon be DEAD!" Harken boasted.

Carla looked filled with anger as she stared into Harken's eyes. The others were also angry and prepared to fight him.

He then read Maya's mind and said, "What's this? Oh she she was fighting so recklessly because she is covering for the others! There are survivors in the rubble? The slaves and people you fools rescued! I'll take them back and make my slaves once more! A few useless grunts! Roy's daughter, all those damn dirty inferiorites from the surface, Greg Hale, Shimon and Ron! So she was covering for their escape all along.. Some are leaving the back way that Greg opened up with his energy...Shimon and Ron however, are coming up right now! Shimon being injured still and Ron being a cripple! Time for target practice! But first...Rondo...Kiyoshi!!!! My eternal servants, come back to me!"

Harken used his sacred energy and restored life to Rondo and Kiyoshi. Kiyoshi's body was restored and Rondo's body was fully healed.

Rondo grinned and Kiyoshi laughed as they were both resurrected. Rondo hid behind Harken as a form of cover as he prepared to attack. Kiyoshi however walked near the Underworld Guard members.

Kiyoshi told Maya, "Now, wench, we will continue from where we left off! And I will bury you all for your sins against The God of the Underworld, Harken!"
Instead of attacking Kiyoshi, Maya set her sights on Harken. She created another energy anchor and fired it off at him, however Harken teleported immediately and dodged it.

"I saw that one coming, Maya! Read your mind..Ah yes. And here comes Shimon and Ron right now...Allow me to demonstrate my divine power!" Harken said bragging.

Akio fired off a bolt of lightning at Harken but it did nothing to him. "My body is immune to all but the strongest energy based attacks!It's hopeless to hurt me, Akio! All of you should just try to run away, give up on defeating me because I am a God!"

He charged up his energy and created a huge sphere of dark energy. He tossed it right at the remains of the entrance to the HQ, it exploded and caused it to cave in. Killing Shimon and Ron before they could even get out. He attacked again with another blast, causing a great explosion near the entrance once more to insure they had died. Harken laughed like a madman as he attacked the cave's entrance a third time. Harken loved overkill.

This greatly angered all the members of the Underworld Guard as they all attacked Harken with various energy techniques, nothing worked.

Carla began charging up her energy as she thought, "Lowe.. You gave your life for this world!!! I won't let your sacrifice be in vain..And Shimon and Ron, comrades..You didn't get a chance to fight this monster because of his cowardice..."

"AHAHAHA! Oh what a bore. None of you can hurt me, make me flinch or even surprise me! What fun is this? I wanted a challenge! But I guess mortals can't hope to defeat a GOD like myself!Not to worry, I will defeat Shini, I will become a savior to all who live, I will destroy the surface world and rule over the Underworld for all time! Now Rondo, FINISH THEM! They're all on one side, it's perfect!"

Rondo fired off a huge horizontal laser beam at the the Underworld Guard members. Maya however charged up a great deal of energy and held out her light hand and shouted, "Wall Barrier!" she created a huge barrier that was destroyed but absorbed the entire beam before it went down.

Harken looked angered as he told Rondo, "RONDO! You cannot fail me again, use all your energy at once, just kill them! I want to watch them scream! I am too great to dirty my hands fighting mortals and inferorites!"

Looking around, Harken saw the anger on the Underworld Guard Member's faces, they continued to attack him except for Carla.

"What's wrong? I did them a favor by killing them! The weak and the crippled will be the first to die! They have no place in my Underworld!" Harken declared.

Carla released all her charged energy. Due to all the time Harken was distracted and talking for so long, she had a great deal of it. She created two giant rifles of dark energy and aimed them right at Rondo, Harken and Erika. Before she fired them, she created several energy grenades and tossed them at Rondo, Harken and Erika, creating several explosions and providing as a distraction as the dust stirred up clouded their vision. Then she removed her eye-patch and fired off fifteen beams from both her eyes at the three villains. Erika was hit as was Rondo.
She then fired off the two large energy rifles, releasing two separate beams from each, one beam was a soul destroying one colored green, the other beam was one of dark energy.

"The Last Barrage! This is for you, Lowe and everyone else! Our comrades, our allies from the surface and the people of the Underworld!" Carla shouted.

Erika tried to put up a barrier but the attack went right through it, Harken grabbed Erika and teleported away.

"OH SHIT!" Rondo called out as he couldn't avoid the attack. Rondo was vaporized and his soul destroyed by the green blast. Nothing of him remained after the attack.

"Dead." Carla said simply.

Kiyoshi panicked as Carla looked him in the eyes with murderous intent, she recognized him as the one of the people who destroyed her village and killed her family.

Kiyoshi begged, "What? Wh-whwhat? I am a holy man, why must you ki-"

Carla materialized a rifle with a bayonet attached to it. She stabbed it right through Kiyoshi's chest, killing him with ease. "Dead." She added calmly as she smiled.

Harken and Erika teleported back into the area. Harken healed Erika with his energy and laughed, "Oh..That was impressive destroying Rondo's soul and all but it didn't even hit me! A shame, you must have used up everything you had by now! I see I cannot rely on Kiyoshi to defeat you, so I will not revive him again. I will have to dirty my pure hands killing the weak! Who's first to die? Hmm...How about those two, Erika? The wind beast and the fire beast..Alroy and Nora!"

Erika wasn't sure what to say she simply told Harken, "Yes, they're best to get rid of. Their powers could be d-" Harken interrupted her.

"So be it! You two die first!" Harken began to charge up his energy.

Nora and Alroy charged at Harken. They realized they couldn't survive if he hit them and they realized they could not stop his charging.

"Energy..Talons!" Alroy created two energy talons on his feet and grabbed a hold of Harken with them. Nora jumped onto Alroy's back as he carried Harken into the air.

Maya began to cry, "No. You don't have to do this! You were all my children.. You..You don't have to do this!!!"

Harken laughed as he said, "Oh this kind of thing again. Go ahead and try! It's all for nothing. You people amuse me, throwing away your lives for a lost cause! An airlift of death ahaha, very creative but it won't do me in!!"

"Lost cause? Killing you is no lost cause! This is goodbye, everyone!" Nora called out. She used all energy and created a gigantic explosion in the air before Harken could break free from Alroy.
As the explosion cleared, only Harken remained. He fell to the ground. His arms and legs had been blown off. He was no longer breathing and the sound of his heart stopped.

"Lord Harken!" Erika called out. She covered her eyes in disgust. Before she could revive him, Maya furiously attacked and punched Erika brutally. Maya yelled at Erika, "You..Your crime is unforgivable! Bringing this man back to life! I don't care why you do it, you have to die now!"

Harken began to move as he grew new arms and legs. He teleported and punched Maya, sending her hurling away.

"Ahahaha! I just was playing dead there, that's all. That was impressive...Very good. I think I'll go after the twins now. Ah yes. Two water beasts..Very beautiful, but you'll look far more pretty when you're dead, unable to resist me! Everything is better with twins! Ahahaha! Allow me to double the pain!" Harken boasted.

Everyone was shocked and upset at how he had survived. He truly seemed immortal. Akio and Carla rushed to help Maya up.

"Ready Marie? This is it... We're going to hit him with everything at once!" Mary stated. Marie nodded, "Yes..We can't hold back..."

Harken looked amuse as he stood perfectly still waiting for them to attack. "Oh my wings are perfectly intact, stained my blood but intact. Excellent." He said to himself aloud.

Marie and Mary both created a furry of serpents made of water energy that all headed for Harken. "Twin Serpent Storm!"

Harken was hit by the technique and most of his body except his head was frozen by the cold temperatures of the water energy. The water serpents ate his arms but Harken laughed during the whole thing.

"That's good but I'm better! Witness evolution itself! The future of dark beasts! I can use my energy to alter my own body!!!!" Harken broke out of the ice, sprouted new arms. He then proceeded to grow more arms, he now had six arms! He grabbed the remaining water serpents and destroyed them by crushing them.

He then teleported behind the twins and began to choke them to death with his arms.

Akio, Maya and Carla ran towards Harken and they tried to break his hold on Mary and Marie. But it was useless as well, none the less they continued trying to cut into Harken's arms.

"Oh what's this? Mary has some interesting last words..Speak up! SPEAK before you DIE! Add to the tragedy! I love it!" Harken ordered Mary. She refused. He tightened his hold on Marie and make her scream in pain.

"If you don't say it aloud....She's going to be dead very soon. I might let her go though if you continue on with what you were about to say." Harken warned Mary.

Mary then reluctantly spoke, "Akio. I love y--" Harken then snapped the necks of both Mary and Marie with his arms, killing them. He then tossed them to the ground.

Harken burst out laughing after all was said and done. "Oh how pathetic! You never picked up on it, that's why she had to confess! Oh but she's dead, a lot of a good a dead woman's love will you do! Don't worry, maybe I'll spare your souls if you surrender to me! Then you can maybe see them again. Oh I'm so sorry for killing all your friends, really I am. I just find this is the only way to get my entertainment!"

Maya, Akio and Carla filled with rage and sorrow. Akio seemed to be the most distressed of them all right now. But they had to have a way of defeating him, a plan. Yet Harken could read their minds, how could they plan anything that would work?

"This is how total victory is achieved, kill everyone your enemy knows, everyone they love, anyone related to them, even if they defeat you, what good is peace? What good is it without the ones you love? AHAHAHA! You'll have an empty victory even if you beat me, almost everyone you've known and loved are dead! You've all no reason to exist, no reason to carry on in this world! You'll all wish to kill yourselves even if you beat me! There will be no celebrations if you kill me, only funerals, all your friends are dead! AHAHA!! Everyone you know and love will soon disappear from your lives and leave you hollow on the inside! That's your weakness, I've figured it out! Taste despair, it's over! I win even if you kill me!!!" He laughed at the trio.

Maya shouted at Harken, "No! We will carry on our fight! Even if it's just the three of us..Even if the others don't make it out anytime soon. We have to. So no one else has to suffer like this! I've almost everything again, the children I raised whom choose to join the Underworld Guard. They were like my own! You took my own flesh and blood children from me as well Harken! It ends here! No more!" She wiped away her tears.

Carla nodded and added, "So many good people died today...Lowe..Shimon..Ron. Nora. Alroy. Mary and Marie. Surrender is no way to honor them! It's time to put evil men in the ground today instead! It's your time to die, Harken!"

Akio was in tears. "First my brother...And now my comrades..And even Mary...She loved me...I didn't realize it. If only I had, I appreciate all she's done for me and I would have returned such feelings! I will not give up! We've got one last way to beat you..And I'm going to try it even if it's the end of me!"

He remembered the scroll he got from Ron. He recited an ice beast incantation. Soon he felt his energy and strength double as an golden aura formed around him. Akio's eyes looked rabid.

"Oh this..How amusing. Using that technique. You're going berserk, you might even attack your own allies once you finish me off and you'll probably kill them too! How hilarious! AHAHAH! You've lost yourself just to try to defeat me? So sad! SO SAD! He could lose his soul using that technique! AHAHA! He'll become a new Monarch of the Underworld, a mindless and soulless servant!" Akio charged and swung his claws at Harken, managing to cut him.

"AKIO! Get a hold of yourself! You could beat him...If you just were yourself...You can't beat him without thinking! Instinct alone isn't enough.." Maya called out.

Harken laughed as he tried to control Akio's mind with his psychic energy. "Ahahha..Oh I'll just make him my servant now..This is wonderful! Oh such a happy day!"

Before such a technique could work, Akio heard the voices of Alroy, Nora, Mary and Marie and even Lowe.

The voices spoke, "Don't give in...Akio, you don't have to fight all alone. Carla and Maya can help you. And we can as well...Just please, snap out of it! Don't lose yourself! Don't ever change! Knock him dead, Akio! Give him a world class beating for us! Brother, please defeat him and look after
everyone for me!"

Mary's voice said to Akio, "I didn't fall in love with someone who's a weak guy...Akio, fight it!!!!Take this! This is all we can do for you now! We'll save you..Now work with Maya and Carla, you can beat him Akio!"

A mysterious sphere of energy was absorbed into Akio, as soon as it hit him he regained control of himself.

"Everyone..You're right...Thank you for saving me...I shouldn't have taken such a risk...But thanks to you all..It was worth it! Everyone...This for you!" Akio thought. He then signaled Maya and Carla to help him. He charged his energy and whispered to them.

Harken looked shocked, "This is insanity! He can't be in control and still have that power!!! That's impossible! How can my mind control be stopped so easily? WHY ARE YOU SO DAMN CONFIDENT?"

"Our comrades..They did this..They saved me..The memories of our comrades live on now! I know what to do!!!!! Their energy..They gave it to me for this! Storm of Souls!!! Everyone's power combined!" Akio spoke in a thunderous tone that stunned and shocked Harken.

Akio created a several large thunder clouds above Harken. It struck him seven times and managed to paralyze him. Erika ran away for cover as Harken urged her to escape.

"Shimon's Holy Barrier Rush!" Akio simply said. He created a light barrier around himself and charged at Harken, each time he got close and touched Harken the barrier electrocuted him violently with light energy.

The thunder clouds released some rain then zapped Harken several times again.

Harken winced in pain and said, "Wh-whwat is this??? Am I hallucinating? I see them...The spirits of his comrades around them! But how can you use energy? ITS IMPOSSIBLE!"

"Ron's Ice Cold Smash!!" Akio created a large block of ice and dropped it on Harken, breaking it. He repeated the process two more times, smashing them in Harken's face and getting sharp shards of ice in Harken's eyes and then froze Harken with a breathe of ice.

"Alroy's Cyclone Toss!" Akio created a huge cyclone and send it hurling towards Harken, it pulled Harken, lifted him high into the high and then dropped him violently.

"Nora's Lava Blazer!" Maya created a few energy grenades and once she tossed them, they released lava on Harken and hardened. She then released a flamethrower like breathe out of her mouth that horribly burned Harken's flesh, despite him being a dark beast the heat was too intense. Akio then signaled Carlin.

Harken screamed out in pain. "AHHHHHHHHHH MY FLESH!! That sphere gave you this power! Maya just intimated that attacks with dark energy instead of fire energ-"

Carlin nodded. "Lowe's Stone Fists!" She used most of her remaining energy and created stone fists of dark energy, she slammed Harken in between the fists and crushed him.

Harken's body was barley holding together now he couldn't seem to move and was losing consciousness.

"Mary And Marie's Twin Serpent storm!" Akio created several serpents of water energy that began to devour Harken, eating away his arms, wings and legs with ease. However, the serpents faded before they finished him off. He then signaled Maya.

Harken could not even scream now. He coughed up blood and struggled to try to move so he could escape.

"My own... Goddess and Devil!"Maya used her Goddess and Devil attack, she punched a hole right through Harken's chest but she could not grab his soul with her other hand.

"Eye laser barrage!" Carla fired off several eye beams at Harken's body, searing his flesh easily.

"And now. Electric sphere!! It's over, Harken!!! Time to pay for your crimes!" Akio said.

Akio then concluded the attack with his own technique, trapping what remained of Harken's body in an electric sphere. Inside the spear, lightning began to strike and electrocute Harken's body repetitively. It vaporized Harken's body as with around fifty lightning bolts inside the sphere. Nothing was left, not even ashes.

"Everyone's techniques, everyone's power! They were enough to defeat him, you guys were strong!! Thank you, everyone. You can rest now..We've avenged you all." Akio said aloud.

It was now silent. Erika was horrified that Harken had been killed. Akio, Carla and Maya were exhausted.

"Perfect Recreation and regeneration!! A god like myself cannot die as long as his soul lives! That was most impressive but you all lack the energy to pull it off again! You can't catch my soul even if you try! Ahahaha! It's impossible to beat me!!!" Harken was fully restored and had a new body this time, similar to his old one but with no wounds.

Akio, Maya and Carla looked crushed and upset to see Harken was alive again.

Before Harken could attack. He discovered he was impaled with spikes of ice energy in his chest. Jackal and Mia had arrived!

Jackal held Harken in place as Mia finished her curse incantation. Jackal then let go and moved away. Mia finished and hit Harken with a cursed blast of ice energy, it released some powder into his eyes and it blinded him temporarily.

Before they left. Jackal quickly said sincerely, "You and your comrades have done well. True heroes of the Underworld! You destroyed his body, that's just what we needed for time to sneak up on him. It's good to see people fighting for their own World without expecting us to do all their fighting for them. Because of you, there is now a chance of defeating Harken! If you kill him and destroy his soul, he'll be dead for good! We'll bring in some reinforcements shortly."

He laughed at how feeble Harken looked, trying to get the icey powder out of his eyes.

Mia and Jackal then teleported away. Harken was filled with anger. He recovered and was no longer blind.

"What did they do to me??? This...What technique was that? Why can I not remember? Why can't I read their minds?? Enough! I shall turn back time to before my body was destroyed! Time itself, I command you to turn back the clock!!!Ten minutes ago!" Harken yelled.

"So they finally got involved. The King and Queen of the Underworld..They haven't abandoned us." Carla thought.

Nothing happened. His abilities were sealed, including time energy.

"WHAT? What is this insanity? AHHHHHH! The whore and the bastard of the Underworld have defied me?! JACKAAAAAAAAAAAL! What have you done to this God? This treachery, I will kill your children in the most horrific ways possible once I dispose of these inferorites! Erika stay close to me...I may need your services...I must find a way to get into the sealed realm. I must find more energy to undo what has been done to me!!!! But I must kill these fools first! No one humiliates me and gets away with it!" Harken yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Oh but I am still great. My dark energy..My natural ability, they cannot take that away! It is still enhanced by Arlon's power! I don't need other forms of energy when I can just destroy you, I am still a God!"

Akio launched a lightning bolt at Erika as a distraction with the last of his energy. He fled into the Raven with Maya and Carla.

"AHHH! Lord Harken..Urgh." Erika looked weak and badly hurt. Harken healed her and told her, "WOMAN! What have you done? Because I wasted time to heal you, they've gotten away!!! Where are they hiding now?"

He looked up in the air and saw the Raven soaring above him. It began to fire beams of energy on Harken and Erika. Erika put up a barrier. "I apologize my lord but we have to go, they'll kill us like this!"

"Inferorites! Out of energy and out of luck so they're hoping to try and kill me with that? AHAHAH! My body is still as strong as it was before the curse!" Harken boasted.

Akio shouted out the window of the airship, "You gotta catch us first, you failed god, you goddamn crybaby! Go ahead and whine about losing godly powers, powers don't mean anything in this world if you're fighting for selfish reasons! People are what matter! So sincerely, fuck you! Come and get us if you can! We're not running, we're going to humiliate and violate you again! Glory to the Underworld Guard, to our comrades! We'll defy you to the end!"

Harken looked upset as he tried to fire dark energy blasts at the ship but missed it due to it's speed. He shook his fist at the ship as he growled.

The ship then flew very low to the ground and nearly crushed Harken and Erika. Harken teleported away to dodge it.

"Lowe..Forgive me for flying so recklessly, if your ship is trashed, I will fix it and make it better than before! But right now..Stalling him is all we can do. I just hope the others get here soon." Carla thought to herself. She was piloting the Raven.

Maya was worn out. She said, "Urgh. I trust you two to do what's right.. We most likely cannot defeat him at this point, but the others can. We can just divert his attention until they get here...I hate Harken..For all he's done, he's killed my husband, my children and my adopted children except for you Akio and Juila..But I won't let revenge consume me...We have to act logically to kill him. So fire on him but hold back the weapons so we can stall him for as long as possible....I'll be fine..I just need to rest..That attack of mine always takes a lot out of me. I'm just glad Jackal and Mia saved us.. I just wish they could have done it sooner so as they could have saved the others...But apparently they couldn't have had a shot at him without Harken being killed first, that took out his mind reading for a bit." She looked cried a bit but wiped her tears.

Akio comforted Maya as he told her, "Let's not dwell on it. It's going to be allright, mom. They didn't die meaninglessly, Harken can be defeated once and for all now! Thanks to their efforts and ours. We have some hope left! And if we can recover our energy again somehow....Might be able to hit him again with that attack..That sphere gave me the ability to use their techniques, permanently.. That's another back up plan we can have..Unless Harken goes back into the Sealed Realm and tries to get more of that energy, we'll be fine. He can't get in there with us bombarding him like this!"

Harken ordered his dark beasts surrounding the fortress, "Shoot down that ship and kill everyone inside it!! I will charge up a blast and kill them all myself if you fail! Ahahaha...These pests think they've got the best of me oh they are so wrong. I love to give my enemies hope just to snatch it all away from them! Ahaha. I still have my wings after all..I just need to charge up a bit longer and they'll be done for!"

The Raven began to attack the ground, firing all sorts of ammunition down onto the ground, causing Harken to have to teleport and thus interrupting his charge. "You flying inferorites! Why do you insist on trying to stop a God? When will you ever learn? You are delaying the inevitable!"

Carla caused the ship to fly low once again. Akio spat right into Harken's eyes and shot him in the face with some remaining energy in the form of a lightning bolt. It was a show of defiance.

Akio laughed and shouted, "We don't respect you or see you as formidable enemy, just a sleezy coward! In a real fight without your stolen godly powers from Arlon, our comrades would have slaughtered you! We all would have! We fight for a better future without a tyrant oppressing the people of the Underworld, that's what we have to look forward to once you are dead! That's why we won't lay down and succumb to hopelessness! We'll dog you until you're dead, you hear me?"

The Raven rose back up in the air. Harken was filled with rage. This diversion was hopefully enough for the others to get out in time before Harken could think to attack them.

*Harken's castle exterior*

Kraw had made his way down the fortress by climbing it and making use of his axe . He was ready to face off against Harken, however a group of ten dark beasts found him.
"It's a demon, with human blood from the smell of it! Let's eat him! Harken wants us to shoot down that ship but this guy probably wants to kill em alive! He's looking delicious. Magically delicious!" The dark beast commented.
Kraw shook his head in disgust, "We're all reptiles here, why do we have to fight? Why do you have to hate me, huh? Did us folks from the surface really cause all your suffering? Did you ever stop to think about what you're doing? Look at me, I face the same kind of shit you guys have to go through, people calling me an ugly lizard and all that. We're brothers in a way..Maybe distant cousins if you think about it. Eating me would be cannibalism you know!!"

The dark beasts began to talk amongst themselves. Kraw grinned and readied his energy.

They decided, "It's a trick! Lord Harken is our master and he hates all inferior races! That's why you must die, who cares if we're all reptiles, you are a pathetic reptile with human blood! YOU DIE NOW!"

A dark beast swung his claw at Kraw only to have his hand chopped off by Kraw's axe. He screamed out in pain and ran behind a few other dark beasts.

Kraw sighed, "I figured this'd happen. Well I warned you guys..You could have just moved out of the way and let me kill your master, but no, you had to make things difficult! You could have helped me out and I'd have gave you less painful deaths! Heh but you guys just like it rough, apparently!"

With that, Kraw began to fight with the dark beasts in his way, hoping to clear the path to Harken.

*Harken's fortress, throne room*

Even though Harken's psychic energy was gone, his control of Helen remained. She continued to attack Nina and Neil. Nina attacked Helen, whipping her furiously with her blade but finding the attack wasn't hurting Helen too much.

She tossed off her energy tomahawk at Nina, Nina managed to dodge it but barley. Helen then tried to spray both Nina and Neil with a paralyzing breathe attack, but it missed them.

"It's hopeless, you two!! God Harken rules all...The Zaka Clan is an everlasting empire from this day forward!" Helen yelled.

Neil created large ice claws as he ran towards Helen and slashed at her. Helen took minimal damage and regenerated her cut wounds.

"That's not enough? Those ice claws were more powerful than the regular ones....I really have to think of something to beat her..If I could enter the Crystal Beats form....That could do it.." Neil thought to himself.

Nina used all her might and managed to cut Helen several times with her blade whip. Helen just laughed it off.

"You two aren't fooling anyone. You can't kill me at this rate!!!! I'll just end this here so I can join my father now!" Helen declared.

She then began to emit a poisonous breathe. Neil and Nina avoided the attack one more but barley. She then created two tomahawks and tossed them off at Neil and Nina.

Neil blocked both of them with a huge wall of ice he created hastily.

"I can't activate the forum until being near-death...But she could possibly kill us in one shot. I can't risk it.. There's only one sort of thing I can do." Neil thought.

He used his energy and fired off a energy blast through the hole Harken made. He manipulated it to make it fly high into the sky and then explode loudly into several shards of ice. It was meant as a distress signal or at least a signal to show a fight was going on in the Zaka Clan Fortress. Neil hoped someone would see it and help them fight Helen Zaka.

Nina thought to herself, "That attack..He's signaling for help...But is there even anyone left out there after all those blasts we heard?"

Helen then set her sights on Atoshi as she prepared to grab him. Nina and Neil blocked Helen off before she could.

"He's dead weight at this point! You're better off letting me have him and kill him now!!! You can't protect him AND defeat me, you know! It's one or the other! Look at your wounds, you're doomed!!! And I won't let Neil heal the wounds! You're all dead!" Helen boasted.

Nina said angrily, "He's my brother and Neil's friend! We're not letting you kill him! He gave his all in that fight against Leo! You're not Helen, just Harken's slave now!"

"What would Nile think if he saw his birth mother like this? It'd make him cry...Being twisted...Being used by the father who was responsible for so much pain in your life...The only humane thing to do is kill you so you won't be used Harken's slave for all eternity!!!" Neil said decisively. He was also rather angry and worked up.

Helen laughed as she said, "Tell you what. I'm ready to end this here and now...You've got 60 seconds to live, all of you!!! I suggest you try to run, it'll be much more fun that way." She began to charge her energy and once a minute was up, she'd unleash an devastating attack to attempt to kill Atoshi, Neil and Nina!

 

[Pirogeth]

-Harken's Castle, Throne Room

The attack was charging and the time limit enforced. Neil and Nina had no choice but to protect Atoshi from what devastating force she had coming up. Only seconds left to go and they braced themselves for the impact generating what shielding they could with their weapons. "Time is up! Hell Fission!" A dark energy wave started a massive reaction in the room. The power behind it was enough to send the ceiling upward and destroy most of the room. As the rubble still crumbled down the side of the fortress and the ceiling landed somewhere in town the aftermath was revealed. The light shown lit up the floor, which was still left, and the few bricks lining the bottom of each of the walls. This was now the highest point in the whole structure after taking a quick look around. Helen was laughing believing she had won. "Hahaha! I told you, you all should have ran away from this attack. I wanted to at least see charred remains but you entirely disintegrated!" Her gloating was soon put to an end as the smoke cleared on one side of the room.
"I would not call us useless yet." Neil said looking mildly hurt from the explosion. Nina took a few steps forward as well looking much better than Neil.
"His ice barrier saved us." Nina said readying her weapon. Now she was more concerned about Neil and his condition. The barrier he put up absorbed a lot of energy and at the same time he had to use that much energy to make sure it did not crumble away. "You alright Neil?" She asked.
"I-I'll be fine." Neil said preparing his ice claws.
"Even after all that you still think you can defeat me? Well I have somewhat of a surprise for you, I do not just use that Tamohawk." Helen began charging energy again. This time Neil and Nina did not want to see the end result. They rushed forward attacking her with their weapons. Neil tried to dig in with his claws but they were shattered when scratching across her back. Nina took a stab with her chain blade in her shoulder but barely left an indentation. "You see my body is impenetrable by your weak and feeble attacks. Even if you did get me to my Final Beast form you all would not be much of a match for me." Helen said laughing again. The two tried once again to attack, even though Helen was now fully charged. He went in for another attack at her back putting more power into his claws. Still nothing and even an added surprise. A spike shot out from Helen's back. The spike was made of her own dark energy. Luckily Neil dodged it.
"What the hell was that?" Nina asked watching the object fly off the top of the castle.
"Those are spikes I can make out of dark energy. Not only will they impale you but any small scratch they give will poison you. The type of poison is not up to me, you could be blinded, or you could just be on the ground clutching your wound from a small sting." Helen said with a smile on her face. Twelve more spikes were created and Helen shot all of them out at once. Nina dodged each on headed her way hoping none would clip her. Neil tried creating his own barrier of ice but the spikes went straight through like it was not even there. Neil had only seconds to dodge the spike that made it through. It was lodged into the ground only a few feet away. As it did so the floor began to melt away along with the dark energy.
"That was a close call." Neil said turning back over to Helen. Once he set eyes on her again he saw another set of spikes ready to shoot out. This time when she launched Neil was barely prepared. He dodged to his left and leaped to take cover from some mid height ones. Nina whipped a few off course and dodged the rest she did not whip.
"I could keep this up all day but let's make it a bit more interesting." Helen said producing the spikes again. This time their numbers were nearly tripled. As she loaded them into position she almost looked like a porcupine. Again she launched them and once again they were easily dodged, however, there was something she was not telling.
"Neil look out!" Nina yelled to Neil as she saw the spikes turn around and go after him. Turning around she saw the same thing. Materializing her wings she took flight in order to avoid these ones but they seemed to home in on her.
"These are my homing missiles. You should not take them lightly as you will run out of breath before they do." Neil jumped over his set and pummeled the whole group into the ground with a slab of ice. Nina began to once again whip them but aimed them towards the ground as she flew backwards trying to avoid the rest. She was breathing heavily as the last one was hit into the ground. "And now for my next trick, the ace up the sleeve." Helen said a spike coming out of her right wrist. This one was aimed directly at Atoshi. There was a stab and some drips could be heard. As Neil looked over across the room he saw what exactly happened. Nina had taken the blow for him.
"I will not….let Atoshi…die here." Nina said as the spike dissipated. There was a large hole in her stomach but no signs of agonizing pain.
"Damn it that one was a dud." Helen said now setting her attention on Neil. "I will not need much energy for just one target." She powered up her spikes again. They launched all towards Neil. "You silly little hckk" Helen found herself being choked by something. Nina was now holding onto her neck with her blade.
"Any normal person would have been dead when I tightened my grip. But you see, none of us here are normal people." Nina said smiling with a small bit of blood running off her chin. "Neil do it now!" Neil nodded as he ran towards Helen. He jumped over her and the spikes continued to home in. Finally every single one pierced Helen's body. She fell to the floor and Nina loosened her grip. Neil walked over to Nina looking at her wound.
"You think you will live?" Neil asked worried. Nina smiled and laughed.
"Hmhmhm. I'm a vampire, this is just a scratch. Neil you have a lovely woman for you. You should probably find her and live on."
"But Nina, if you stay in this condition any longer-"
"And what? I will just be ending up like the rest of my race. I'd at least like to live like them, and die like them, with honor every step of the way." Nina said.
"Touching speech but we are not done here." Helen said getting up, the spikes were slowly absorbed into her body.
"It can't be. Those things pierced your-"
"They were originally part of me you do not think they would harm me would you?" Helen said interrupting Neil.
"Neil…" Nina whispered. He came down by her to hear what she wanted to say. "Kick her sorry ass." Neil could not help but smile and nod. Nina's head drooped and Neil went cold. That was until he saw that she was still moving.
"D-don't worry. She is only sleeping, she's a tough girl." Atoshi said putting his arm around her back. "After all she is my sister." Neil was relieved and went back to fighting Helen. That was when two more figures appeared in what was left of the throne doorway.
"We are not going to let you fight this battle alone Neil, not by a long shot." The voice was Arisa's.
"And I cannot stand by anymore. I will prove to Kraw and myself that I am a capable fighter even in these dismal circumstances." Katsugi said standing ready with Arisa.
"At least this will make things interesting." Helen said. "Come now bring it on!"

-Underworld Guard HQ Remains

The lights were out but that was no problem for Alastor. The cave nearly caved in but did not quite. The rocks were very unstable as Alastor looked around. Dust fell from the ceiling every time there was a large attack made outside the cavern. "Alastor can you see?"
"Yes, I should have us out of here quickly." Alastor replied taking hold of Salika's hand. "It is a good thing Katsugi and Arisa decided to go off on their own business." He commented leading Salika down the hall. From the looks of things not many survived in this part of the HQ. Half of the bodies of the dark beasts laying around were underneath several tons of rubble. None of them were still breathing. There was a large shake and a few rocks fell out from the ceiling. Luckily it only blocked their path back to the start. "Things must be heating up out there."
"I hope nothing bad has happened." Salika said.
"Knowing the Underworld, if things are like this, worse things are always bound to follow." Alastor said still trying to find his way through the cave. It was not long before he made it to the cafeteria, which seemed pretty solid. Looking around he noticed that there were no survivors but there was a picture. It was in a frame sitting on one of the tables.
"Where are we going Alastor?" Salika asked as she felt him tug at her arm. Picking it up he looked at who was in the picture. It looked like a group of the leaders of this HQ. He noticed the back was open. Before he closed it he read the back. There were several different signatures. He read them off quietly.
"Mary, Marie, Alroy, Nora, Carla, Akio, Lowe, and Maya." Alastor closed the back and pocketed the picture.
"What was that Alastor?" Salika asked as her eyes started to adjust to the darkness.
"Just an old picture of some die hard comrades. I'm sure; someone will find this to be a treasure." Alastor said leading Salika across the cafeteria. It was not long before they saw light again. Lucky for them a part of the cave broke down from some the recent attacks. This part of the cave was close to the surface. Popping their heads out to get a look they saw Jackal and Mia ready to fight Harken and an airship drawing his attention. "Here Salika, please go off to Yomi City with this." He handed Salika the picture he had taken.
"But, why me? What are you planning on doing?"
"We can call it me making up for earlier." Alastor said as he headed toward the battle already causing sparks to fly. Salika really did not want to run away, not when Alastor could end up dead, but what choice did she have? If she stuck around she would die too and obviously Alastor knew that. So instead she settled for the solution in the middle, she hid behind some rocks and watched Alastor slowly approach the battlefield.

 

[King Weavel]

*Harken's castle*

Neil's morale went up as he saw Arisa and Katsugi had arrived. Arisa waved to Neil briefly and smiled at him.

Helen however, didn't give them a chance to start attacking right away. She fired off two spikes of energy, one at Arisa, the other at Katsugi. They both dodged them.

"Helen! I can tell you're not yourself....Harken is using you..But we can't get through to you..So you've left us no choice but to kill you..So you can be set free!" Arisa declared.

Arisa then began to charge up her dark energy. Katsugi pulled out her twin daggers.

"The Crystal Beast form..Even if I can activate it..I best save it for Harken..I don't know if Kraw can beat him alone...Or if there's anyone else out there to fight him.." Neil thought.
Helen tried to swing at Katsugi with her tomahawk as Katsugi attacked her but she failed to hit Katsugi.

"What's wrong, tired out?" Katsugi asked.

Helen said, "No..It's just that if I kill you, it ends all of my fun I don't want this to end so soon!"

Arisa released her energy in the form of a disc shaped blades of energy she held in her hands. She tossed them off at Helen, they changed and grew sharper, like buzzsaw blades. They landed and sawed through Helen's shoulders painfully. "Saw toss! How do you like that?" Arisa called out.

Helen said, "I must warn you all..The fun will end if you don't kill me soon.. I may enter my final beast form..And once that happens.. You're all doomed....You best try to seal the deal now!!!!Hehehe!"

Katsugi and Arisa were not going to stop just because of Helen's threat. Neil soon made his way over and had charged a good up a good deal of his remaining energy.

"I think this you will have a harder time avoiding. Ahaahaha!" Helen used her energy on the ground and caused many spikes to pop out of the ground underneath Arisa and Katsugi.

Once again, the two dodged but barley. The spikes vanished as soon as they failed to impale either of the girls.

"A shame to have impale such beautiful women. A waste that you dodged this time too. And now Neil is joining..But I doubt he can keep up if I make them even faster!" Helen boasted.

"My dad's technique..This would be a good time to use it!" Neil thought.

Neil used a large amount of energy and created a large glacier, but he had to hold back on making it too large so he wouldn't risk hitting his allies. Glacier Crusher!!!"

He lifted it and then smashed it onto Helen, managing to shatter quite a few of her minor bones and nearly knocking her out in the process.

"Oh very nice, Neil..BUT NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO KILL ME!" Helen was about to attack before Katsugi interrupted her with a kick, she then spun around and slashed Helen multiple times with her twin daggers, burning Helen as she channeled fire into them. She then kicked Helen into the air with all her might.

She then called out, "Blazing Aura!" Flames began to circle around Katsugi as she attacked Helen in the air with her twin daggers. Some of the flames burned Helen greatly. Katsugi ended her attack with a stab to Helen's neck, hoping to finish her off.

Helen fell to the ground after the attack. Looking extremely weak and looking burned.

"Hehehe..HEHEHEHEH! Thank you, Beautiful Katsugi. Time for my..Final Beast form!!!"


She transformed before any of the others could react or try to finish her off. She grew three heads and changed to be rather snake like in appearance, losing her legs and now moving by slithering. All of the heads faced forwards, thus attacks from behind Helen could not be seen by them unless she turned around.

"The Hydra Beast..Neil and Arisa think they know everything about it..But kitty cat, you do not! Ahahahah!"

Katsugi impulsively swung at Helen with her twin daggers. Helen laughed as her middle head saw the attack and imitated it, creating two daggers of energy. She then channeled fire into them. She swung at Katsugi briefly but Katsugi dodged.

"Katsugi!!!! Don't let her see your attacks! That head can counter and imitate them!" Arisa told Katsugi. She nodded.

She looked at Neil and slithered towards him, thinking to use the fire daggers to kill him. Arisa blocked Helen off. Arisa created a few yo-yos of dark energy and made blades grow on them. She swung them at Helen's heads, hoping to cut one off. But Helen saw the attack and countered, swinging sharp yo-yos back at Arisa. Arisa barley dodged them as she gave up on attacking Helen for now, dematerializing her yo-yos.

"Follow your own advice, stupid beast! You're all done for at this rate!But I think this certainly more fair. Three heads vs three people! Don't you think?" Helen questioned.

She created two tomahawks in her hands while her left head began to charge up energy for an attack.

"Also, Arisa.. You forgot this..While my left head can attack with me! It's like having an ally in this battle!" Helen lectured.

Helen tossed off her tomahawks at Arisa. Neil moved in front of her so the tomahawks would hit him and the barrier he was about to generate but Arisa jumped in front of him and took the attacks herself. The axes cut into her shoulders but the cuts were minor as the tomahawks did not dig in deep. Arisa pulled the axes out.

"My Neil..Please..Don't put yourself at risk...You might not have been able to set up that barrier in time..I appreciate how you wanted to protect me but..You're more important right now to die on me! Don't push yourself too hard like that..Save your energy for an attack. I'm tough, Neil.. I can handle attacks like these better than you can!"

Neil told Arisa, "Arisa..Thank you. Maybe I was in a bit over my head trying to block that.."

Arisa replied, "No need to say thanks, my Neil! I know you must have been dealing with a lot in here..You guys looked hurt, really-"

"How touching. The lovers, forgetting this a battle and leaving themselves open! So now you're.. ABOUT TO DIE!" Helen interrupted. Her left head finished charging. Katsugi snuck up behind it and cut into it with her daggers.

"You're the one who left yourself open.!You spaced out there and forgot about me, Helen! I'm tough in my own right! You're making a mistake trying to ignore me!" Katsugi taunted Helen as she continued to assault Helen's left head.

"Oh how right you are but you forget..STUPIDTY KILLED THE CAT! AHAHAHA!" Helen quickly turned around as her third head fired off an immense energy beam, Katsugi only survived by a hair when she ducked from it.

Katsugi disapproved and corrected Helen, "That was curiosity that killed the cat, you psycho bitch! I'm not simply a cat. I'm half human, half demon! A cat like half demon. Get it right next time!"

Helen boasted, "Oh you fool, it doesn't matter, you are merely like a cat compared to my power..You'll need more to cut my heads off than that strength! Hehehe. I won't let you sneak up on me again.. So come on, try to attack me. I want to see just what you all can muster..But even if you pull something great off, I can just counter it!"

She took on a defensive stance as she stood still briefly. However, her left head once again began to charge energy up for another attack. She stood up against a castle wall, thus not allowing an attack to sneak attack her.

Neil looked nearly out of ice energy. Arisa and Katsugi had some fight left in them but it was looking bleak as Helen. However, Helen was left Atoshi and Nina alone.

*Soma Plains, near the Underworld Guard HQ ruins*

Harken had not attacked Katsugi or Arisa as he saw them pass earilier and he ordered his guard to hold their positions and let them as he did take them seriously. Also, Jackal and Mia were intimidating him, staring him down but not doing anything themselves. He hesitated to harm Arisa and Katsugi and missed his chance.

"What are you doing? Trying to save those fools in the ship by distracting me? And I will kill Arisa next time I see her, I want you to see it when I spill her blood!! That cat inferorite is nothing to my power so I don't care, you couldn't have been protecting her!" Harken boasted.

Mia and Jackal stood perfectly still. A few dark beasts had stopped firing on the Raven.

One of the dark beasts walked close to Mia and said, "She's the weakest here! We can kill her right now! She and Jackal are paralyzed with fear!!! Let's tear her apart! A shame to kill something so beautiful! But for God Harken's praise, we must!"

Before the dark beasts could move closer, Mia released tiny energy darts out of her mouth. They hit the dark beasts and dug into their chests. The darts then released energy that froze the dark beast's hearts, killing them. The other dark beasts pulled back.

Mia sighed, "Weaklings. It's suicide for you to even try to touch me...Don't even get any ideas!"

"You! Don't you under-estimate these ones! Keep trying to shoot down the ship! I can handle these two, I am a God!!!! Do not interfere! We are here to worship me, Harken! Not to watch these fools grand-stand and humiliate the Zaka Clan!" Harken commanded.

He looked into Jackal's eyes and asked him, "Why are you here?? If you are so strong, why can you not kill me already? I bet you can't!"

Jackal released some energy in a the form of a strange breathe attack he aimed at some of the closet dark beasts. It didn't seem effective against them. But little did they know, they breathed in some of his energy.

"What the hell are you doing? What was that even suppose to be? So WEAK!" Harken laughed.

However, some of the effected dark beasts began to act erratic. One strangled himself to death, a few others ran over to the Lornz River and drowned themselves. Two dark beasts ran up behind Harken and tried to kill him. Harken dodged them and snapped their necks.

"Mind control. True mind control." Jackal commented simply as he smirked at the sight of seeing Harken's men kill themselves.

Harken looked frustrated as he told Jackal and Mia, "SPEAK! SPEAK DAMMIT! What are you doing? I thought you wouldn't get involved!!! Make up your damn minds!!! You're afraid of me and you know it!"

"Not at all, Harken. However, now that I've got your attention, Harken. We're here to ask you surrender now. One last chance. We have grown weary of blood-shed as of late. You can't win like this and if you try to take anymore of Arlon's energy, it will take it's toll. Heed this warning or you will suffer even greater than any of your victims combined! Give up and I'll kill you now instead of prolonging this. The Underworld should not lose anymore great men and women like those you killed earlier." Jackal warned Harken.

Harken burst out laughing. "Oh you're threating me? Who's the God here? Not you or that ice beast wench! I'll gut your childr-"

Jackal released some energy from his hand and created a black hole right on Harken's face, it ripped off some of his flesh and his right eye before disappearing. Harken screamed as he struggled to regenerate his flesh. Jackal laughed loudly but quickly returned to a straight face as Mia spoke.

"You'll not harm us or our children or get near them!The Underworld formally declares war on you, Harken Zaka! That is why we came..To see if you had any shred of reason left to surrender after we sealed your greatest powers but apparently you do not." Mia informed Harken.

Harken screamed as grew a new right eye and what remained of his flesh. He then said, "I don't give a damn! I own the Underworld, not you!! You don't have an army or anything of that sort!!!! Just empty threats and bluffs from cowards!"

"If only you knew what we were planning all this time. You really should have listened. But it's good you've made your choice. You shall have this war you want so much, Harken. Now me and my queen have business to attend to. Farewell...But we may see each other one last time, Harken!" With that, Jackal and Mia departed, teleporting away.
He decided, "This is getting us nowhere, all of you beasts, all of you who serve me, distract the ship!!! I'll get into the sealed realm now and take whatever energy is left!!!Something or someone must have been interfering, there must be more! Those two gave it away!"

The dark beasts nodded. Erika then asked, "Lord Harken..What about me?"

He cringed as he told her,"You follow me this time!!! Something isn't right here...Those fools were too happy..Their smirks..Their confidence..I want to destroy it all!!! So escort me into there, you will be my shield! Now..I shall open the door!"

The Raven was fully out of ammo now. No bombs, no elemental energy beams it could fire or anything else.

"Shit...Looks like we can't do anything else with this ship." Carla commented.

Akio spoke, "Well..I may not have much energy left...But I can fight physically..But what about you, Maya?"

Maya told Akio, "I will gladly help. I hate Harken and the Zaka Clan for all they've done to me and everyone else..Everyone he's killed. I don't care if I'm out of energy, we have to continue this fight! The others will get out of the rubble..I know they will..We just have to hold out a bit longer!"

She got up and looked better than earlier where she was struggling to stay conscious. She had a few moments of rest after all but was totally out of energy.

She commanded Carla, "Land the ship somewhere safe but close." Carla nodded as she landed the ship.

Harken struggled to open the sealed realm as some of his minions questioned, "Harken! The airship is landing for some reason, do we peruse it? It's out of our range!"

Harken yelled, "They're running away! Don't bother, just secure the area! And begin to search the rubble, I don't want anymore survivors coming up to bother me!" The dark beasts began to scatter, some tried to secure the fortress area near Kraw, others went near the ruins of the Underworld Guard HQ.

Harken released a great deal of energy and tried to created a rift into the sealed realm but failed. "WHY WON"T YOU APPEAR? What is going on? What could be doing this? Who is interfering? Jackal and his snow white whore? WHOOOOO?"

Akio attacked Harken with blinding speed, going as fast as he could. Thunder beasts were second only to wind beasts in terms of speed but were faster on ground. He clawed Harken and bit into his back. He then pulled back and dodged as Harken noticed.
Erika tried to create a barrier as Akio escaped but was punched in the face by Maya.

"Why are you protecting this evil man?" Maya questioned.

"That's n-none of your business! I made a deal with him!" Erika told Maya. Maya resumed pummeling Erika.

Carla shot Harken in the back with a weak energy laser from afar. It served only to irritate him.

"YOU WORMS! I've had enough of you!!! When will you just die? It's over!!! No one is coming to save you!" He yelled.

Maya stomped on Erika as she had her on the ground and told her, "You're just a tool to this man! You just don't get it..Whatever reason you have, it doesn't justify it..."

Harken grabbed Maya and slammed her down on the ground with all his might. He then healed Erika. "Stop being a burden! You can't protect me if you're going to let people hurt you like this! Such a waste of my energy on saving your pitiful life!"

Maya got up with the help of Akio. The two of them then circled Harken. Akio jumped on him and clawed and bit into his neck while Maya began to punch Harken in the face.

Harken seemed to shrug off each blow. Carla joined in however, shredding and ripping off the end of Harken's tail with her claws.

"MINIONS!!!! New orders. Ahahaha.. I've got an idea how to make this interesting! Your attacks are all useless..But I'll at least give you all a fitting end. Your last stand was sooooo pathetic!" Harken boasted as he gathered a group of 30 dark beasts around him.

None the less, the trio continued to mercilessly attack Harken with all they had. They managed to hurt him and make him bleed. But he regenerated whenever they hurt him.

"Ok minions! Restrain these fools!" Akio and Carla avoided the dark beasts who tried to swarm them but they managed to capture Maya due to her exhaustion. It took ten beasts to restrain and surround her.

"Excellent. Now, Akio and Carla..Don't you move..Or I'll cut her open!" Harken threatened Akio and Carla. They listened for now.

Harken looked delighted. "Maya..Leader of the Underworld Guard. I read your mind. So I killed so many people important to you..Ahaha..I don't remember those people though, it kinda fades from my memory, I've killed..Let's see...I lost track of how many I killed. They were all weaklings, inferorites or just sad anyhow! Not like they mattered. The world is better without them."

Maya was filled with rage as she struggled to break free, "You bastard!!! You can't handle us by yourself.. So you resort to this!!!"

"Ahahaa..Everyone killed by me. Your husband, your children, your adopted children! All gone except for a few! All slaughtered!!!! Oh but there was one other you loved, another one you couldn't save.A troubled beast. You wanted to perhaps have a future with him due to your loneliness from all your loss. He's unhappy you let him die so I've figured why not bring him back? Why not give him a chance to take revenge?"

With his energy, Harken seemingly resurrected Roy. However, the eyes seemed different and he seemed unusually calm.

Maya shook her head as she looked upset. "NO! NO! That's not him! You're not fooling me! Roy never sold his soul to you, he never was loyal to you! He hated you and what you wanted to do with the Underworld! And I did all I could for him!!"

"Well you'll find out soon, believe me or not. How's this? To die by the hands of the man you loved and failed to help!!!! A fitting end to you. Ok, finish her Roy!!! Pierce a nice stomach hole through her with your anchors!! AHAHAHAHAHAH!Bye-bye, Maya, a truly weak and feeble woman who challenged a GOD and FAILED her comrades!!" Harken laughed.

"MOM!"Akio cried out. "Commander!" Carla called out. Akio and Carla ran towards the fake Roy to try to stop him as he charged his energy.

Suddenly, a large flare of fire energy was hurled at Harken, blinding him. The fake Roy disappeared as Harken lost control of it. It was made of dark energy!

As Harken recovered from his face being burned. He saw the dark beasts whom restrained Maya were dead or looking ashamed they had failed to hold her. He could not see Akio, Maya or Carla in sight.

A sandstorm suddenly began to brew.

"What the hell just happened? Did anyone see that? Who dares interfere in an EXECUTION?" Harken questioned.

"Figures moving closer from the South, Harken!" One of the dark beasts said before the sandstorm got too thick to really see through.

In a surprise attack, Maya, Carla and Akio killed several of the dark beasts whom had restrained Maya and the others. "ENOUGH! I'll do this myself! All of you, forget my previous orders, just guard the fortress!!! You'll only get in my way like this!"

With that, the remaining dark beasts left and ran off to Harken's castle.

"Just like when Lowe made those sandstorms of us. This is easy for us!" Akio thought.

Harken shouted, "WHO IS OUT THERE? STOP HIDING!"

Maya sprung out at Harken and grabbed one of his arms. She tore it off with her jaws in a fit of savage anger.

"NO! Not you again! When do you learn???" Harken questioned. He created the fake Roy again and this time had it fire two anchors off at Maya.

Maya shattered the anchors with her fists and destroyed the copy Roy by hitting it once. It was just like Rondo's doubles.

"You've angered me Harken!!! For everyone you've killed. I won't retreat, not until I can no longer fight! Not until I've taken everything from you I can!!!!!" Maya yelled. She tore into another one of Harken's arms but this time with her claws and cut it open.

Harken screamed in pain. He used his dark energy and created a small explosion to blow Maya away from him so he could run. The explosion did minimal damage to her but it forced her back. He used his wings and flew high into the air, hiding from Maya.

"Harken!!! Why are you running from me? I thought you were a God! It's time for us to settle this! No more will have to suffer.. We will have a better future with you gone!" Maya yelled. She looked exhausted.

Akio urged Maya, "Mom...You've done more than enough. I don't want you to get hurt! Please..It seems help has arrived! You need to take care of Juila and we'll be lost without you...We can't expect to live at this rate...Physical attacks just can't kill him thanks to his regeneration."

"Commander...Akio is right. We have to pull back for now.....Lowe..Our comrades, their deaths would be in vain if we continue. I wish for Harken to die..But We can't beat him like this...We're lucky to still be alive...However, I think we all should pull back for now..." Carla said with much honesty and concern.

She demonstrated her lack of energy by trying to materialize a energy rifle but she failed.

Maya reluctantly agreed, "Allright you two have a point. We'll pull back..But instead of fighting we'll help the others get out of the ruins! We have to do something..I can't rest while this goes on! We must search through the ruins!" They all agreed.

Akio looked around. He found Mary and Marie's bodies. He picked them up and told Maya and Carla, "Let's...Take them back to the Raven first.All we can do for them now is a burial and funeral once this is all over... They need to be honored...Hopefully we can find Shimon and Ron too...I don't want Harken or that so woman he's with to try to resurrect and control them. He won't disturb them anymore.."

Maya and Carla agreed as the trio headed to the Raven. They all looked tired and very sad, but they all still had the will to survive.

Harken noticed they had left and he landed.

"Good..They're gone..Ahahahah! I'll just finish them off while they aren't looking! Their annoying ship will be gone with them!" Harken grinned. He regrew his arms and hands that Maya had destroyed, painfully screaming during the process.

He then felt a tap on his shoulder as he turned around and saw Alicia. The sandstorm faded.

"YOU..You did this! A fire beast launched that flare..And an earth beast must have created this storm so you could waltz in here! But you must be afraid..You are using the sandstorm as cover..Some of your comrades must be super weak...Ahaahaha! Am I right?" Harken boasted.

Alicia didn't respond to Harken. She whistled instead. Neilo released a mist of ice energy that frozen Harken in place. Alicia II and Amy used fire energy and bombarded Harken with hundreds of small fire balls that rained down on him.

She then walked up to Harken and spewed fire from her mouth like a flamethrower. She then released fire energy from both her hands in the form flamethrower like attacks as well, except she moved her hands and burned Harken's entire body.

"I am Alicia! And you must be Harken. We saw what you were doing....Ganging up on those people.. You're not very brave or smart." Alicia commented.

Harken laughed as his body healed his burned skin and as he recovered fully. "You're not very smart, inferorite woman!"

Erika apologized, "Sorry Lord Harken..I couldn't put the barrier up in time..I'm feeling so drained...After all those attacks on me.."

"Just get out of here for now, woman!!!! You'll only get hurt again and fail me! I'll call you back if I ever need you!" Harken ordered Erika. Erika obied and ran off.

Kento, Raoul, Junior, Ciera soon joined in as they closed in on Harken.

"An elf, two children and a weak earth beast? AHAAHAHH!!! This all you can bring to fight me?? I don't think I even know you people!" Harken mocked them.

Ciera shouted angrily at Harken, "Y-y-you killed my parents....How can you say you don't remember?"

Junior yelled at Harken, "You monster! We saw what you were doing...Trying to kill more people, when does it end?"

Harken laughed, "I don't remember all the people I've killed, they weren't worth remembering. Don't take it so personally, I've killed a lot of people's parents, my own, my other daughter and her inferorite husband! Killing people is like breathing to me, it's a natural occurrence! This is what Gods do! I WILL NEVER STOP! All who oppose me shall earn only tragedy and deaths of all they love!!!!"

Ciera released her song energy and paralyzed Harken's body, "Regret Blues!" She began to sing. Everyone else took advantage of this opportunity to begin attacking Harken.

Raoul created several rocks, picked them up and smashed them against Harken's head. Junior created a saber of ice and slashed across Harken's back. Kento cut into Harken's chest with his daggers. Ciera continued to use a great deal of her energy holding Harken in his place.

Harken laughed during the whole thing. "Ahaahahaha! All of you combined still can't kill me, huh?"

Raoul shook his head and called out, "Alicia! Raoul must announce we are ready for the next part of the plan!"

With that, everyone assaulting Harken backed off. Ciera moved away but still continued to sing to hold Harken in his place.

Alicia had been charging her energy the whole time, for at least two minutes. Her children were as well. Ciera stopped singing and moved far back but Neilo froze Harken's entire body with a large sphere of ice energy he tossed at Harken.

"Allright Amy, Alicia II! It's time..Triple Atomic Flare!" All three of them created gigantic superheated spheres of fire energy and tossed them off at Harken. The spheres detonated in a large blast. It only effected the area around most of Harken's fortress and the area around the Plains but the ruins of the HQ were safe. Alicia knew there were people around. Most of the dark beasts near the fortress moved away in time as well.

As the explosion cleared. Harken's skin had been burnt off and did not seem to be regenerating. He shrieked in pain.

"You bitch..First that series of ploy attacks to stall for time..Then this Fire energy...Hot enough to burn even a dark beast..Huh? Almost as hot as the sun you surface dwellers have...Ohh..You think you've won...But because you failed to kill me...I can enter..My Final Beast Form!!!! Yes how I waited for this! Those fools from the Underworld Guard didn't give me the chance to transform..But your lackluster technique has!!!!"

Harken shrieked as he grew back his skin. He then began to transform.

Alicia now seemed far less calm as she told her children, "Get out of here! Follow Raoul and the others!"

Harken's extra arms and hands fell off him painfully. In their place, he grew extra arms made of dark energy instead! He tore his own wings off and sprouted wings made of crystal energy in their place.

"Yes..This is the future! I AM THE FUTURE!!! One step closer to being an energy based entity! These arms, these wings.. They can't be destroyed. This energy is permanent and is truly a part of me!" Harken yelled.

However, he felt a strange sting in his spine and brain. He screamed in agony. He noticed his new limbs created from energy were becoming unstable, they were fading it seemed.

"What's going on? What's happening to me? I am perfect!!! How can my body not handle this? What is this pain?HOW CAN I MAKE IT END? AHHHHHHHHHH! The evolution..I am losing control!!!!" Harken yelled at himself.

Harken's minions looked horrified as they ran to guard the fortress to avoid Harken. Erika came out of hiding briefly to see what was going on and was shocked.

He then screamed several times as hole opened up in his back, wings tried to sprout from it.
Alicia and her children tried to run so and reunite with the others but Harken chased them down.

Harken screamed again as he shouted, "Apocalypse Eruption!!!!" He slammed his normal hands into the ground, channeling energy into it.

Then a tremendous burst of dark energy rose up from underneath ground and killed Neilo.

"Neilo!!!!!!" Alicia cried out. Alicia II, Amy cried out in sorrow with her. Junior teared up as well.

"My brother...Only recently did he have a will of his own....And now he's gone...He didn't get a chance to enjoy life!" Junior thought.

Harken laughed, "This eases my pain! YES! YES! You're the reason for all this! Maybe I was not meant to transform. But I will kill you and then it'll all go away! NOW for the rest of you!"

He teleported in front of Alicia. "Now..Now..NOW! For these other two...I require an offering!!! OF BLOOD!"

Harken's extra arms made of energy suddenly changed into rapier like energy blades. He stabbed and impaled Amy with them multiple times, killing her in seconds.

He licked the blood off the blades before turning them back to hands. Alicia II began to cry even more. Junior cried out once more as Raoul covered Junior and Ciera's eyes.

"AMY! You....I won't forgive you!!!!!Two of my children..You shouldn't harm them, it's me you want Harken!" Alicia shouted.

"No time to scream..No time to mourn! Now two left..Then I'll hunt the others after this...I am the future, you are all the PAST! But first..I want to see panic..I want to see fear...I want to taste your despair!!!The blood of a woman beast is delicious but tragic.." He stared into Alicia's eyes.

Alicia yelled at Raoul and the others, "Get out of here! All of you! He's unstoppable now..It's my fault for not doing enough research....I didn't know he could survive our attack.."

"Mom..It's not your fault he's a monster..You did the best you could...We did..Please..Maybe we can get through this.." Alica II spoke to Alicia.

Alicia shook her head and put hugged Alicia II one last time. "Alicia II...You and Junior...You'll be fine without me. Your father Neil or your grandparents Duo and Ruby can raise you two..Just get out of here with the others!!! You'll be safe that way..They'll protect you..I just wish I could have been a better mother..I wish I wouldn't have become obsessed with something so petty and let my soul become so tainted..."

Harken just stared at Alicia, letting her talk to Alicia II.

She continued, "I was nothing but a menace to Junior and the Forbidden Alliance. I should just been happy with what I had, my life wasn't that bad. I had loving parents..And even now, I truly doubt I am Exodus's blood daughter! I love you and Junior very much.. So please...Whatever you do..Survive! Keep going forward, don't come back for me! Just get out of here!"

She used some of her energy and generated an explosion, it blew Alicia II away but did not hurt her since she was a fire beast. Alicia II quickly joined with Raoul and the others as soon as she recovered.

"What's going on now? Where's Alicia?" Kento questioned.

"She's...Going to hold him off..." Alicia II cried.

"Mother..MOTHER!! And Neilo and Amy..They're all gone..." Junior cried out. He wanted to turn around but Raoul had to stop him.

"Raoul knows this is painful..But if we go back there..We can't defeat Harken..He's twisted...Raoul knows we have to re-group, we have to find others who can aide us..We need some way to defeat him..."

Ciera tried to comfort Junior, "She doesn't want us to get killed either..We can't face him head on Junior..Please...Please, don't try to go back there..."

Kento noticed a hole in the ground and saw some stairs. "A secret passage way...This looks safe."

Raoul used his energy and created a boulder, he blocked off the entrance to the passageway with it and went inside.

"Raoul hates to do this...Raoul hates to run! But....As it stands now we cannot beat him...Raoul will go up and check in a few minutes to see just what has happened..To see if anyone else is out there and alive trying to fight him..."

Alicia II and Junior were crying almost non stop. Raoul tried to comfort them and told them, "Raoul is sorry you children had to see this.. This is war...People die, people give up their lives to protect others......She was a conflicted woman but in the end, she showed she had kindness in her heart..Good in her heart to fight Harken and to protect her surviving children the only way she can. And your siblings...They felt guilty for what they did, at least they can be at peace now. They were brave to choose to fight Harken.."

Kento added his insight, "Harken. I have never seen anyone more cowardly than him in my life..Taking delight in killing children! Disgusting! But don't you worry, we'll get stop him for this..And if we don't, someone else will. I didn't know Alicia well myself but I'd say she seemed like a good person, although a bit troubled."

Ciera spoke to Junior and Alicia II, "It's going to be okay..We can get through this...Please..try to keep your spirits up..If he finds us..We'll have to fight...Your mom and your siblings are in a better place.." Ciera held back her own tears as she thought about her parents whom Harken killed during the Azull tournament.

All of the words in the world could not calm or bring Alicia II and Junior back to normal. They were broken emotionally.

"Raoul believes he should go check on what's going on...If I don't return, Kento, take the children and head back up to the surface!!! This pathway hopefully leads somewhere away from here...I may have to fight Harken to buy you some time myself..." He looked somber.

Before Raoul could leave Ciera stopped him, "Uncle! Please..Don't go..What about your family?What about me? I don't want you to die! Please promise you'll come back!"

"Raoul is sorry little Ciera but Raoul can make no such promise...He has to go. Kento is stronger, if Harken does come after you, you'll have a much better chance of survival with him than with Raoul. It will pain Raoul to die here but if Harken isn't stopped, if he's allowed to continue his rampage, he'll kill more people like that..And he'll get up to the surface eventually when he's done with everyone here...Raoul does not wish for that to happen! Better Raoul dies than the children or anyone else!!!!! I will not force you kids to go up there since you have been through too much..You may not have the will to fight any longer..But Raoul does!Raoul will fight Harken in your place if he has to!" Raoul said in a dead serious tone.

Kento disagreed, "Raoul. If anyone should go up there, I should..But I think it's best if we wait a bit longer. We don't want to be hasty or throw away our lives.. I know you're worried Raoul, it's hard to keep calm..." Raoul agreed with him and decided not to go up just yet.

Above the passageway, Harken was chasing Alicia ruthlessly.

"Trying to run away from me? Huh? Pathetic!!! Ahaha..I should have killed you and that other remaining little brat of yours! Everyone who opposes Harken will die, women, children, the elderly! There's no hope for you..No hope! All you've done, it was for nothing! You failed and only made things worse through your efforts! AHAHAHAH!" Harken cornered Alicia against part of the castle.

Alicia charged up a great deal of energy. Alicia called out, "Solar Spheres!" She jumped past Harken and released it. It created two rotating spheres, they released rays of fire energy onto Harken's flesh. Alicia herself released a breathe of fire. She finished the attack off by then manipulating the spheres and crashing them into Harken, creating an explosion.

The attacks were not hot enough to burn off Harken's flesh. He regenerated his wounds again. He changed his energy arms into rapier blades once more.

"Ahahaha..Nice try..But you're just an inferorite! You don't have all that much energy, you haven't even fully recovered from your last battle, I can tell! You can't win. You can't hope to win. Ahaha..My pain is going away..Killing you has made me feel so much better! But it was just too easy!" Harken bragged.

"You killed my children! I'm not done with you!" Alicia made a dash at Harken and attempted to claw him, however he stabbed her fatally in the stomach with his blades.

As Alicia fell to the ground, dying, Harken laughed.

"That's it..Expired. You tried to be a hero but ended up like a corpse, just like the rest of anyone who's ever opposed me! Oh but before you go, at least cry! Scream! Shout in agony!!! I want to hear your despair!!!" Harken ordered as he kicked Alicia.

Alicia spewed a great deal of her remaining fire energy into Harken's face, "You'll get nothing of that sort from me, Harken. I can die peacefully knowing you will be defeated. Atoshi, Kraw, Neil, Arisa, the others.. Once they all arrive, it's over for you...I'm just glad I bought them time. I have regrets but in my next life, I will not make the same mistakes. At least I can join Neilo and Amy. Maybe even see my birth mother..My real father too...I'll miss Junior and Alicia II..Duo and Ruby..I wish I could have apologized to them for all I've done.." She smiled.

Harken was outraged as he began to brutally beat Alicia and continued to stab her, "YOU STUPID BITCH!!! Why are you smiling like that? ENOUGH! ENOUGH!"

Alicia laughed at him and said, "Maybe I made some mistakes..But fighting you wasn't one of them.. I just wish I'd have done it alone from the beginning. I can't believe you're panicking over a so called inferorite such as myself. You really are lacking in the intelligence department wasting time on someone who's already dying! I feel no despair, that's why I am laughing at you. You can't beat everyone..

She continued speaking no matter how many times Harken stabbed or hurt her, "You're going to die a miserable lonely death, Harken! You'll be dead soon too! All the people whose lives you've ruined..They won't forget you or forgive you! Watch you back, Harken! For your last hour is near. I'm a genius after all. I'm going to be laughing watching all the pain they'll inflict upon you as your empire crumbles and it all crashes down with you! Your body can't handle all that Arlon energy you stole! You're crumbling as I speak! I researched Arlon a while ago, I know it to be true! Your ignorance will be your doom! Hehehe! Enjoy your empty little life, at least I had some happiness in mine. Yours is just a tragedy of a fool with an ego!" Harken continued to attack her furiously.

She spewed out the last of fire energy into Harken's face in one final act. Harken stabbed her in the chest and continued to attack her. He gave up as soon as he saw Alicia's body get limp. He laughed but still seemed a bit annoyed at what Alicia said to him and annoyed at how she had burned him one final time.

He then informed his minions, "All the bodies of those I've killed ahaha..Don't destroy them. I think it'll be funnier if Erika can resurrect them and turn them against their comrades.. But if that's not an option, you all just dig a bit hole in the ground and dump them in! These weaklings deserve no graves to call their own! Ahahaha! A shame those Underworld Guard members took the twins away earlier hmm. Oh well, plenty of fun still left to be had!"

Harken began to feel a strange pain in his brain as he screamed again. It terrified the Zaka Clan beasts and Erika as Harken moved erratically.

"This pain..I must get into the sealed realm NOW..My body..It needs more energy to handle this, yes. That must be it, yes! I have to open the sealed realm..Then I can KILL all the survivors with my own hands!!! Yes, then I'll show them a God's true power!"

He teleported away from his fortress and was now closer to the ruins of the Underworld Guard HQ.

He screamed and used some of his energy to try to create a rift into the sealed realm but failed once again."Why does it refuse me? WHY? WHY?!"

A dark beast mustered the courage and walked up to Harken and said, "God Harken! We've encountered a half-demon, half human lizard freak! He's killed ten of us so far...We need back up, sir! Otherwise he'll be here really soon! We need more forces over in that area to secure it and kill him! He's using this type of strange energy we've never seen! It's a disaster so please-"

Harken looked outraged, "Some of my best men..Killed by an inferorite? That freak is still alive? Outrageous!!!! Just kill him, I don't want to waste my time any longer.. I have to get into the sealed realm. I need more power! Hopefully Helen will be be done soon, she can kill him..Aagggghhhhh!" Harken seemed to be in a great deal of pain.

The dark beast ran off immediately, bringing some other dark beasts with him to stop Kraw.

"My body, why is there pain?Did I take too much energy? Is this energy trying to destroy my body since I am not meant to wield it? NO! That's not true, the regeneration will keep it at bay regardless!..It's just something those fools tried to tell me so I wouldn't take it all! They're wrong!" Harken tried to reassure himself.

Erika moved in closer to Harken's location but tried to remain hidden. She was a bit afraid to get close to him.

He saw a Alastor moving in the distance. He growled and questioned, "Who's there? Another survivor? One of those Underworld Guard fools perhaps? ANWSER ME, INFERORITE!" He locked eyes with Alastor as he shouted.

 

[Pirogeth]

-Soma Plains, Former Underworld Guard

Alastor remained silent just to tick off Harken a little more. From the looks of things he was getting desperate but there was no way to know how much power he had left. Alastor was going to play this one slightly safer than his other battles. Pulling his guns out of his holsters he loaded them up with normal clips first. He stopped about forty meters from Harken and took a shot. The bullet hit his shoulder leaving a small wound that healed up quickly. "HA! You thought that would do something!? You are stupid for an inferiorite." Harken laughed becoming more confident. Alastor raised his hand all his fingers spread. He then slammed it down as if he was catching a fly. Harken still confused did not notice the light that came from where his wound was. The blast was large enough to sever his arm off. Gripping where his shoulder was Harken backed away. "Gah! What the hell!? I should have been able to read your mind!"
"You want to know the truth Harken, I do not even know what bullets are coated in my energy.
"A simple trick, and so is mine!" Harken said sprouting back an arm. "Now how about you freeze!" Harken said releasing a large amount of ice energy. The wave froze everything in its path. Alastor rolled to his left to avoid the attack. He took a few more shots at Harken. One bullet his his leg while two passed him by and landed somewhere in the fields behind him. Alastor once again pulled his trick off but with a simpler body motion. He swiped his hand in front of him like he was catching some bullets. The explosions both came from behind Harken.
"Tch, lucky." Alastor muttered dodging a lightning strike Harken shot out at him.
"Show me some real power!" Harken yelled shooting out lightning bolts at Alastor. Running clockwise around Harken, Alastor barely kept up with his dodging. As he was about to dodge the seventh a rock sprouted out in front of him blocking his path. Alastor had no choice but to leap to either the left or right. Alastor choose to roll away from Harken. This move was not enough to avoid the lightning strike Harken made. Hitting his shoulder the lightning bolt sent Alastor flying and frying. He rolled against the ground and finally stopped a good fifteen meters from his original position. He got up, his clothes still smoldering from the attack.
"Real power huh?" Alastor said pulling his guns out. "Pot Luck!" He said closing his eyes. He unloaded the rest of the clips in each gun leaving about twenty bullets spinning in the air. Instead of them going along a straight path they rode power currents emitted by both of them. Alastor felt several bullets hit him and Harken had quite a few pierce his body. As Alastor opened his eyes he grinned and put the guns in his holsters. "Do you like it? This is a gambling game. You see I cannot have the bullets seek out a single current. That is why I only coat a few of them with my energy. You ready Harken?" Alastor said holding up his right hand by his face.
"BAHAHAHA! This is actually the most fun I had with an opponent. Go ahead and slaughter yourself kid!" Alastor clasped the air in front of him making the bullets react. There were five explosions that engulfed Harken meanwhile Alastor remained unharmed. He smiled as he opened his hand to see a light emitting from his palm.
"Thought I felt one there." Alastor said before the explosion sent him and his hand in different directions. As the dust cleared Harken looked more like a blob than anything. His figure soon molded into shape again laughing all the while.
"You idiot, that attack will not destroy me! And look at you, now you have no hand!" Harken laughed some more just at the mere thought of his opponent being one hand short.
"I would not be talking; it does not seem your extra arms regenerated." Alastor said getting up still in the dust he kicked up from the attack. "As for me I am just fine." Blood was falling out of his wrist; at least it looked that way. Instead the blood was moving upward and back into his arm. Right behind the reverse waterfall was his hand which attached itself to his wrist again. "Limb regeneration, looks like I am on the same level as you Harken."
"You will never be on my level! Congratulations you can regenerate, you still are no god!" Harken boasted getting quite agitated by Alastor's comments. Pulling out his guns again and reloading them Alastor readied another attack. His right arm was shaking, the limb regeneration was a powerful yet costly technique. The arm he had mended was now very weak and barely able to hold up a gun let alone aim it. As they stared each other down Harken tried to regenerate his energy arms. They were now fully locked out due to the last attack. He had to finish up this fight quick before more decided to interrupt him and his mission to get back to the Sealed Realm. He decided to settle on a classic, dark energy claws. He came at Alastor with ferocious speed. Alastor managed to get off twelve shots but only six were on target and only two of those hit Harken. He pinned Alastor to the ground before he could swipe his hand. "NOW YOU WILL FEEL MY WRATH!" Harken yelled pulling his arm back his claws pointed right at Alastor's throat.
"Last Chance Manuever, Ball Basher!" Alastor said distracting Harken from his next move. Using one of his free legs he thrust his boot up into Harken's crotch. With him in a fit of pain Alastor was able to escape a few meters away. "Even when you are nearly immortal and brimming with regenerative powers, that still has to hurt." Alastor said before swiping his hand across his face. Harken's leg was the location of this explosion. Alastor tried to reload again but Harken recovered quicker than he thought. A large fireball was sent in his direction. He barely dodged it but the resulting explosion caught him. He was blasted backward into a slab of ground that Harken had rise out of the ground. Finally Alastor fell to the ground in front of Harken. He was picked up by the back of his neck.
"You will pay dearly for that." Harken whispered forming a claw again. This time he hit with the claw going through Alastor's chest. Harken let go of him and pushed him off the claw throwing him several meters away. Alastor was now on the ground clutching his chest. After his limb regeneration earlier he barely had enough strength for his own regular regeneration. The blood was pouring out over the ground. Harken proceeded to cause even more pain by stepping on his chest and digging his claws into the wound. Alastor cringed in pain. "Does that feel bad? I hope it does you diseased bastard." Alastor kept on cringing moving his head back and forth. Harken punched him in the face. "LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" He yelled. Alastor coughed up some blood and tried to open his eyes. He now stared at a content Harken smiling now that his orders were being obeyed. "Good you-" Harken was cut off by Alastor spitting his blood in Harken's face. Harken responded by lifting his foot up and stomping it back down. The resounding cracks made Alastor cry out.
"AHHHhhht! Gaaaaahhh!" Harken now lifted his foot off of Alastor and took a few steps back to admire his work. The blood pooling around Alastor was enough to make him smile.
"You finally know your place inferiorite." Harken said attempting to open up the Sealed Realm again. Instead of returning to his work he was met with another challenge. His heart had been pierced by a thin silver line. "Why will you just not die when I tell you to?" Harken said. The line was pulled back to Alastor who was now standing in a pool of silver blood.
"I cannot give up on those who you have killed. Even if I stand no chance I will stand and fight. Even if there is no hope I will not abandon the lost souls here." Alastor took a step forward. "Now prepare yourself Harken."

-Harken's Castle, Throne Room

With Helen's back to the wall, or what used to be the wall, there was no way to surprise her. Her left head let out another attack that she had charged. It was a large beam of dark energy. As it swept passed the group it hit the edge of the floor behind them. The floor crumbled away as the beam had sliced through the wall below as well. "We have to finish this now." Arisa said as she charged up her yo-yo's. She knew she had no chance with a front assault so she had to take her chance while the heads were distracted. She moved to the left as the right head kept focus on her. Neil stayed in the middle as Katsugi shuffled to the right.
"You cannot hope to beat me! I have one head for each of you." Helen said watching each one carefully. Katsugi was the first to attack with Neil and Arias in quick succession. Katsugi covered her blades in flame as she attempted to strike out at the left head. The head tried to fire another blast of dark energy at her. Instead she took a lesson from the middle head and swung at the ball of dark energy with her blades like a bat to a baseball. The sparks flew as the energy crossed paths but the ball was forced back toward the head hitting it with enough force to make Helen's main head lose concentration. Arisa took her chance on this one and tossed her dark buzz saw yo-yo's at Helen's head. Instead of losing the fight right then and there she had her middle head counter the attack. A vertical yo-yo buzz saw shot out of its mouth to counter the horizontal one. Arisa's blade had no match against the heavily powered up one Helen had. It cut through like butter and went straight for Arisa. Neil had a chance now to take this head out. Using his ice claws he was able to cut half way through the head. He got stuck but he tried to force it through. Eventually his claws went all the way through the head slicing it off. "RAAAAHHHH!" Helen shouted in pain from losing one of her heads. Neil immediately ran over to Arisa to see if she was alright.
"Arisa, can you still stand?" Neil asked helping her up. She was just grazed along her left shoulder.
"I'll get you both while you are down!" Helen yelled charging up an attack with her left head. Before it fired the dark energy ball the head was punched in the face sending the attack awol into the sky.
"You sure are an idiot announcing your attack strategy like that." Katsugi said backing away and getting into an offensive stance. "You two should just rest for now, I can take her." Katsugi said now a little more confident seeing as the countering head was gone. Neil and Arisa both objected.
"Katsugi, you cannot handle her by yourself." Neil said as he helped Arisa's blood clot.
"Yeah right, you highly underestimate me. Besides I haven't been able to work off all this inner rage." Katsugi said winking at Neil and Arisa. Neil could only smile as he helped Arisa over to the edge of the room.
"You are brave missy, thinking you can beat me by yourself. Brave and very stupid." Helen said readying herself. Katsugi smirked as she went in fast. Her feline instincts took over while she dodged a swing from her tail by cart wheeling over it. Once she was fully upright she crouched down and lunged toward Helen just in time to avoid a blast of dark energy. With her blades fully engulfed in fire she took a stab at Helen's torso to slow her down so she would not fall off the edge. She put her other blade through her chest and acted like some kind of rock climber using Helen as the face of the cliff. She pounced off of Helen taking the blades out of her leaving just large burnt areas.
"Yo-you burnt me! You Bitch!" Helen screamed. Quickly she powered up another attack. Instead of firing just a single dark energy burst she fired several. It was enough to keep Katsugi on her toes. She nimbly dodged them by jumping over them, sliding, or just ducking. Katsugi proceeded to amp up the fight herself.
"How about I show you just how ferocious I can be." Katusgi now had the flame cover her entire body. Helen shot another burst of dark energy at her. This time Katsugi made now effort to dodge. Instead the ball encountered the flame and was nearly devoured.
"Im-impossible. No flame can take on my power! I am a dark beast, I will not be defeated by fire!" Helen began to charge up the beam again. She fired it straight toward Katsugi. She tried to dodge this attack. Instead she found Helen to be a little quicker on the draw this time. Her left arm was hit by the attack and she dropped one of her daggers. She was sent to the floor. Naturally she landed on her feet but she clutched her arm in pain. The poisons still had not left the attacks. Sweat began to bead on her forehead. She became nauseous but she still picked up her dagger and continued the fight. As she looked at Helen she noticed she was getting blurry.
"Seems it was nothing but a knock out poison. Too bad, I thought I hit you with something really nasty." Helen said smiling. Katsugi stumbled slightly but put her twin blades against her chest.
"Twin Ryu!" She shouted as the flames filtered out into the blades. The daggers were both guided by the flame as a dragon was formed. The attack wrapped around Katsugi and Helen trapping them both. Finally two dragons were formed and both attacked Helen. Lucky for her just the attack head was targeted. The head came clean off and Helen was just left with her brain and a body. Katsugi kneeled to the floor and eventually fell. Arisa and Neil now entered the fight again.
"Time to finish you off Helen." Neil said looking a little less weary.
"We shall show you no mercy." Arisa added powering up her dark energy.
"I have no need of your mercy!" Helen yelled. She tried to attack them with what energy she could muster in her own head but it was far too slow of an attack. Once both Arisa and Neil landed they looked at each other and nodded. They both proceeded to jump into the air again. Arisa created a large saw as Neil fused his ice energy with the saw. Both of them then shouted out the attack.
"Hail Saw!" Each individual tooth on the saw separated from it and shot out toward Helen revealing another layer of teeth to which to do the attack again. It continued until the saw was gone. Helen was now impaled by hundreds of dark and ice energy saw teeth. Her body soon morphed back to normal and she fell over unconscious.
"You think we did it?" Neil asked.
"I sure hope so." Arisa replied.

-Soma Plains, Former Underworld Guard

"If your wish is more pain then I shall deliver it!" Harken answered Alastor. Harken charged at Alastor with his claws but met the clang of the blades of blood lust. The blood lust shattered the claw with a few sweeps and went straight into Harken's chest. He was forced all the way back toward the ruins of the old entrance. After he was pushed into the ruins he made the snake like ribbons began to whip the spot he was forced into. This kicked up a lot of dust but the blood was visible.
"Come on Harken this is too easy!" Alastor said stopping his melee.
"Heh heh heh. The kid has enthusiasm." Harken said getting out of the rubble and rushing at Alastor with his claws again. He was much quicker this time, probably using the time orb to speed him up. Alastor only had time to back up and block the slashes with his blood ribbons. Harken went in for a punch successfully sending Alastor into the ground. He tried to jump on him but was sent flying up in the air by the ribbons. While in the air he was punched several times by fists made by the blood lust. Finally he was smashed down into the dirt just like Alastor. Both of them got up at the same time and stared each other down. Harken's eyes were filled with rage and Alastor's with calm insanity. Alastor built up a large wall of silver blood behind him. Once it was about three times his height and about five meters wide he forced his palm forward. Tiny small drops of blood rocketed forward like bullets at Harken. Each one of them embedded in his skin. Soon the entire wall was inside Harken crawling under his skin and heading toward his head. Finally the blood burst out of his head taking the skull with it. Harken was now a headless bloodied mess. This did not stop Harken though, he just regenerated his head again.
"No more INFERIORITE!" Harken exclaimed now completely enrage. He charged his energy again and shot it out at Alastor in the form of large waves. These waves were like miniature versions of the one that destroyed the Underworld Guard Headquarters. Alastor did not have much energy left to dodge but he tried. He managed to make it past the first one but the second, third, fourth, and fifth all hit him. Each time small tears were made in his skin. "Not enough huh? Then let's try something else."
"You will not survive this next one." Alastor said gathering his blood again. As Alastor did that Harken created wings out of dark energy again and took flight. He started to charge up a dark energy orb in the air. Steam formed around the edges as the blazing orb heated up. Alastor was now finished with his gathering and he formed several hundred ribbons that went straight for Harken. "Soul Tether!" Harken was now done charging his attack. He had a large orb probably three times the size of Alastor. He fired it down upon him as it split into drops like rain.
"Harken's Wrath!" The attacks charged at each other for a few seconds before they finally met. The moment seemed to last forever. The first drop of dark energy hit one of the many blood lust ribbons. The result was shocking. The dark energy tore through the ribbon. This was the case with every other drop of dark energy. The blood lust ribbons crumbled as the rain came closer and closer to Alastor. Finally he was pelted with several blazing hot rain drops. Each one passed through him and burrowed into the ground. As the rain stopped and Alastor still stood bleeding he looked back up at Harken. His smile had not left and Alastor soon found out why; the attack was not finished. The ground soon blackened as the energy burst upward in large pillars. Soon the light was entirely blocked out for Alastor as the last pillar swallowed him up. Harken now descended back to the ground just in time to watch Alastor's body fall. He was nearly lifeless. He was still breathing at least. Salika now ran over to Alastor.
"Stop it! Just stop it!" She cried while holding onto Alastor.
"A little human woman next!? Well you are just making it too easy for me."
"HARKEN!" A voice boomed over the plains. Looking out toward the fortress they saw Kraw. "You rat bastard! Are you not enough of a man to fight with those of equal strength!? I will show you my strength, unless you are too scared you pussy!" Salika took this chance to try and help Alastor recover.

 

[King Weavel]

*Soma Plains, near Underworld Guard Ruins*

Harken just laughed at Kraw, "Oh an inferorite trying to talk like that to me? You've got nothing. You'll die juts like that other inferorite! Only dark beasts stand a chance at beating me! Because they are the supreme race!"
Kraw ran up to Harken and swung his axe, only to break a barrier Erika put in front of Harken.

"Ahahaha! Good job woman, he's not worth my time! It's time to put him in the ground like all the other fools who faced me and died!" Harken boasted.

Kraw just smirked and said, "It's pretty sad you need her help to win. But once a coward, always a coward!" He was undaunted as he readied his energy and channeled it into his axe.

Erika was about to speak but someone appeared behind her and covered her mouth. It was none other than Dion who was cloaking!

"Kraw. I will take care of this woman!Just worry about Harken. This one..She'll not bother you any longer or prolong this conflict, This is the Zaka Clan's last day!" With that Dion teleported away with Erika.

Harken looked irritated as he shouted, "DION!YOU WILL GIVE ME BACK MY QUEEN!" Kraw sliced off Harken's normal right arm with his axe while Harken was distracted. It soon regenerated however.

"Ahahaha.. Some fair fight, inferorite! Kidnapping MY queen? Well come and get me, so be it! I don't need her to kill you. Because I am a God, a creature of pure beauty, pure of heart, pure of mind, the best specimen of my kind! A beast on his path to the future of our race! Evolution!" Harken boasted.

Kraw shook his head in disapproval. "Get over yourself! Quit masturbating to yourself and fight now! I don't want to hear any of your nonsensical ramblings!!!" Kraw was clearly quite angry with Harken as he looked and noticed Alicia and some of her children, he saw they had been killed.

"Alicia..I never liked her myself. But if she fought you, she couldn't have been all bad. It sickens me how Harken had to kill her kids, too!!!" Kraw thought.

Harken declared, "I'll finish this now before you even are able to strike me again!!!! Tremble, inferorite! At the might of one of my greatest techniques.The Four Monarch Strike!!!!!"

He created four doubles with his dark energy, one of Roy, one of Rondo, one of Mara and one of Jaeger. Kraw charged up his energy seeing this and then released it on himself, which did not seem to do anything.

The Mara double used psychic energy and lifted Kraw into the air and held him in place. The Jaeger double trapped Kraw in a coffin filled with spikes. The Rondo double then fired thousands of lasers at the coffin, piercing through it. The Roy double destroyed the coffin with a barrage of anchors and trapped Kraw with them. It then jumped up to Kraw and used the Real Roy's Erupting Hand technique on Kraw's head, hoping to blow it up. As the explosion cleared, Kraw feel to the ground but looked unharmed and had a grin on his face.

"WHAT??? WHAT? HOW? You should have been impaled!!! That should have killed you a hundred times OVER! That was one of the greatest techniques I've created thus far!!!!" Harken shouted.
"Titanium body. You weren't paying attention to me when you were making those fakes. I used this defensive technique on my body, Harken. It made my skin super hard and strong for a few moments. There's no way for you to physically tell unless you see me up close. Only the best attacks could have killed me. That was lacking, soulless imitations won't finish me off! That Roy copy was lame..Really, that explosion didn't even scare me.. And the spikes inside the coffin? They broke when they touched me. This trick comes in handy but uses lots of energy so I probably won't do it again. So maybe you've got somewhat of a chance." Kraw explained.

As The doubles faded, Harken was outraged.

"GRRRRRRR! Why can't you just die? DIE INFERORITE!That is what I command you to do! THAT IS WHAT YOU OWE ME!" Harken created a cyclone of wind energy and hurled it straight towards Kraw.

Kraw mocked Harken, "Owe you? Sorry Harken, if you're short on gold, I'm flat broke at the moment! And me dying wasn't part of our deal. I recall you ordering a world-class beat down however. That I'll be glad to deliver!" He used Meteo Impact to send himself high enough in the air to go right over the cyclone. Harken filled with anger as the cyclone vanished while Kraw landed safely.

Harken then decided to try to use more ranged attacks to kill Kraw from afar as he knew Kraw was mostly a physical fighter.

"Ahahaha...Dark beasts can survive lava..But half demons? I think not! Oh I'll put you in the ground, LITERALLY!" Harken boasted.

With that, Harken blasted the ground near Kraw with earth-energy. It created an earthquake and the ground began to open up. Harken hoped to cause Kraw to fall into the underground lava pools.

Kraw however, jumped towards were some of Harken's minions were. Kraw easily outran Harken's technique due to it's somewhat slow speed.

"Well..That attack could do me in, Harken...But I'm over here just so you know..With some of your lackies! Wanna get me?" Kraw questioned. He was now near a group of dark beasts whom held their positions but grew nervous as Harken saw where Kraw had moved to.

Harken yelled, "Forget that technique!!! Just get out of the way before he kills you or if I do!!!!!!Clear the battlefield!!NOW! Rain of the Apocalypse! You cannot win!" He used a strange dark energy technique.

He opened up a rift in the sky and small comets began to rain down, aimed at Kraw. There were at least twenty of them. He readied his axe and batted them away, others he smashed entirely with his axe. Zaka Clan beasts ran for cover as some of the stray comets nearly hit them.

Finally, a large asteroid emerged from the rift. It moved slowly however. One dark beast yelled,"GOD HARKEN! You'll kill us all if that hits the ground!!!!!"

"I don't care at this point! Just get in the damn fortress if you're afraid! I want to have total victory over this inferorite!" Harken yelled back.

Kraw used his energy and channeled it into is axe and into his right hand. First his axe grew twenty five times it's size, he then tossed it at the asteroid, breaking it a bit. He then jumped up, grabbed his axe with his left hand and shouted, "Meteorite..PUNCH!" The energy in his right hand strengthed it greatly and allowed him to shatter the asteroid with relative ease. Pieces that remained fell near the castle and crushed some unlucky Zaka Clan Beasts.

"Madness!What is this??? AAH! It was too slow, that's the only reason you survived!" Harken yelled.

"Quit crying, Harken, just shut up and fight!" Kraw taunted Harken. He recovered his axe and readied to fight back.

Harken flew up higher and tried to use his psychic energy. He had thought it had been sealed by Mia but it worked as he was able to lift a large piece of the ruined HQ."So you can defeat They say the power of love can move mountains...WRONG!THE POWER OF A GOD CAN MOVE MOUTAINS! This will move far faster that asteroid!!!!"

The piece of rock was the size of a small mountain! Harken used a great deal of energy to move it towards Kraw.

He moved the piece of the rock right above Kraw. Kraw stood still as Harken dropped it. Kraw used his energy on his axe and made it grow twenty times in size. He then sliced the large rock in half and demolished it before it could fall on him His axe then returned to normal.

"Some mountain that was! So let's cut to the chase, Harken. I trained ten years in the Underworld. Can you guess why? Who or what was I trained to defeat? I know you're slow so I'll give you a hint. Starts with dark, ends up with beast. Specifically Zaka something, Zaka Clan perhaps? The name starts with H and ends with an N. And it's not Helen. C'mon, do I need to spell it out for you further?" Kraw insulted Harken's intelligence.

Harken flew down and moved right in front of Kraw, he changed his extra energy arms into axes and attempted to stab Kraw. Kraw created a small sphere of his energy and hurled it right at Harken's chest. Harken felt little pain and did not seem damaged by it.

Harken then managed to stab through Kraw's armor with one of his extra arms "Oh what was that suppose to do? Hurt me? Destroy my flesh?"

Kraw ripped out Harken's axe arm and smirked, despite his bleeding and minor pain. He sliced off Harken's left arm. This time, it did not grow back, Kraw's earlier technique had disabled Harken's regeneration!

"My arm..MY ARM! You rotten inferorite! You lured me to you so you could do this!!!!" Kraw nodded. He then jumped onto Harken's back and began to mercilessly dig his axe through Harken's flesh. Soon Harken had a large hole in his back.

Harken then began to fly and was about to turn over in hopes of forcing Kraw off his back. Kraw quickly sliced off Harken's wings. He then used his axe as a handle so he wouldn't fall off, digging it deep into Harken's back. Harken fell to the ground without wings.

Kraw painfully and slowly removed his axe from the inside of Harken's back. He then grabbed Harken by the tail and began to swing him around. He eventually tossed Harken into a piece of rubble, nearly smashing Harken's skull open.

Blood began to ooze out of Harken's head as he questioned, "How can you do this??? How can an inferorite beat a GOD? ANWSER ME! What is your secret?"

"Simple. Years of hard work and training, spirit, honor guts, all that stuff. Things you can't comprehend. You've never had to work an honest day in your life, you sat on lazy your ass letting your slaves and minions do all the work! Me? I've been fighting to survive since I was young. Then I found Katsugi, I fought for the woman I loved, to save her from my Uncle. I fought to stop my Uncle's plans as well.

He continued, "And now I'm fighting to kill you!!! You can't get stronger by killing those weaker than you, Harken!You can't get infinitely stronger by stealing some dead guy's power and expecting to just become unbeatable, you have to have experience! You have to be hungry to get strong, you need to have a desperate need, someone you need to save or someone you need to stop! You? You don't even know what you're doing or why!" Kraw shouted out. He then head-butted Harken.

Harken coughed up blood and said, "I love to kill inferorites like yourself!!! It's entertainment to me! That is reason enough!" Kraw impaled Harken through the chest several times with his axe. Harken coughed up a great deal of blood as he now struggled to breathe. He struggled to attack Kraw with his extra arms,he managed to cut into Kraw's shoulders and causes some bleeding but Kraw continued his attack.

"That's a petty reason! That's why you're getting your ass whooped! This is justice! It's good to beat up on you! Most of those you killed couldn't defend themselves..There's no honor in that! You can't brag about killing women and children or the sick and dying!" Kraw grabbed ahold of Harken's mouth and then began to use all his strength to attempt to break Harken's jaw bones.

He eventually succeeded, he broke off Harken's lower jaw painfully. Harken screamed as it came fell off "AUGHHHHHHHHHH!" At this point, the pain distracted and interfered with Harken's ability to control his extra arms and he ceased attacking.

Several dark beasts looked terrified and shouted, "L-ll-lord Harken!!!! " They were too afraid to interfere as Kraw glared at them maliciously. They backed off.

"You? You could fight back, you could beat me..If you didn't just look down on me, if you took me seriously! But nope, you just dismiss me as inferorite! Meanwhile I've surpassed my limits, I've surpassed the norm of how strong people of my race usually are! You just cheat and expect to become a God by stealing energy meant to protect the world from Shini!" Kraw then powered up his axe with his energy, causing it to grow ten times it size. He then pulled out Harken's tongue with all his strength.

Harken was quite literally, a bloody mess. It seemed he could no longer speak due to how Kraw had mutilated his mouth.
"For everyone you've ever hurt or oppressed or used, like Helen! I hope she'll get to rest in peace! For anyone you've ever killed!!!!!!! This is for all of them! Every single life, Harken! Pay for every single life you've taken or ruined!" He sliced off Harken's legs viciously and then began to punch Harken in the face several times. Each blow sounded bone shattering and made Harken ooze even more blood.

He then set his axe down. He focused his energy into his fists, increasing their strength and speed. He punched Harken rapidly and brutally. He finished it off, "Maximum Meteorite PUNCH!" He split Harken's skull into two with the final blow. The loud sound echoed throughout the area was all the Zaka Clan beasts were filled with fear.

Harken appeared dead as his eyes became lifeless. However something strange began to happen as Harken vanished from sight. He converted his entire body into energy and floated upwards. Kraw looked around and could not reach Harken. Harken then waited there for a few moments.

He then reappeared much further away from Kraw. His regeneration kicked back in. His ruined body was restored, the time he had stalled allowed for time for Kraw's technique to wear off. In his energy state, he would not die.

"YES! YES, saved from the brink of death! Thanks to the evolution of the dark beast, energy based lifeform! You may have beaten me, Kraw but I will be back and you will die once I enter my ultimate form and take all of the energy left! You'll die then!" Harken declared as he grew back his wings and tried to fly away.

"Hey! Get over here, quit running away from your fate! You have to die eventually, Harken! Today's your last day!" Kraw began to give chase.

Harken tried to move but was paralyzed in his tracks by something.

"Why can't my body move?" Harken then noticed and heard many voices.

Jackal and Mia were once again in the area. They were both smirking at amused at how badly Harken was beaten by Kraw.

"Gravity hold. That should keep you in place long enough for the fun to begin. You can't turn into energy right now either." Jackal said.

Hanja, Hanja's and Lena's father Hideki, Chow, Raja. This was all the Warriors except Mai. They all had arrived! Jackal and Mia then teleported away.

"Well, sorry to be late..But it takes a while to trek through the Underworld! Not many could make it from the Forbidden Alliance due to all the chaos that moon drop thing caused..But we're here now! I hope you've saved some of what's left for us! That bastard ordered that attack and sent that annoying Kreon worm to attack us! I butchered him in ways that made him useless to women and I'll do the same to YOU!" Hanja declared as glared intensely at Harken.

A large group of dark beasts blocked Hanja and the Warriors. They looked terrified of Hanja. One of them said, "You will not stop our God or hurt him!"

Hanja replied, "Fuck your God! He's no God, he's just a man with an ego and a out of control god complex! You bastards have lived too long and preyed on the innocent..It's time we prey on you!!!!No mercy for you dogs!Not a single one of you deserves to be spared or given a second chance!!! You're all rotten to the core and spineless!!" He glared at the dark beasts who blocked the Warrior's paths. His gaze intimidated them greatly and they looked away from his intense eyes.

Hanja laughed at them and said, "Well these fools are in the way..Let's clear a path! Kraw, finish Harken! Perhaps it's not our destiny to gut Harken, oh well! These dark beast will have to do for now! STRIKE NOW!"

Kraw nodded as he readied his energy for a technique to finish Harken off in one shot. Meanwhile Hanja and the Warriors started a battle with the dark beasts in their way.

"Ahhhh! AHHHHH! This is not fair!! Yy-y-you said this was a fair fight!" Harken cowered as he saw Kraw.

Kraw gave Harken the finger and told him, "Heh, good to have friends, or at least allies who hate Harken just as much as you do! So you ran away with your tail between your legs, the fight is over. I'm just going to kill you now, I don't care how. You're a scumbag and a wimp, who cares about if you get treated fairly? You never showed mercy to the people you killed, why should we hold back? At least we did it fair and square, you could have fought back..But you choose to run instead! This is karma, Harken! Everyone you've ever harmed who lived to tell is coming to get you! You've made a lot of enemies, too many."

Some of the dark beasts closer to the fortress panicked seeing Harken so helpless and began to run in the direction of Garm, some were even prepared to try to swim all the way there. They found themselves trapped by an army of dark beasts with various platted armor and markings in order to prevent friendly fire, this helped differentiate them from Zaka Clan beasts. Khan lead them.

"Jackal is twisted but he isn't such a bad planner...He saw this coming! Ahahaha! Well, we'll take care of you cowards.. Our orders are to let none of you survive! The Forbidden Alliance orders given to me say the same thing, too!" Khan said glaring at the dark beasts.

One of the Zaka Clan beasts questioned, "An army? How? Why? I thought the rest of the Underworld didn't see the Zaka Clan as a threat!"

"Simple, Jackal formed an army. People who hated Harken joined, those who were loyal to Jackal and Mia joined..Those whom want to defend the Underworld with their own hands have joined! No longer can we let the Underworld Guard be the lone force to deal with all of the burden of defending our world! No longer will strong dark beasts ignore the threat the Zaka Clan poses, no longer will we allow slavery! To end this and protect our world! That is why we have gathered here today..Now..ATTACK!" Khan ordered.

Another battle began. This one was more brutal as the dark beasts from Yomi City were much stronger than the Zaka Clan Beasts. Some Zaka clan beasts tried to make it to the river so they could drown themselves or escape instead of being brutally killed.

Harken looked troubled to see all his men being killed and attacked. "My empire..MY CLAN!How did this happen? How is there a revolt now? Why are they not afraid anymore?"

He looked angry as he saw a group of survivors from the Underworld Guard HQ ruins moving
freely. He noticed Roy's daughter amongst them. Greg was helping them. Harken had the urge to kill them but he could not move his body aside from his head and neck, much less fire a blast at them.

Sylvia was also around, she had walked with the Warriors. She gathered the bodies of Alicia and her two children so they could be safe from Harken and be taken to the surface to be buried. After that, she began to tend to the wounds of the survivors. A few ice beasts from Aken village joined in the effort as well. Eve, Magnus, Camack, Hishin, Armand, Kington, Hannah and Marx were being treated for wounds currently. Salika was dealing with Alastor's wounds as well with help from an ice beast.

Maya, Akio and Carla were digging through the ruins, looking for any further survivors.

"Is this..How my life ends? Not even able to move....AHAHAHAA! Inferorites..Oh so stupid! You should have just tried to kill me without charging up!" Harken shouted.

He used all of his power and focused his energy, he broke out of the hold before Kraw could finish charging.

He flew off to the castle, "Ahahahaa! Catch me if you can, Inferorite!!! You won't get to me in time!"

Harken's pain had not subsided. He felt a sting in his brain and he felt faint due to his blood loss, thus he moved very fast to make it into the sealed realm portal that still remained in the castle.

"Not again! Get your wimpy ass back here, Harken! Or I'll just tag along with you if you rather I do that!" He chased after Harken, making sure to stay clear of the areas were the fighting was.

Although Kraw tried as he might, Harken made it into the portal.

"Damn! I better just get over there, it's not too late, he's on the ropes! Those dark beasts got in the way anyhow! Heh, oh well at least I can get some help from the others this time in chasing him!" Kraw thought to himself. He quickly began to climb up the castle walls to reach the portal and everyone else.

Eventually, Raoul and the others emerged. With them were Mara and Rai! They were alive but badly hurt and nearly starving. Kento had found them while exploring the passageway and helped Raoul clear the rubble so they could exit.

"Raoul thinks..Harken is gone? Where is he? We must have missed a lot! This is....The tide is turning! Beasts from the surface are here!" Raoul looked less afraid as he saw the Warriors and recognized them.

Junior and Alicia II were still depressed and mourning. Ciera struggled to cheer them up.

"Well. I say we join the fight. It's all we can do for now...But after we get these two to safety and the children too.." Kento stated.

Rai told him, "Don't worry about me and Mara..I got a bit of strength left..I can make it to the safe area..No battles close enough around here to get caught up in....Unless they move further down.."

Mara looked to be the most worn out. She said simply, "Yes..We'll be fine..We might be able to join the fight against the remaining Zaka Clan beasts..We all..Have to do our part...I may not be able to get revenge on Harken for how he ruined my life and corrupted my brother...But if he's not here, then at least we can try to minimize any further causalities on our side....Those people fighting the dark beasts..They could use our help...."

She was exhausted. Raoul insisted on helping them and so he escorted them over to the safe area where Sylvia and the other injured people had gathered.

"Rai! Mara! You're alive. That's great!!!!Once this is all said and done..I'll buy you two dinner sometime and somewhere nice.And I'll formally introduce you to my mate, Eve. But I'm gonna join that battle soon. Once my foot is back to feeling good. They had to remove some debris that got lodged in it.. But I'm not worried, Harken is on the run and he's going down today!" Magnus told them.

Mara and Rai both looked embarrassed. Eve smiled. She wasn't badly hurt but was still waiting ice beasts to heal some of her wounds before she went off to fight the dark beasts with Magnus.

Camack's alter ego spoke to him, "Kid, do you think you're gonna take part in this battle after you get some healing or are you going to rest?"

Camack replied, "Of course we'll join in the fight as long as we're able!"

"That's the spirit, kid! Great because I am not content waiting in this line for healing. I have to fight regularly or I'll get rusty again." Alter Camack explained.

Raoul made his way back to the others. Ciera then decided, "I'll..Help too! I have energy to spare!!!!"

She began to focus her energy intensely. She manifested it differently this time, creating a guitar made of energy!

"Just like..Mom and dad could do...They must be guiding me..For me to be able to do this now..This is the highest form of song energy. Manifesting an instrument to increase the possible range and the volume. It also allows for new songs with new effects. I can't believe I am able to do this." She thought as she teared up.

"Rally Ballade!" She sung and played the energy guitar, she focused on all her allies within sight and the Warriors.

It restored a great deal of energy to the affected people. It manly was for forbidden beasts. It also had the effect of raising their morale, but of course was rather useless on the heavily wounded who were not fit to fight. But due to the nature and the wide range granted by the guitar, she used it on them anyhow. It did not effect those she could not see, such as those inside Harken's castle.

Junior and Alicia II readied themselves to fight. Junior said, "That song..Thank you Ciera!!! That's just what we needed...Mom doesn't want us to mope around..We have to help them!"

Alica II agreed, "Yes..We can still fight! It's what she would have wanted!"

Ciera smiled and said, "It's no problem..I'm glad I helped you both. That's why I sing..."
"If you truly wish to fight, Raoul will help! Raoul will protect you with his life and whether you like it or not, I will pull you all back if things get dangerous, this is war! You are strong but this is still war and still very brutal. I will ask you, are you sure?" They nodded.

He also informed them, "If you see beasts with armored plates..They are dark beasts on our side. The ones without such things are Zaka Clan beasts. Raoul can tell that much although Raoul does not know exactly who they are....They are fighting further aways however." The others nodded once more to show they understood him.

"Ciera. You really are giving it all you've got. You lost your parents but you still can sing...I will give it my all as well!" Junior thought.

Alicia II stood near Ciera, preparing to fight from afar and guard her. While Kento, Raoul and Junior went directly into battle.

*Harken's castle, Erika's room*

Dion faced Erika as he told her, "I will enforce the family's code and law... You have disgraced our family by siding with Harken, Erika! You saw these horrible things he did and did not stop him. The man killed women in children right in front of you and you did nothing!!! I should destroy your soul right now and cut your head off!"

Erika looked horrified as she told Dion, "Brother..Please..I..Did this all for you..You must know..I had to keep up this facade of loving Harken and being obedient to him...Or else he'd kill you.."

"You love me more than I love myself, Erika! My life isn't that important in the grand scale of things. I will not destroy your soul, but you have to die..If I don't kill you, someone else will and they would truly show no mercy, they may torture you. As one of the sole living members our of family, it's my duty to enforce our law, our code. We deal with our own traitors! Harken should have stayed dead. That technique is horrific and should never be used again! But I shall show mercy. I am only showing you mercy since you were once a strong and proud woman who would rather die than serve Harken! But that all changed, what happened to that Erika? To the one I was proud to call Sister? You stand now as just a shadow of your former self.. Any last words or requests?" Dion asked.

"No requests. Brother...I am truly sorry...I just wished at least you could escape from everything and live a normal life, Dion. I will not resist as you are right...I should have defied Harken but he broke down my will. I know it's no excuse for everything...But I just never had the courage to fight him... That's all I have to say. I just wish you well, brother. A happy life if you can...I was weak when I should have been strong. I have failed miserably." Erika said her last words. She closed her eyes.

"So be it. I cannot forgive you but you were once good to me..You were once family, you and I born from the same parents. I will grant you peace. Goodbye, Erika!" Dion said.

Dion slit Erika's throat swiftly with his claws, she died rather quickly but painlessly. "Rest now Erika, my sister. You did evil things just to insure I would live, you cared about me so much. Hmph but I rather would have been killed than allow Harken to terrorize the people of the Underworld. At least in your next life you won't make the same mistakes.."
"I hated to see her like this..A tool of Harken instead of the woman who looked after me..I am just glad that perhaps in death she returned to who she used to be...She accepted responsibility. There was no joy in killing her..If only she had betrayed Harken. Things could have been different. At least now she is free from Harken's influence..He must have used some sort of mind control on her, she couldn't have been 100% loyal knowing I was fighting Harken. But I shall shed no tears for her. I cannot take back what I have done and she must had some control of herself. Time to move on." He thought.

Once more. He thought to himself, "I hope she had no children with that man. I doubt she did but I best be through with this search. They do not need to die for the crimes of their parents, but I best take them under my wing so they are not raised to be part of the Zaka Clan. I must undo any brainwashing. I am the sole survivor of my clan, my family. The child Isabella will soon have, my son he may very well be the only heir I can pass down our techniques to." With that Dion moved through the castle and began his search. Trying to make haste so he could join the battle going on outside against the remaining Zaka Clan beasts.

As he searched the castle. He found mostly beasts who had been killed by the Jades. He looked through the halls made his way up to a rather strange area with a vault. He forced it open and found a children's room.

He looked around and saw the vault had not been opened in months. He looked around and saw the bodies of Erika and Harken's children. They were badly clawed but Dion could tell they were Erika's, they looked a lot like her.

"Claw marks...Harken's claw marks no doubt...He did this. He must have had these children as hostages...That was why she could never betray him..She must have failed him earilier and he punished her by killing the children... This was why she was ready to die. She must have came in here and found Harken had killed her children. She couldn't use her technique on them either, they were her own children, she bare to sacrifice pieces of their souls to bring them back...." Dion speculated.

Dion shouted in a burst of anger, "These children were innocent! Harken had no right to do this or involve them! This was why she didn't betray him. She wanted to die as soon as she could, she knew Harken would keep her alive to further his goals but she knew I wouldn't let her live..." Dion looked upset.

"She lost the will to live..She lost her reason and sanity. All that's left for me to do is at least give them all a burial...Erika wasn't evil, just totally manipulated even in the end..That bastard Harken killed his own children without regret.." Dion thought.

He said aloud in a somber tone, "My nephews and nieces. Harken didn't give you the honor of laying you to rest but I will. Along with your mother. You will all be avenged, whether by me or by the hands of others. Rest in peace."

 

[Pirogeth]

-Harken's Castle, Throne Room

The portal to the sealed realm had been opened again by a hasty Harken. From the looks of things the Zaka Clan was no longer a threat to the injured and resting. Atoshi got up leaving Nina to rest. He took off his cloak and used it to cover Nina up so she would not be so cold. As he did Kraw made it to the top of the castle. "So you made it. Looks like this is the final battle against the Zaka Clan." Atoshi stated limping over to Kraw.
"Yeah, and finally it will be over, the war between the surface and the Underworld that is." Kraw replied turning toward the portal. Neil and Arisa joined them.
"You guys know what you are doing? This will be an intense fight and you are not fully healed." Atoshi asked.
"Look at yourself once. We are going." Neil said Looking back once Kraw saw Katsugi on the ground.
"Do not worry. She is just resting." Arisa said seeing Kraw put on a slightly worried face. "Now let's go."
"I will not PERISH!" Helen shouted as she got up and charged towards the weakest person in the group. Atoshi was caught off guard and had not time to react. Everyone else could only watch as Helen was just a second away from ramming Atoshi with a spike. Just before the spike hit Atoshi she stopped. The only sound she let out was a gurgling sound.
"Atoshi's fate is not yours to decide." He opened his eyes and saw a silver sword coming out of Helen's mouth. Her eyes were slowly rolling back into her head. The blade was pulled from her head, the metal had gone straight through the back of her neck. She fell to the ground lifeless. Everybody's attention turned toward the assassin.
"Leo." Atoshi whispered his anger heightened. How did he survive such a brutal beating?
"It is good to see you again Atoshi. That last fight sure was invigorating and I will be happy to fight again, however, I want to battle Kraw next." Kraw readied his axe for another fight with him.
"Oh put it away. I am not going to fight you now. You all need your rest, come to The Great Monastery just north of Jackal's Castle after you deal with Harken. I would like to have a one on one match with Kraw…and to make sure you abide by the rules of combat." Leo knelt down and picked up the unconscious Katsugi with relative ease. "I will take her as my hostage. Good bye for now." Leo said disappearing in a blaze of Nifire. At the same time Helen's body erupted in a blaze of Nifire.
"Katusgi!" Kraw yelled.
"We have to deal with Harken right now Kraw. Besides, I believe Leo, he seems to be a man of his word. Katsugi will still be alive after we destroy Harken." Atoshi said. "Although, it will be a tough fight ahead, both against Harken and Leo. So you all ready?" Atoshi asked stepping forward. They all nodded and went through trusting Atoshi's judgment.

-Sealed Realm

As the four made it through they immediately noticed the differences in this realm. The landscape was grey except for a few rocks that glowed a soft orange. Looking around the area the rocks seemed to form a cliff on each side. They had to be in some kind of large ravine. "We have to find Harken and quickly." Kraw said leading the group.

 

[King Weavel]

*Sealed Realm*

As Arisa, Neil, Atoshi and Kraw scouted the area, they found almost nothing, no traces or clues to where Harken could be. The area seemed infinitely large, like a never-ending void. There were no sounds to be heard in this void, it was quiet and lifeless.

Disturbing the silence, a ghostly figure of a dark beast began to manifest itself. The group readied to fight it but soon Neil, Atoshi and Kraw recognized the figure, noticing this Arisa no longer was in her fighting stance. Roy laughed as he said, "So you do recognize me. It is I, Roy!"

"Roy? How'd the hell did you get here?" Kraw asked.

Roy's spirit answered, "I could go to the after life just yet. I was the one who was suppose to inherit some of this energy and be it's caretaker. Even in death, I have to fulfill this purpose before I may pass on. I am dead, I can no longer fight but I have done all I could to stop Harken from breaking the seventh seal and I managed to prevent him from acquiring the Arlon energy crystals. I have succeeded and I shall bestow the Arlon energy upon you! With the aide of the one who can break the seal, Nile Dia! COME FORUTH!"

A portal opened and out of it came Nile, he was still a child but he seemed to be aware of his purpose and in control of his powers. Neil and Arisa were happy to see him but rather shocked at how he was able to make a portal into the Sealed Realm that easily.

"Neil, Arisa, Kraw, Atoshi! This child is the key to the seal, he is Arlon reincarnated! That is how this energy was protected. A seal only Arlon himself could break. Though he may be too young to fight, he can break the seal! He knows how to control his power! Behold, break the seal, young Nile, so we can protect both worlds and put an end to Harken's half-assed ambitions and dreams!!!!!Do it for your parents, for Helen as well! For all of us! Only you can shatter that crystal that serves as the seal, Nile!" Roy ordered. Neil and Arisa were somewhat surprised to hear this truth but they weren't too shocked, it explained a lot about Nile.

Nile focused his energy and charged up. He located a certain point in the sky of the sealed realm and levitated up to it. There was a lone neon crystal floating suspended in the air that constantly changed colors. He shattered it with an energy blast. This triggered the appearance of a string looking rift right behind Roy.

"You've done it, you've truly done it, Nile! Now you may return to Tania to be with your grandparents. Neil and Arisa, they will handle things and return to you!" Roy spoke to Nile. Nile understood this but he levitated towards Neil and Arisa. They hugged him and spoke to him briefly before he left back into the portal he came from, causing it to close.

Roy lead the group into the rift Nile had unsealed. This new area they entered was an extension of the Sealed Realm but it looked different, more vibrant, more alive. They could feel the Arlon energy coursing through the room. A column of Arlon energy near the end of the room was constantly flowing in the area, creating lights comparable to the aurora borealis in the sky.

"This is it. The sealed energy that serves as a back up,a last resort in case the rest of the energy was misused. Not only does Arlon's energy lie here, but the energy of his descendants that merged with it to it and formed energy crystals. Before they passed on, they each contributed some energy into it, I have done so myself. This energy is not only powerful but it contains our memories as well, with this power you will obtain knowledge of long forgotten and powerful techniques. You may take some of these energy crystals on the way out but each person may only handle one, otherwise it may be too much energy for them. Any living thing can harness this energy, morphlings, humans, elves, vampires, demons, hymns, forbidden beasts and any and all half breeds and perhaps even Behemoths could have harnessed this power." Roy explained.

"Even you, Atoshi and Kraw can learn new techniques from the battle memories contained within this energy...Though it was mostly forbidden beasts were descendants of Arlon, they met and sometimes befriended or fought those of other races, they remembered techniques of other races from these encounters. This energy may not grant you the ability to use other forms of energy, it most likely will not but it will give you quite a boost in power and you will be able to use some new techniques." He finished explaining.

He moved towards and touched the energy. He gathered it up into four equal sized spheres of Arlon energy, carefully making sure to distribute the Arlon energy evenly. Roy shouted, "By the shining light of the Arlon energy, protect both the Underworld and Shintaion!!!!!"

He then hurled the spheres at Arisa, Neil, Atoshi and Kraw. They all absorbed it relatively easy but they began to feel strange, they began to feel stronger. They felt traces of the memories recorded in the energy flowing within them as well, teaching them several new techniques.

"You can take some of these energy crystals on the way out after defeating Harken. They are Arlon energy solidified, they can be shattered and the energy from them will empower the one who shatters the crystals. Remember, you must share not take this energy for yourselves, you already have enough. Anymore and it could drive you mad like Harken is now. You MUST also make sure to use this energy to defeat Shini, that is it's true purpose. I trust you will not abuse this newfound power and you will all will use this energy for the good of both worlds, that is it's purpose!" Roy ordered.

He then said, "Neil Dia, I understand you could not protect the entire sealed realm like you promised. Harken cheated and broke in her and took a great deal of energy. But because of this, he has already taken most of it. However, you MUST win, you have enough energy to do it and you cannot fail! Put an end to that madman! Fight with all your might for the future of the Underworld and Shintaion!! It's all in your hands, I wish I could join you all in battle but my time has long since passed. I must join Ella in the after life. Maya will raise Juila for well.I trust you all! Now you must Fight for everyone you've befriended, everyone you know and love! Show no mercy as everything is on the line in this fight! ARISA! NEIL! KRAW! ATOSHI! SLAUGHTER HARKEN IN MY PLACE!! SO LONG!" Roy bid farewell as he began to fade. He eventually vanished.

"Wow..That Roy was a nice guy after all..A little intense but we have him and Nile to thank for his new found power.." Arisa thought. The four of them did not talk much as they left the rift Nile had opened up. Just as they left, a new and very large rift appeared to the left of the group.

"Harken. He must have been watching..Waiting for us..This has to be his doing. Well. It's time to go! You heard the man, we gotta slaughter Harken and put him in his grave for good!" Kraw said. With that, they all followed Kraw into the portal.
This new area of the sealed realm was also different. It looked like a replica of Harken's castle. Harken had apparently used his energy and created it. However, like the other areas, the sky looked blank and empty like outer space but minus the stars and lights from Arlon energy. The only thing that provided light was the crystals around the area.

Harken teleported into the area, he then used his energy and created a throne to sit on as he spoke. "I was getting bored waiting. I did some remodeling of this realm. I think I'll keep this place as my own personal realm! I can destroy both the Underworld and Shintaion, I can bring only my loyal minions here! Only they shall survive the destruction of both worlds...Yes..."

Harken himself did not appear to have transformed from the last time Kraw fought him. He looked the same but fully healed. He continued to speak, "Before we fight. I must ask, what makes all of you fit to judge me as some sort of villain? All of you are degenerates in your own right, your own lives are very empty and sad. Me? I am successful, I built an empire! A clan that could conquer the Underworld! And Now I am a God! You? You're nothing! I could crush you like ants, that is how weak you are compared to me! I am a higher form of life, you're all just primitive and jealous of my success! None of you come close to me!"

He continued once more, "Take Kraw Dusk for instance. A half human, half demon. He talks about equality and all these pipe dreams that will never come true! Tell me, was there any real progress, Kraw? And what about Katsugi, you trained for ten years but that only served to put tension between you. You didn't accomplish anything in reality. You didn't change the world and you didn't even get the girl of your dreams! AAHAHAHAH! You still can't go out in public without people trying to kill you either since you're related to Krad Dusk! Even though you're the hero to those inferorites, they treat you like shit!"

Kraw cringed and responded, "Equality is not something that's easy to obtain, Harken! Of course it takes time. Things have gotten better if you actually lived up in Shintaion, you might notice! You're just talking out of your ass! And as for Katsugi, that's not any of your business. Me and her? We got an understanding but we can't exactly settle down and have fun with douchebags like you around, now can we? Heh and who says we can't go out in public? Heh, I am not afraid, I'll take out anyone who's trying to hunt me down, including you Harken! Your ass is as good as mine and you've got nowhere left to run now!"

Harken laughed as he then insulted Arisa, "You. Arisa Hale, Princess of the Underworld. A truly lonely, naive and childish girl. After I had your parents assassinated, Jackal and Mia raised you. But you never could recover from that loneliness, that void, that emptiness! You left the Underworld for some reason and went up to the surface. You foolishly fell in love an inferorite, Neil Dia! You disgraced your own people in doing so. You took care of Nile, a child who rightfully belongs to me as Helen birthed him! You stole him!

He continued verbally assaulting Arisa,"I shall take him back as he belongs to me and he will use his power only for the Zaka Clan! You are only alive today because your brother Jackal took such good care and was always watching over you! You're nothing!!! You're not tough, you're not a strong person! You're just a cheap whore! How can you hope to survive against me? If your precious Neil just died you, you'd have no will to survive! I'd offer you to become my new Queen but you're just too weak! You might as well be counted as an inferorite because you love them and have befriended so many of them! You don't realize they're all hateful towards dark beasts! That's why they tried to destroy the entire Underworld with that bomb!"

Arisa countered, "This isn't going to be very lady-like of me.....Shut the fuck up Harken! You don't know me at all! My love for Neil is also none of your business. You could never understand how close we are! I'm no whore so I guess you're not smart enough to even know what that word means. We won't let you take Nile, you'd just hurt him and force him to use his powers! He's just a child, he's not some sort of tool or weapon, he's a living thing who needs to be cared for and treated as such! It's a concept you never understood! As for my friends on the surface, you're too simple minded to understand that people of the surface aren't that different, there's no reason we can't live in peace. The surface had evil people like you too, Harken! They were the only ones who wanted that bomb to succeed. I know the forbidden alliance and the rest of the world wouldn't support of destroying an entire world! In fact, they opposed it and stopped it! People from the surface helped save the Underworld!"

She finished, "Oh and for the record, no woman would willingly become your Queen! No women would even willingly mate with you, you 're just that disgusting and self absorbed. You've an ugly old beast on the inside, even though you've restored your youth! A face not even a mother could love, so don't worry, we'll put you out of your misery, you are the weak one, you try to become a God because you realize you have no purpose in life, you've got nothing left! Your minions cling to you only so they can survive, they are not your friends or truly loyal to you! No one loves you now, no one ever has and no one ever will, Harken! You're just unlikeable. So don't feel sad, no one will miss you after we kill you, old man! No funeral, no grave, nothing for you! You're not worth remembering, just an old coward and a shell of a man!You'll just be remembered as some cowardly tyrant we defeated and that's it!" She smiled and laughed.

Harken looked annoyed as he stared at Arisa angrily. However he then focused his sights on Neil.
"Oh yes. Neil Dia, the weakest of them all. A timid and gentle young beast. An innocent one! Exodus created a false religion and you and a few other fools such as your family bought into it! You worshiped the so called Ice God who was actually Exodus. You met Arisa and were tainted by her, corrupted and perverted! However, due to Exodus's blundering, you soon saved your father and discovered your mother and siblings were still alive. You inherited blood from your Mother, Ena. You know..I think after I kill you, I may take her as my new Qu-"

Neil was outraged as he ran up to Harken and clawed him in the face, "JUST SHUT UP! Enough of your lies,insults and threats! You insulted Kraw, me and Arisa! It's gotten so old! Arisa never corrupted me or anything, meeting her helped me grow and change for the better! I would have gotten nowhere if I had always been so close-minded and strict! Now Harken, it's time you put your money where your mouth is and fight us! Oh and my parents would beat you to a bloody pulp, you're only good at running away and talking, not fighting! Even with this stolen energy, you never could win a fair fight!"

Everyone nodded and agreed. Atoshi added, "We came here to fight you, not to listen to you gloat!"
"Heh. Yep. And I have to rescue Katsugi, I've got to get her back real soon here, Harken! So let's get down to business and make this quick!" Kraw commented.

Harken seemed delighted as he wiped off some blood off his face and took an offensive stance. "A shame. I wanted to talk with you too, Atoshi as you're the most unheroic of them all. But since I have been so rudely interrupted, I'll kill you all now! Prepare yourselves. A confrontation with a God is something mere mortals cannot comprehend or survive!"

He smashed his throne and flew into the air. He then created spheres of fire energy in his hands as he quickly tossed them off at Neil and the others. He tossed at least forty of them within the span of a minute. Each sphere created a small explosion as it hit the ground. As the dust cleared, Harken looked angry to see he had done little damage. Neil had created a wall of ice to block the spheres they could not avoid and soften the damage from the explosions.

Instead of letting them get a chance to attack, Harken continued to assault them. He charged up his energy. He crashed down to the ground and slammed his fists into the ground near the group, channeling energy into it. Soon a massive pillar of fire erupted from the ground, Arisa used her vixen wings and flew Neil away from it while Atoshi and Kraw managed to barley dodge it in time.

"I can't be a burden like this! It's time to use my full power!" Neil said. He focused and soon he began to transform into the Crystal Beast form! He could now transform whenever he choose! Harken tried to interrupt Neil's transformation but was blasted with a strange wind of crystal energy that blew Harken away. This was not an attack, it seemed to be a defensive mechanism of the transformation itself.

Arisa stood near Neil, watching him. She noticed Neil's transformation was different this time as he was surrounded with a radiating light and a barrier of some sort. It did not repel or harm Arisa however. She decided to take advantage of the situation and transform herself as well. She used her Soul Mirror technique and began to transform as well.

Kraw and Atoshi had Harken surrounded as he got up. Kraw channeled energy into his axe and stabbed Harken's chest with it, disabling Harken's regeneration. Harken quickly flew away as he wanted to kill Arisa and Neil before they could finish transforming. However, he was too late and as he flew over to them, he saw they had completed their transformations.

Neil was fully encased in crystal armor. He had a helmet of crystal energy, claws of crystal energy and he had a crystal shield with him in his right hand. Arisa was rather bunny like in appearance once more but this time she had permanent wings made of dark energy and a magician's hat on her head as well as a cape that was attached to her dress. She also was totally in control of herself. Harken quickly charged up and released at least forty lasers of fire energy at Neil alone. Some of them came from above Neil, others were fired straight at Neil.

Using his shield masterfully, Neil reflected the lasers fired straight at him with his Crystal Shield. He then held the shield above him and protected himself from the lasers that rained down on him. "This is my Full Crystal Beast Form, Harken! It's going to take more than this!" Harken looked distressed as the attack did was fully blocked and reflected, he dodged all of the reflected lasers however. He then set his sights on Arisa instead, hoping to be able to defeat her.

"Transformation or not, light energy will slaughter you! Farewell, Arisa!"Harken created a lance of light energy that spewed out of his mouth and launched down at Arisa, it moved quickly and it seemed to have hit her. However, Harken blinked for a second and noticed Arisa was gone.

She appeared behind him in the air and took off her hat, she put some energy into it and tossed it away. As Harken turned around and noticed her, she focused her energy on her left foot and created a spiked heel of dark energy, she kicked Harken and lodged the energy heel into his skull. Then Arisa's hat floated behind Harken, it released a barrage of hundreds of knives of dark energy that stabbed and got stuck in Harken's back. They then exploded violently. Arisa finished the attack off by kicking Harken to the ground. She grabbed her hat back and put it on.

"This is the Bunny Magician form! Hehehe, I think it's my best form yet. This form heightens my intelligence, thus even if I use my Soul Mirror attack to transform in induce a final beast transformation, I can enter this and be fully in control and rationale instead of focusing on My Neil a bit too much like my previous forms did when I used the Soul Mirror. My speed is also greatly increased!" Arisa explained.

Harken looked to be in extreme pain. He managed to rip out the energy heel Arisa had lodged into his skull. Atoshi and Kraw destroyed all of his wings and ripped them out painfully. Harken screamed in pain. However he managed to quickly teleport away before anyone could finish him off.

He had teleported right on top of the replica of his castle. There he struggled to catch his breathe and waited for his regeneration to return. No such luck however as Kraw had disabled it for a long period of time! He then noticed the group had found him.

Kraw used some of his energy and applied it to his axe. It caused the axe to grow seventy times it's normal size! He demolished the replica of Harken's castle and nearly crushed Harken. Harken teleported out the way just in time to avoid the attack.

Harken struggled to try to regenerate. Instead, he used his energy and replaced his regular arms with energy arms. The process was painful as some of his nerves had to be destroyed in the process. "I may not be able to properly grow my normal limbs back but this will do nicely."

He then screamed out loudly and grew six pairs of wings made of crystal energy and began to fly once more. He teleported away as he saw Arisa was chasing him. He charged up his energy as he began to taunt the others, "You forget, I am the master of this realm! You are interlopers, you are interfering!!! THIS IS MY WORLD! If I have been denied my ownership of the Underworld and the destruction of Shintaion, then this is all that's left for me! THIS REALM MINE AND YOU CAN"T TAKE IT!" Harken's sanity seemed to leave him the longer the battle went on.

He then flew as high as he could in the sealed realm, released his charged energy and created a smaller artificial moon. He grabbed hold of it and charged downwards, hoping to crush the three fighters to death. He soon dropped it and quickly flew up very high into the air. He then charged down and brought the artificial moon with him, it collided with the ground and promptly exploded thunderously, rocking the entire sealed realm. Harken assumed it killed Neil, Atoshi and Kraw.

The ground was not destroyed by the attack as it was rather indestructible. This was because after all, if it was destroyed one could fall and be lost in the void of the sealed realm.

"Ahaha...Now Arisa should be the only one left! What?" He looked down and noticed Neil had created a force field of some sort that had absorbed most of the explosion. Neil however, took a bit of damage himself as some of his crystal armor appeared to have been blown off. However it began to regenerate.

"Why won't they all just die????? Why can't you just leave me alone??? Why can't a God KILL MORTALS EASILY?" Harken yelled to himself. He then looked at Atoshi and decided he was the weakest. Arisa nearly ambushed Harken but he teleported out of the way.

Harken teleported right behind Atoshi. He turned his right energy arm into a dagger, the other into a lance. Atoshi quickly turned around and dodged the dagger, only to be stabbed in the shoulder with Harken's lance. Atoshi seemed to be in a bit of pain but he pulled the lance out of his shoulder and escaped. Harken pursued him.

"AHAHAHAHAHA! Even if I can't win, if I kill one of you, that'll be enough. Yes. Yes YESSSSSS! You are battle scarred, ahahaha! It'll be easy to kill you!" However, Atoshi promptly channeled some energy into his chakrams and tossed them off at Harken. Harken dodged them and laughed, "What was that suppose to be?" "Veil of Night. That's what it's called." Harken mocked the attack, "AHAAHAH! You should put on a veil to hide your face after such a sad attack! You're embarrassing yourself, Atoshi!" Atoshi kept a blank expression on his face so as not to alert Harken as to what was going to occur next.

Soon however, the chakrams released black fog that clouded Harken's vision. Atoshi grabbed the chakrams as they came back to him and proceeded to slice and dig into Harken's flesh, swinging them as quickly as possible before the fog cleared.
Once the fog was gone. Harken's bleeding became truly intense. He felt light-headed and struggled to move. Neil took this opportunity to attack. He charged up his energy and fired off a blast of crystal energy, "Crystal Cannon!"The blast of crystal energy froze and encased Harken's body inside a crystal.

He then charged at Harken, creating two horns of crystal energy on his helmet. He shattered through the crystal he sealed Harken inside. The shards of the crystal painfully cut into Harken's flesh and some got stuck in his eyes. Neil then shredded Harken with his claws and then lifted him up into the air and dropped him so he landed right into the range of Neil's horns, impaling Harken with ease. Neil then ruthlessly clawed Harken's lower body with his crystal claws while Harken was painfully held in place due to Neil's horns. After he was done, he forced Harken off his horns and into the air.

Harken struggled to breathe as he began to fade from consciousness. Blood oozing out of almost every part of him. He was barley alive and half dead now. As he was in the air, Arisa targeted him. She took off her hat and sent it flying, putting some energy into it. She then created three other "magic" hats that looked exactly like it. One floated below Harken, one above him and one at his left side.

"Hello Harken! I needed a volunteer for this trick! This trick is called the Mystery Combination! It's simple, I will make you disappear! Now..Look, how many magic hats do you see? And what will they unleash upon you? Even I do not know!" Arisa asked.

The hat below Harken moved up closer and before he could fall, propelled him up with a current of dark energy used to make wind, it kept him in the air. The hat above Harken then began to shoot out hundreds of tiny knives at him. The hat to his left side began to swing a buzzsaw-yo-yo at him, cutting him each time it came out of the hat. Lastly, her true hat floated over to Harken's right side and released saw bladed discs of dark energy that cut into Harken's side, it shoot out only ten of them before stopping however. Arisa made the hats made of energy vanish. She then grabbed Harken and held him by the tail.

"Now, Harken. Which one of those was my real hat?" She waited for a bit for a reply but received none. "Bzzzzt! Time's up! A good magician never reveals her secrets! But.. There's one last thing left to finish this trick off." She explained.

She let go of Harken's tail. Her real hat floated back at her. Arisa then charged up her energy quickly and released a gigantic dark energy arrow that pierced though Harken's spine. He then crashed down into the ground violently. This constant bombardment of attacks kept Harken unable to fight back. His regeneration also failed to kick back in as Kraw had disabled it for a large amount of time.

Atoshi moved in and prepared another attack. Atoshi used his energy on his chakrams and increased the length of the spikes on them. He then hooked them into the ground as he went by Harken, he turned around and released them. He stabbed Harken with them. He repeated the process once more, hooking the chakrams into the ground, turned around, released them and stabbed Harken. He repeated this process a few times until Harken truly could no longer move.

"Everyone..Clear the way! It's time to end this! Heh, this it, Harken! Final Meteo Impact!" Kraw shouted. Everyone heeded his words as they gave Kraw space so he could use a truly devastating attack.

He applied a great deal of his energy into his axe. He tossed it into the air above Harken, as it came back down, it had become a meteor! It came crashing down on Harken's body, crushing him before it exploded. As the smoke cleared, Harken appeared to be dead. No longer breathing and no longer could the sound of his heart beating be heard. The four fighters looked tired out after all the fighting and breathed a sigh of relief.

But their little break was cut short as energy left Harken's body. They then heard Harken's voice speak to them telepathically, "Jackal may have been right. I can no longer recreate my body it seems due to his curse, under normal circumstances, you'd all have won! My soul will not go to the after life so easily or be destroyed by you! NO! But now...BUT NOW..I AM A GOD! That remaining energy... Oh it helped me..It helped me..Now..GET OUT OF MY WORLDDDDD!"

His soul and his remaining energy fused to create a new body made of solid dark energy. This new and strange form created the illusion of blue eyes, a red mouth of some sort. It then grew several sizes larger than Harken normally was, growing to around twenty five feet tall. It had no organs or anything of that sort and seemingly no weak points. It also Harken screamed however as his newly formed left arm was bigger and malformed when compared to the right.

"The energy..The energy..THE ENERGY OF A GOD! AHAHAHAHAHAH!" Harken yelled as he fired off some dark energy into the sky and created several explosions, Arisa quickly flew down but Harken continued attacking in a berserk rampage, senselessly creating explosions in a sky for a good minute or two even after he saw Arisa fly back down.

"I WILL DESTROY EVEYTHING I CANNOT TAKE AS MY OWN! THE HEAVENS ABOVE, THE EARTH BELOW, EVERYTHING THAT SHOULD BE MINE BUT CANNOT BE!" Harken yelled in an insane tone.

"Roy wasn't kidding when he said absorbing too much Arlon energy would drive you mad..." Kraw thought as he surveyed Harken's new form and thought of a way he could harm it without getting too close. He tossed off his axe like a tomahawk and channeled some energy into it so it'd come back to him. As the axe sliced into Harken, it did little to him, it only chipped off a piece of energy that faded once it was cut off Harken's new form but was soon replaced.

"His body...It really is made of energy...It'll take damage but just reform...Dammit!" Kraw said aloud so the others would hear him.

Harken then called out, "Apocalypse Devastation!!!!!!" He used a great deal of energy as he created four rifts above the four fighters, from these rifts several small comets began to fall down all at once, Arisa was able to dodge all of those coming at her but soon noticed Neil was in trouble. Several comets hit him and broke through his barriers and force fields he tried to set up. His armor was shattered almost entirely and struggled to regenerate with the constant bombardment of comets. Arisa flew towards him out of the way.

Kraw and Atoshi barley managed to get by destroying the comets coming at them. However some of the comets from the portal above Arisa headed straight for them and eventually nearly hit them, an explosion surrounded the two of them.

Harken continued the attack, a steady stream of comets continued to fall. Then he launched more energy spheres into the sky and rays of light energy rained down. This hit Arisa and caused her to fall near where Neil was and she was also hit directly by some of the comets.

"N-n-neil...Urgh..." Arisa said struggling to talk as she felt intense pain. "Arisa! Don't worry about me..Urgh..Just try to stop him..I can handle this..This armor may eventually regenerate.." "My Neil..I can't abandon you..And I myself don't think I can get up at the moment.." The two of them struggled to recover and get back up as the comets and rays of light above ceased.

Harken's right arm then transformed into a gigantic hammer, he began to swing it down on Neil and Arisa, breaking all of Neil's crystal armor entirely, smashing Neil's and Arisa's bones. He eventually stopped as he thought they fell unconscious or died. They were only breathing now. He destroyed Neil's crystal shield as well, smashing it with much joy.
"AHAHAHAHAA! Two down..Two more to GO! Yes, it's beautiful, this transformation of mine, you must all feel my greatness! THE DIVINE RIGHT OF A GOD! I am Divine! I am The ENERGY GOD!" He glared at Atoshi and Kraw. The two of them quickly spread out.

"This is insanity..His power is insane. He nearly could launch an infinite amount of those comets down on us. Heh, still not good enough! They're not dead and nor are me and Atoshi, Harken! But come and get me, I'm the one you want!" Kraw taunted Harken hoping to take his focus off Neil and Arisa.

Kraw created an orb of gray energy and tossed it off at Harken. Harken absorbed the energy and grew a few inches in size! "What the hell? Hey Atoshi, he absorbs energy.. This guy...Physical attacks might be the only thing that'll work against him! I doubt he'd be able to absorb energy if its channeled into our weapons though!"

"AAHAHAHHA! LIKE INSECTS I CAN CRUSH YOU! It's all for nothing!!! THIS IS MY WORLD! MY WORLDDDDDDDDDD!" Harken yelled and rambled as he screamed. The energy around his head seemed unstable as it grew in size than shrank again.

"He's unstable due to all his energy, he can't maintain his form perfectly...Stalling might be the way to go..He can't last forever like this." Atoshi said to Kraw. Kraw nodded and replied speaking quickly, "Yeah but he might crush us if we try to stall, that's the issue. I'm thinking if we manage to deplete all his energy though...That'll help! This energy is like a shell around his soul, without it, he'll be open to a direct attack..Or at least I hope it's like that anyhow. Either way, let's try to deplete all his energy!"

With that, Kraw channeled energy into his axe and caused it to grow twenty times it's size. He swung it at Harken hoping to slice through him but Harken grabbed the axe with his right arm.

"AHAHAHAHAH! I AM HARKEN THE GOD!!!! Your weapons are useless!!!" He then punched Kraw with his left fist, sending Kraw flying.

"Dammit! This cheap bastard is no push over now! Giant fists hurt like a bitch!" Kraw struggled to get up as his axe returned to normal.

Atoshi tossed his chakrams off at Harken, dissipating some of energy that formed Harken's body. However, once again, Harken applied energy to the areas that needed it and recovered.

Harken laughed," A TRUE GOD HAS NO HEART, NO WEAK POINTS! THAT IS WHAT I AM! You just don't get it, do you? It's over!! OVER! OVERRRRRRRRRRRRR!This realm is mine! I am your GOD! AHAHAH!"

Neil and Arisa managed to get up. Neil used some of his energy to heal Arisa as his crystal armor fully regenerated. His own wounds did not regenerate however.
"Oh? So you're back? You're not dead? Oh well then let me fix that! AHAHAHA! YAHAHAHAHA!" Harken laughed as his voice echoed.
He fused both of his hands into one gigantic sword. But instead of using it to attack them he sliced open a part of the sealed realm, creating a portal, a ghastly looking one.

"OPEN..THE GATES TO HELL! MY ETERNAL SEVANTS, ATTACK! DO WELL AND I MAY RESURRECT YOU ALLLLL!" From this portal emerged a violent storm of evil dark beast spirits, they swarmed the area. They were spirits of Harken's dead minions.

The targeted everyone, cutting them with their blade like hands, slashing them violently before Harken forced them back and pulled them back in the portal. He then closed it off. The attack wasn't too deadly but it had them each quite few times. Harken's arms then went back to normal.

"Damn.. That was insane.. Could have been worse though." Neil commented. His armor still stood and he had barley managed to block the attack and had defended Arisa from it.

Kraw taunted Harken, "Wow, your dead minions sure were weak! Didn't even really pierce through my armor with those claws of theirs! That attack was just all smoke and mirrors, it looked frighting but didn't do a whole lot! You can't have your dead peons fight for you, you gotta do it yourself!" Kraw channeled some energy into his axe, he then tossed it out like a tomahawk at Harken once more.

This time however, it released twenty medium sized crescent shaped blades from it, although they were made of energy, they cut Harken and flew off before he could absorb them. Of course the cuts did very little as Harken just used his energy and repaired the damage done to his new form.

"Heh, can't absorb it unless it's an energy blast, sphere or an attack that tries to stab or impale you heh! If it passes right by you and just cuts you a bit, you can't absorb it since they're not trying to pierce through you!" Kraw said aloud, revealing one of Harken's new forms weaknesses.

Inspired by Kraw's technique, Arisa charged up her energy. She created a deck of fifty two playing cards made of energy. "Harken, you're not playing with a full deck, silly moron! You'll lose by default!Do you get the metaphor? Killer Shuffle!" She then tossed them off and made them razor sharp, launching them all at once at Harken's left arm. Each card passed by it and sliced off pierces of it.

Eventually, Harken's left arm seemed to be gone. However, he recreated it with his energy. Arisa's cards returned back to her and stacked on top of each other perfectly. They then disappeared.

Atoshi tossed off his charkrams at Harken's right arm, putting a fair amount of energy into them, making the spikes on them grow as he tossed them. They destroyed Harken's right arm in one go but it reformed once more. "His energy..It should be running out..How can he keep reforming like this?" Atoshi questioned.

"I don't know..All I know is we can't win like this, his energy just seems infinite! His body just won't break down or have holes long enough for us to target his soul. There has to be someway.. I can feel some memories from the Arlon energy pouring into me..A technique that might be able to beat him is on my mind...It'll take a while but..It should do it! I just need to charge up!" Neil informed the others.

"Sounds good my Neil! I don't think I've got anything that could really finish him off..But I'll do my best to help you!" Arisa replied to Neil.
"So be it. Neil, get ready. We'll deal with Harken. He's easy to distract and sidetrack at the moment as his sanity is fading!"

Harken was not paying any attention to what the four fighters were saying, he was merely charging up his energy.
"AHHHHHHHHH! Grrrrrraaah! You..You are responsible for this! YOUUUUU! MY WORLD.." The energy around Harken's head nearly faded but he quickly caused it to regenerate.

Arisa felt worried as she could feel all the energy Harken had gathered for his next attack. It was such an immense amount of energy, the group could hear it moving through the air as Harken began to glow.

"Guys, we're getting out of here for a bit! I know you can all feel and hear what he's doing..He's really lost it!" She grabbed ahold of Neil and flew over to where Atoshi and Kraw were, she tossed her cape over herself and the others, teleporting with them to an unclear location.

A few seconds after, Harken shouted, "Apocalypse Supernova!" Harken opened up hundreds of rifts that launched gigantic asteroids out of them, he then slammed the ground and caused several deadly and superheated geysers of dark energy to burst out of the ground, he then fired a gigantic laser from his mouth. At the end of the attack, a giant ray of dark energy hit the ground and created a massive mushroom clouded shaped explosion comparable to a nuclear weapon. There was no safe area during this attack and clearly, no way to survive it. Some of the ground in the area had been destroyed by the attack. Harken's own attack caused him to have to reform the energy around his own soul as the attack destroyed it. He quickly recreated his energy body immediately however.

The others telepoted back in. They had escaped to the entrance of the Sealed Realm temporarily to avoid the attack and returned once Arisa sensed it had ended and that it was safe to return. "Phew. I'm glad we got out in time. Yeppers, that was a big one! But he's not going to be able to do that easily again..He used up a lot of energy, even for him." Arisa said.

The area was still a bit smoky but it soon cleared up. The four fighters quickly spread out. Harken gazed at them angrily. "STILL ALIVE? STILL HERE? HOW? HOW? Why? URRRRRRRRRAGHHHHHHHH!" Harken went into a berserk rage as he screamed and screeched violently.

"NEIL! Do whatever you gotta do just make it fast, man! We might not get so lucky next time he uses that ultimate attack of his! He's probably going to try it again after this little fit of his ends! We'll beat on him and cover you as much as we can in the mean time! And anyone has any other ways they think might beat Harken, go for it! But just make sure he doesn't absorb anymore energy from us!" Kraw ordered as he actually looked somewhat nervous but kept a grin on his face. Neil nodded as he recreated his crystal shield and then began to charge up his crystal energy. Arisa moved near Neil to cover him. "My Neil, Harken will have to kill me to get any attacks past me!"

Kraw and Atoshi were close to Harken as they prepared to fight him and attempt to find some sort of other weakness. But things truly looked terrible, Harken's new energy body made him akin to a God!

 

[Pirogeth]

His brand new body made it rather hard to just simply hit Harken; but now that they had a weakness to exploit things were looking up. Atoshi readied his chakrams for another go as Kraw seemed to pour some of his energy into his axe. Harken's insanity shown through though as he prepared another massive attack. "I will show you fools! I will show all of you what I can do! Not once but twice!" Harken shouted gathering energy in for another large attack. This time the floor started to shake as pieces of the Harken made realm started to float upward. They gathered at above Harken and started to form a ball. Filtering his energy into it the ball set on fire. With the floor falling apart they had no choice but to rely on Arisa's teleporting skills again. Everyone rushed over to Arisa, but Harken noticed them all. "Not this time I am afraid." He said to himself as he focused his power on the ground in front of them. The pieces flew up into the sky causing Kraw and Atoshi to stop in their tracks. Kraw backed up a bit and went for a jump. He leaped from one broken piece to another until he made it to Arisa. There was a large ravine now dividing Atoshi from the other three.
"Atoshi you can make it!" Arisa shouted. Atoshi nodded and sprout his wings. He tried flying through the rubble going up towards Harken's meteor. He managed to dodge several before getting within touching distance of Arisa. Atoshi grabbed a hold of her and she quickly powered up for the transport. Just as she was about to use her ability another rock came up from the ground and smashed right into Atoshi. Arisa teleported without him and now Atoshi was left alone with Harken.
"BAHAHAHA! Your friends have abandoned you! They have signed your death warrant!" Atoshi stood on the last bit of ground left looking straight up at Harken's massive attack. "HARKEN'S JUDGMENT!!!" He yelled out as he tossed the massive flaming meteor at him. "Begone!" As the meteor hit the last bit of land the whole place exploded in a fury of flames and rubble. After the explosion Harken seemed to reabsorb some of his attack as well as create the realm again. His castle was back and the only thing that was not under his control was a broken and bloody Atoshi. He tried to get up but he just did not feel anything in any of his limbs. Harken descended and sat down right next to him.
"You guys have been a tremendous pain. God Harken commends you coming this far, however, you still do not have the strength to beat me." Harken said smiling.
"What was it…Harken?" Atoshi asked trying to look up at him. "What was it that you were going to say about me earlier? How I was unheroic."
"I guess I can tell you seeing as you are about to die. I may not seem the type but I did my research long before the Zaka Clan was even a prominent force in the Underworld." Harken now looked at Atoshi with malicious and hateful eyes. "And you are probably one of the most destructive assets to the Coltier Military I had ever heard of. I heard talk of a demon enlisted commander going to towns in the evening and then by morning not a single soul was alive. Who would have thought I would get the chance to meet such a brutal person. Now you are here trying to save those you would have destroyed? You do not fit the hero position." Harken now stood up laughing.
"You are right, I do not suit the position of hero. But because of those events I owe a debt to Shintaion, and if that debt has to be paid by facing the most dangerous entities that want to destroy Shintaion in combat, then I will do just that. You are but one of my payments Harken, nothing more." Atoshi said, his voice giving away from its earlier raspiness.
"YOU DARE TALK DOWN TO THE ONE WHO HOLDS YOUR LIFE IN HIS HANDS!" Harken yelled irritated that his prey would talk back to him in such a manor.
"You will never hold anyone's life in your hands you crazed bastard." Atoshi said getting up. His injuries he sustained form the last attack were fully healed.
"Wha-WHAT!? You should be barely alive after a direct attack like that."
"One of the new features from the Arlon power flowing through me, enhanced regeneration. Now let me show you some of the most devastating vampiric attacks these battle memories have in store." Atoshi jumped back and prepared a few spheres of energy behind him. Each of them were a black red mix, almost like dark energy. "Swarm of Night." Atoshi said calmly as dark energy bats flew out of the four spheres. Each one went straight for Harken, and like before, cuts were formed nearly cutting his limbs off but not entirely.
"What is causing this?" Harken questioned looking around for any blades the bats were carrying or secret attacks being carried out.
"Do you not have any imagination Harken. The bats are causing your destruction. Try catching them I dare you." Atoshi said. Without taking any heed to Atoshi's warning Harken started batting at them. As he hit them not only were more cuts made but the bats exploded upon being delivered a heavy blow. Once one exploded the whole group started to go. Harken was caught in a chain reaction of explosions. Finally he was shot backward and skid along the ground. His energy form was looking chopped up and broken. Yet, just like Atoshi, he regenerated his limbs.
"You thought that would really harm me? You inferiorites are dumber than I originally thought." Harken charged up his power again, this time he formed a portal in front of him. Out of it shot a bright beam of light energy. Atoshi had little time to react. He dodged the blow but did not escape unscathed. The beam caught his side and ripped open a wound.
"I will have to get serious then Harken. We will try something else out." Atoshi then accessed the memories again looking for another attack. He now had in mind a perfect attack.
"Nothing you can do could possibly do lasting damage to my perfect body. Mwahahahaha!" Harken said belittling Atoshi's ancestors.
"Energy Drain!" Atoshi shouted as his wings formed dark red and black ribbons. Each of them latched onto Harken's body and began to drain away the energy he was made of. His form started to slowly disappear. As Atoshi tried to absorb Harken tried to regenerate.
"You cannot absorb more Arlon energy!" Harken stated thinking that was what Atoshi was after. Instead it was Harken's other energy, the stuff that was not sealed but still there, his dark energy. Harken simply made his hand into a blade and cut through the ribbons that were made stopping the attack. He smirked, "Come on give me a fight." Harken said. His hand then started to ache. The sword was dissolving and his hand returning. "GAAAAH! NOW WHAT IS HAPPENING?"
"Your dark energy has been drained." Atoshi said in short breaths. It was as if he had been poisoned by his energy. "I drained it all, so your body will not respond normally." Atoshi now had beads of sweat forming on his forehead. Harken noticed this and decided to take a minute to gloat.
"Kind of powerful isn't it? My energy too much to take? Or is it that you finally see that I can infect my own energy with a poison that damages others?" Harken said still smiling.
"No, it is just I cannot stand looking at your ugly face any longer." Atoshi now picked up his chakrams nearly too dizzy to fight.
"You will pay for that." Harken said striking first. He was too fast for Atoshi. His fist came in and smashed his gut, his other fist then ran straight into his face sending him flying. "Now for the final blow." As soon as Harken was prepared to make the last hit Arisa teleported back in.
"You will not hurt him anymore!" Arisa said. She turned back to Atoshi who was on the ground gripping his stomach. "I am so sorry Atoshi. I can only teleport so many times before I am just worn out."
"Th-that is fine." Atoshi said. "Just kick his ass for me." Atoshi said before finally blacking out.

 

[King Weavel]

*Sealed Realm*

"Oh what a bore. Women are weak. Why don't you call for some back up, you can't defeat me! This will be an endless stalemate with my current amount of energy! Hard to control or not, my energy is all-mighty! I AM A GOD! The pinnacle of Evolution! Without your allies, without being able to teleport, you'll join Atoshi soon! Let me demonstrate my abilities. " Harken attempted to grow a tail but instead, he grew a crab like-arm there instead. Harken screamed in a fit of rage and agony, "Why? THAT INFERORITE couldn't interfere with me like this!!! Or is it true...Is it true I cannot handle this energy? Am I..Losing control???"

Arisa answered, "You're not a perfect and whole God, Harken. You're just an incomplete monstrosity who doesn't know when to shut up!" She grabbed ahold of Atoshi as Harken tried to smash her with his arms and the failed crab like tail. Arisa managed to dodge but she looked tired out from all her movements and teleportation.

"You don't know what I am! AHAHAH!Even if my body cannot hold up, I'll kill you all before I vanish! I am very well capable of that!" He then did a very strange attack. Some of the energy that made up his body separated from him to fall off him and gather and created a small but fast moving beam of energy and fired it right at Arisa. Arisa held out her hat, positioning it so the beam would go into the hat. The hat absorbed the beam.

"Didn't you learn? My hats can both store and absorb energy! Well at least weak attacks like that one!" Arisa explained annoying Harken greatly. Arisa then used her energy and created one very large yo-yo and added the buzz saw effect onto it, "Giant's Yo-yo!" She swung the yo-yo at Harken and managed to slice through his arms. She spun it around and repeated the process. But once again, Harken converted some of the energy that made up his body into a beam, but this time several and he fired them all at Arisa and Atoshi. Arisa managed to dodge most of them but one of them managed to hit her. She winced in pain and her giant yo-yo vanished.

"AHAAHAHAH! Stupid little woman..What did I tell you? But if you abandon Atoshi, maybeeeee you can survive and escape with your life!" Arisa shook her head and responded, "I won't. He's our comrade! This pain..It's nothing I can't handle!"

"Ahahahaha, oh say what you will....Then I'll finish you both off then, you are so stupid to care about other people, that is a grave weakness indeed!W-what's this?" Harken was surprised as the piece of land he and two others were on behind to move as if it was being pulled.

He looked down and saw Neil used some of his energy to create many crystal anchors that he latched into the piece of land. Kraw used his energy to enhance the strength of both his arms, allowing him to pull the anchors, moving the heavy piece of land towards them. As soon as it was within range of a small and easy to make jump, Neil and Kraw made it. Kraw looked rather worn out afterwards. "Heh, damn, so that castle was adding on all the weight! Heh but this Arlon energy gave me boosted physical strength! But my muscles gonna so sore tomorrow! Still, I doubt that fake ass castle is as heavy as a real one!"

"AHAHAHAH! So you wasted your energy just to get here? AHAHAHAH!You can't possibly have much energy left for anything to finish me off, now can you?" Neil kept a blank face as he was charging up energy while climbing. He answered,"Just enough to get the job done and nothing more. I forgot to mention this form has slow but useful energy regeneration .I've recovered just barley enough. I resumed charging right after making those anchors. I made those anchors ten minutes ago while you were preoccupied and just used them now when we saw a chance." This made Harken rather uneasy. Before he could attack, Kraw jumped up, used his energy on his fists and punched Harken several times, constantly breaking his form and causing him to have to regenerate over and over again.

Arisa moved over to where Neil was and told Neil, "My Neil, look after Atoshi for me while you charge. I'll help Kraw do as much damage as we can!" Neil nodded as Arisa ran towards Harken. Neil helped Atoshi up and told him, "Stay behind me for now, Atoshi. I'll put up a wall or barrier if he fires something an attack this way."

Kraw kept him, beating up on Harken and not even giving him a chance to strike back or even talk. "Heh! I wasn't trained to fight some energy beast or god or whatever the hell you think you are, but I know one thing, if all else fails, brute force is the way to go!"

Arisa soon joined in on the assault, she began flying near Harken then diving down and kicking him with as much force as possible. She also clawed him relentlessly. "Harken! You think I'd let you kill my parents and get away with it? I'm not done with you!" Arisa and Kraw teamed up and kept attacking Harken. Kraw handled Harken's left side, Arisa handled his right side.
However, soon Harken was able to to grow back his right arm and swat at Arisa and Kraw, forcing them to back away. "Aahahha! Wasted up some of my energy, but not enough to matter. That's all you inferorites can do!" Harken merged both his arms painfully into a giant axe.

Kraw grinned as he told Arisa, "Heh. I've got this one." He applied energy into his axe and caused it to grow just as big as Harken's. Kraw swung his axe and blocked Harken's and they clashed. "It's useless, inferorite! My axe is superior, it can be recreated! If I destroy yours, you will be forever unarmed! AHAHAH!" Kraw then applied just enough energy into his axe to make it bigger and he sliced off Harkens's fused axe arm, he then returned it to normal size. Harken screamed in agony, Kraw jumped up and smashed his face with a meteorite punch. Arisa used her Killer Shuffle attack and cut through Harken's regenerating arms.

Kraw then decided to do a rather risky move. He created a sphere of his energy but a smaller one, he tossed it at Harken and he absorbed it. "AAHAHAHA! Stupid inferorite, why must you feed me energy?? Are you that lost?"

"Nope. You shouldn't have done that, Harken. I have a theory, Harken. Your greed will be your downfall. That energy? I wanted it to be absorbed so it could reach your body's core or wherever the hell your energy is. It'll slowly but surely deplete your energy! Think of it was anti-regeneration!Ahahaha! And with me and Arisa constantly making you regenerate your body each time! It's all going to add up!"

Harken looked worried. Kraw then used a great deal of his energy and made his axe absolutely gigantic. It was around fourteen feet tall. "Piercing Giant Axe! Heh, now where's your soul? Just gotta destroy that to win now since you've got no organs. Or we can just deplete your energy and then find it!!" He broke straight through Harken's body with ease, leaving Harken's new form with a gigantic hole. He held the axe there, thus not allowing Harken's body to regenerate near the hole. Arisa charged up her energy, "Allright Kraw! I don't know where his soul is either but once it shows..I've got something to destroy it!"

Harken then went insane, feeling his energy depleting. He was unable to regenerate his normal left and right arms due to the constant attacks. He went mad and grew an arsenal of energy arms, he grew eight more in total as he shouted, "AHHHHHHHHHH! I CANNOT CONTROL IT! If My body will cannot be maintained or controlled because of this power, I'll just use all my remaining energy at once to destroy this realm and all the others with a true super nova!!!! I'll decimate all living things!!!!" He used his eight arms and swatted at Kraw and Arisa, forcing them back and allowing him to regenerate.

He began charging up his energy, he created two rifts, one to the Underworld and one to Shintaion. "These rifts complete it! AHAHAHA! This supernova will creep into both worlds and damage both worlds to the point where nothing will be able to live or survive in them EVER AGAIN!"

"Urgh..This is insane! This can't be it!" Atoshi said. Neil finished charged as he smiled. He called out, "It's not the end, Atoshi! Kraw, Arisa! Get behind me! I'm almost ready!"

Kraw and Arisa quickly moved over to get behind Neil. Harken questioned, "What the hell are you doing?? Going to die together I see.. SOOOO SAD! You'll never see your loved ones or families EVER again. IT ALL ENDS HERE! YOUR PITIFUL LIVES, INFERORITES! YOUR PITIFUL WORLDS! I HAVE DECIDED ALL YOUR FATES! BECAUSE I AM A GOD, A HIGHER FORM OF LIFE! MWAHAHAAH!! MY JUDGMENT IS THAT YOU MUST ALL DIE!"

Harken then decided, "I will make sure I defeat you..Just in case my explosion is prevented somehow, look! My castle isn't just for show....Arise, my perfect doubles!!!!! I created them earlier before I beat the life out of Atoshi! AHAHAHA! I can still control them even now!"

The doors of Harken's castle opened as several copies of Harken emerged from it. There were forty nine of them, they all looked like Harken's earlier physical form before he became energy.

"Isn't it beauty? Isn't it divine? Life created in MY IMAGE? GAZE AT TRUE BEAUTY! GAZE AT MY TRUE POWER BEFORE YOU DIE! Even if you stop me..They will continue living! You'll have to fight them all, you could beat one of me but not forty nine Godly Harkens!PERFECTION IN PHYSICAL FORM!" The doubles marched as Harken laughed and gloated. "Ewwww no! As if one of him wasn't enough. The Gods really beat Harken really beat Harken with an ugly stick when he was born!" Arisa joked.

"You won't be joking after this, you will bow to me and beg to be spared, WOMAN!Perfect doubles..CHARGE YOUR GODLY ENERGYYYYYY!" Harken commanded.

Neil created a intensely powerful barrier behind him, "Crystal Wall!" He then created two crystal anchors and latched them into the ground. Harken's eyes filled with fear as he yelled," Ahahaha! I'll detonate myself regardless just so I kill everyone in both worlds! So even if you find a way to survive.. It's all for nothing! AHAHAHA! I"LL CALL it God Harken's WORLD ENDING OMEGA NOVA! It all in ends in exactly seven minutes! Your attack won't do it in time, Neil! And maybe, my doubles will still be around to see it all! Aahhaa!" Harken's body began to glow ominously.

"Wrong! Your plan is as insane as it is nonsensical, do you really think you can destroy entire worlds? You're not that great! Even if you could, why didn't you try it earlier then? You couldn't beat us, you had to separate Atoshi from us to even really hurt him. You're still afraid of us all even in that new form! You're ruled by your own fear and hatred, Harken! You never could live up to your potential because of that! You're just a scared old man who's afraid of death, just a sadistic monster who takes pleasure in killing those who can't fight back! It's over for you, Harken! You're just a weak and cowardly old man who thinks he can control the lives of all other beings!

He continued, "That's bullshit, you've no right to decide who lives and dies! Allow me to prove to you Harken that you are not immortal, you are not divine and you most certainly are NOT A GOD OF ANY SORT! I'll kill you myself just to prove it!" Neil shouted intensely. Kraw gave Neil the thumbs up, Atoshi nodded and Arisa smiled and cheered, "Harken is going to be crazy dead once my Neil gets through with him!"

Harken then looked terrified as he saw Neil beginning to create a wave of crystal energy that blinded Harken, "Whwhwat is this light? Is your Crystal energy more..Refined and powerful than mine? None the less, I can absorb it! I WILL ABSORB IT!"

Neil then breathed a breathe of crystal energy that hit Harken and encased him in a crystal, he was unable to absorb it. Inside the crystal, there remained some energy inside it. Neil turned the energy in the crystal several anchors that binded Harken's movement. Then he fired off a strange crystal blast near Harken that created a rift. Harken's doubles ceased moving briefly.

He then looked nearly out of energy as he struggled to use the last of his energy and finish his attack. Neil struggled a bit and seemed to nearly fade from consciousness briefly. He then saw his life flashing before his eyes. He saw countless childhood memories, memories of when he first met Arisa, when he first met Nile. He saw memories of when he saw Junior as well. He recalled when he was reunited with his entire family. He saw memories of his all the past battles he was in or involved with. Neil's mind began to race as the same memories repeated before his eyes.

Arisa called out to him, "Neil! What's going on? Are you okay?" Neil awoke and now was ready to unleash the last part of the attack. Neil nodded and said, "Yeah don't worry about it, Arisa! I've got this down now! This will take everything I've got! But I'll suffer the strain!"

"Crystal Radion!" Neil released an intense and immense wave. He aimed it at Harken. The powerful wave of energy coursed through the air and Harken was caught up in it, breaking the crystal he was sealed inside. It then began to propel him as it burst through the castle and destroyed it at an insane speed, destroying all of Harken's doubles as well, vaporizing them easily. "GWAHHHHHHHH!", all the Harken doubles cried out in a chorus of extreme agony as their bodies were destroyed. Since they had no souls, they could not regenerate their entire bodies.

Harken himself screamed, "INSANITTTTTY!! This attack..Why can't I absorb it? WHY CAN"T I ABSORB ITTTT? I"M A GOD! I"M A GOD, RIGHT?! A PERFECT BEING! HOW CAN AN INFERORITE BEAT MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!? AHHHHHHHHHHH!" He rambled to himself and screamed as he the wave was propelling him.The wave kept going and Harken's form began to break up even as he tried to regenerate it, he couldn't keep up a full form and he could only maintain half of his body. Soon Harken was pulled into the rift with the wave.

"Heh that's something you don't see everyday, a gang of copies based off an ugly and mean old man getting vaporized then screaming in unison plus some whiny wanna-be god getting blown away and uses his last words just to bitch about it. Heh, very good. So, where's he going? That portal or hole, it was part of this wasn't it?" Kraw asked.

Neil explained, "To Shintaion's Sun itself, Kraw, where he won't be able to hurt anyone or even damage the Sun if he explodes. Crystal Radion is a technique meant to defeat him I thought of..It's a combination of several attacks.. First, I put up a crystal wall to make sure that if the wave somehow is reflected it won't be able to hurt anyone of us, I then held onto the anchor I latched into the ground to hold me in place so I would not risk falling off this piece of land due to the force of the wave knocking me back after I fired it. Next, I froze Harken so he couldn't dodge it. He apparently cannot absorb Crystal Energy and that step of the attack helped prove it to me. I created a rift to send him elsewhere. Then I unleashed the Radion wave itself. A wave that can propel a target endlessly until the target dies or the wave hits into something it can't break through."

Neil continued, "That wave is based on that energy riding but used offensively, Harken cannot control it or break free from it. It's pure concentrated crystal energy, so he cannot he absorb it. It's too much for even him after he absorbed all that Arlon energy. That wave can and will take him all the way past the skis of Shintaion and into the sun itself! It's meant to last long enough and move fast enough to do so. And thanks to his own regeneration, he won't be killed until he reaches the Sun and he won't get the chance to do his last attack. Radion probably won't be much good against any other opponent unfortunately but Harken is should be gone. It also has Soul destroying properties, another reason he wouldn't want to absorb it. But even if his soul isn't destroyed, he can't regenerate or recreate his body on the Sun!"

"Heh. I get it. It'd kill him regardless of what he does and get him so far away his explosion won't do anything. He's no God and he certainly can't blow up the Sun." Kraw commented. Neil however started to look rather pale as his armor fell off him and his crystal shield vanished. Neil nearly collapsed but Arisa helped him stand. "My Neil, don't worry me like that!!! I know you had to beat Harken..But don't use that attack ever again! Unless it's a matter of life or death.."

"Yeah I promise I won't, Arisa!Now let's get out of here.. We can't celebrate yet, something tells me.." Neil said weakly.

The area began to rumble. "What the hell? I don't know what's going on here but we better get the hell out!" Kraw shouted.

"Kraw! You help Atoshi, I've got Neil! Let's find the portal we came in from quick!" Arisa requested speaking fast.

Arisa flew with Neil over several pieces of land looking for the portal while Kraw jumped each time. Eventually they found it and made it out just in time, as the portal closed behind them.They were still not out of the sealed realm yet. And they noticed this portion of the sealed realm also seemed to be unstable.

"SHIT! So I guess we can't get all those energy crystals left in here!" Kraw said.
Arisa shook her head and said, "I'm fast enough..Maybe we can get one or two!!!!My Neil, hold onto me tightly now!" Neil nodded. Arisa quickly flew into the portal Nile had opened earlier and quickly sped out with only two energy crystals in hand, they seemed somewhat heavy to lift.

Kraw and Atoshi had already make it to the exit but they waited until they saw Neil and Arisa in sight to exit the sealed realm. All four of them made it out with around twenty one seconds to spare, the ground in the sealed realm began to collapse and fall, the remaining energy crystals were forever lost in the void.

*Harken's castle, ruined throne room*

The portal closed behind the four, vanishing forever.

The four each breathed a sigh of relief as they rested from all the running. Neil speculated, "I think it collapsed due to Harken, he probably had something to do with it, he was planning on making the entire sealed realm his, after all.. Or perhaps the Arlon energy in the realm was unstable, there was a lot of it just coursing through there..But oh well..Two energy crystals is good enough.."

A pair of Zaka Clan Dark beasts climbed up into the ruined throne room. "Oh no..The portal..Is Lord Harken gone?" "I don't care, but these ones...I don't like em, inferorites!!!! If they beat Lord Harken..They must have been weakened greatly..I think we can take em out now at least! AVENGE OUR GOD HARKEN!" Arisa glared at them angrily. She ran up to them and kicked them off the edge they had climbed up. They fell to the ground painfully, breaking several bones but they still seemed to be alive, just unable to move.

The battles with the Zaka Clan dark beasts had mostly come to an end it seemed as the battlefield was empty and mostly littered with a few dead Zaka Clan Beasts. A few surviving minions tried to flee from the Warriors and Khan's forces.

"Idiots, they thought they could beat us?! Well. This is no time for celebrating. I know we're worn out but that Leo creep still has Katsugi. We have to save her!" Arisa said

"Yes, that's true. But I don't think Leo will harm her. We can't rush into another battle after all that." Atoshi added.

Kraw looked upset but he said, "Yeah you're right Atoshi. Let's bail out of here and see if we can find someone to heal us or at least rest up for a little bit!" Kraw used his axe and climbed down the castle wall. Arisa flew Neil down to the ground and dropped him off, she did the same for Atoshi and Nina. Kraw stepped on the dark beasts that fell earilier.

One of them begged, "Help me up! Please. We're sorry for trying to kill you earlier! You have to help us, you're heroes aren't we?" Kraw punched the beast in the face and said, "Ah shut up! We're heroes, not simpletons or morons! We're not gonna save some scumbags who approved and took part in genocide and just tried to kill us! We'll just let you rot here, so think about every terrible thing you've done before you die! Goodnight, don't let the worms bite!" The dark beasts looked extremely depressed and outraged as Kraw and the others walked past them.

As they walked through the area, they noticed the battles had come to an end. They then noticed something strange. Sylvia was using her energy and projecting a live vision of Harken soaring through Shintaion's atmosphere as the energy wave was still carrying him. Soon, the wave sped up and entered space. Harken's body quickly crashed into the Sun. He exploded and used up all his energy, but it did no damage to sun,it created only an amazing light show, a mixture of Harken's Arlon energy, dark energy and Neil's crystal energy wave. Everyone in the area began to cheer. Maya cried tears of joy, "It's over..It's finally over!" Akio and Carla comforted her, "Yes, it is. Harken is dead for good and the Zaka Clan with him!"

Arisa embraced Neil and kissed him, "Woohoo! Neil, It worked! I knew it did but it was awesome to see your attack in action! You've done so well! You've really grown up, Neil. You really can do amazing things when you fight with all your passion!" Neil blushed and told Arisa, "Heh. Don't give me all the credit, Arisa. We all did our part to beat him. I'm just glad he's gone. I'm finally strong enough to make my father proud and no longer be any sort of burden on anyone!"

"So modest and honest! That's the spirit, my Neil! We all did it! I've avenged mom and dad!" Arisa teared up as Neil comforted her as well.

Kraw couldn't help but smile as well. "Whatever kill you doesn't make you stronger. Heh, after that fight I'll definitely be able to give Leo that one-on-one match he wants so badly and win! And if he's not a man of his word, I'll save Katsugi and win anyhow! I'll be prepared regardless of what he's got in store for us!"

Magnus, Eve, Mara and Rai were all relieved. Magnus said,"I don't care that I didn't get to take a swing that bastard, as long as he's gone,I'm happy!"

Raoul was overjoyed. "It's over! It's done! Raoul is glad..We can rest.." Kento commented, "Perhaps..But I can't help but feel this isn't over yet...Shini and his forces still remain.."

Junior said, "Mother. You can be at peace now...Harken's dead and he won't terrorize or kill anyone anymore." He and Alicia II then looked very tired out. Ciera looked rather tired out as well.

Hannah commented, "Well. I guess we're almost done here, Marx." "Indeed..It certainly was an experience." It was unclear what they would do next however.

Armand and Kington were not exactly jumping with joy but they were glad Harken was defeated as well. They hadn't known Harken as well after all, but they had fought some of his minions.

Hanja and the Warriors cheered loudly as they were in line for healing. Hanja declared,"Harken and the Zaka Clan have been vanquished!We'll celebrate but there's still more work to be be done! We'll hunt any stragglers or escapees we can find! We've been ordered to stay down here for a bit longer, then we'll return to the City and have a feast!" The Warriors cheered.

Khan said to his army, "You've done well. Jackal isn't so bad after all. We just cannot let this ever happen again, history must not repeat itself, we have to defend our own world from this point on, although our friends from the surface have sincere intentions, we can't let the reputation of the Underworld be tainted by people like the Zaka Clan! We of the Underworld are not savages, though we live to fight, we must make it clear to those on the surface that we do not oppress the weak!" Khan's forces cheered as well.

"Hmm. His soul was not destroyed. But thanks to the curse, his soul cannot leave and he has no energy to form another body. He will be taken to the after-life soon. If only we could hear his desperate cries for help. He'll soon know a fate worse than just mere death. He should have let that attack destroy his soul. I must thank you all!" Jackal spoke.

Jackal then looked at Neil and Arisa, "You've done so well in destroying him! Neil, you've proved you are worthy and strong enough to wed Arisa! I will gladly provide you two a ceremony once Shini is dealt with and put it together! You've got our blessings, that's for sure!" Jackal said. He then looked over at Kraw, "I will gladly extend the same offer to you, Kraw. But I assume you will want to have it on the surface, I'll fund it instead. My queen and I have little use for money or gold after all. Whatever we desire, we take by force or are given! I know you'll get Katsugi back. I didn't help you train all those years for nothing!" He grinned.

"Brother...Thank you so much!" Arisa said to Jackal. Neil thanked Jackal as well. As did Kraw.

Mia spoke to the four of them, "No need to thank us... It's the least we can do..As for you, Atoshi. Well, we'll think of someway we can repay you. For now..Me and my King have to go. There's much still left to be done. Villages and cities have to be rebuilt..And any Zaka Clan remnants have to be killed."
The Zaka Clan fortress began to rumble as it began to collapse. Dion emerged from it.
"It appears some of those fools managed to find Harken's personal airship that he planned to use in an emergency..." Dion explained.

A large airship emerged from underneath Harken's castle. It's helm was a forbidden beast's head that looked like Harken's. A Dark beast laughed and said, "We'll get away! Ahahaha! We'll just hide out on the surface and be safe from Jackal and all those scary people who defeated Lord Harken!"

"Well..Excuse us..We've got business to take care of. Heh." Jackal and Mia teleported onto the airship.

Jackal walked right in front of the dark beast who was on the deck of the airship. He created a dark energy pincer weapon,it was separated into two halves Jackal held in each hand. He then fused them together. He ran up to the dark beast, caught him with the pincer and literally broke the dark beast's body into two separate pieces.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Oh no..Jj-j-jackal! He's worse than Harken..He's gonna kill us all! And Mia too! She's here.. Please spare us! We'll serve you instead." One dark beast begged as he bowed down to them and got down on his knees.

Mia laughed. Her and Jackal then disappeared. "Oh..They've shown us mercy? Perhaps maybe we can live in the Underworld in peace if we prove to them we want to repent?"

Jackal and Mia reappeared further away from the airship. "Northern Wind!" Mia called out as she breathed a storm of ice energy that froze the entire airship as it was above the ruins of Garm Colosseum. It then crashed as it's engines gave up and burned, killing all the dark beasts inside that Mia's attack did not.

"It's too late to repent! You can never be trusted, you can never be redeemed!" Jackal used one of his techniques to create a black-hole that sucked in and destroyed the souls of the Zaka Clan Beasts. It then dissipated. Jackal and Mia did not leave the area quite yet however, they began talk with Khan and his forces and began to thank them..

Kraw added, "Good o'l Jackal and Mia. Heh, they always know how to do overkill in style. Well let's get in line to get healed then."

"Indeed. It seems to be all we can do for now..But rest assured, once we've prepared, we'll get Katsugi back and deal with Leo, Kraw." Atoshi told Kraw. He was holding Nina up and moved toward Salika and Alastor. He also noticed Hishin was there. "Excuse me for a moment." Atoshi said.

Neil was holding onto the energy crystals, he set them down briefly but kept them within his sight. "Urgh..These aren't so bad after all but...I don't know if I'll be fighting again too soon.."

"Don't worry Neil..You've earned rest...I think we'll give one of these crystals to Katsugi once we get her back, I know she'd want it, that way she'll be able to keep up with Kraw's newfound strength and fight side by side with him! She's worthy of it..I'm not sure about this other one we have though. It's hard to decide who to give it to.." Arisa said as she thought about it.
"Hmmm..That might be the best way to get over there to that monastery..But I bet Leo would harm Katsugi if we brought too many people, so we can't bring or involve any of these armies..Hmmm." Kraw thought as he looked over the Underworld Guard's airship.

Despite all the loss, the people of the Underworld and those who took part in the battles against the Zaka Clan seemed happy, like a huge burden had been lifted. They felt more free, no longer would Harken haunt or oppress them. Yet there was still much more work to be done to repair the Underworld and the damage done. It would take years for the Underworld to return to normal.

 

[Pirogeth]

-Underworld, Niflheim Peak

A large scar, that what was left behind after this war. All of it could be seen from on top of the Nifleheim peak to the north. Everything from airship pieces to the ruins of the old bases and fortresses looked to be on display as if a museum of wars passed. The one to observe this destruction was none other than the messenger of the afterlife, Reaper. His cloak fluttered in the wind as he supported his left side with his scythe. "There is but one thing left to do." Reaper said picking up his scythe and making a swift slash through the air. It opened a portal to the sun, quickly a soul made its way out and landed on the ground. The bare naked soul of Harken was still smoking as he got up.
"Th-those Inferiorites will pay for this." He said now standing up and looking down upon the landscape.
"Harken, you will no longer have anything to do with this world." Harken's attention went straight to Reaper.
"Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do!? I am a GOD! I can do anything." Harken coughed up some blood.
"You used up most of your power just trying to sustain your soul in that place. Do not talk to me as if you are in control of the situation. Besides, even if you did have your full power it still would not be a problem." Reaper said readying his scythe. "You see, your part is over, Shinigami no longer needs you. If you were to intervene at this point I promise your life would be over faster than it took you to get launched into the sun." Reaper now waited just to see how Harken would react to his helpless situation.
"Shinigami? That man, I could destroy him in a heartbeat if those Inferiorites did not intervene."
"You were ambitious Harken, too ambitious. You wanted a world to call your own, you wanted far too much for a single mortal to handle. Entropy would always catch up in the end as it has to all lords and leaders." Reaper said. "Now if you have the slightest shred of dignity left, I shall send you to where you belong." Reaper's hands started to glow and the ground beneath Harken turned charcoal black. The earth seemed to spin underneath him.
"What? What are you doing to me!? I am not finished! I AM A GOD!"
"Wrong Harken, I am a god." Reaper said now throwing his scythe into the center of the black circle. The thing opened up to the fires of Hell and those that have already been sentenced there. Dark chains started to shoot out of the opening. Hundreds grabbed onto Harken binding him to the realm below. Soon the chains had taken hold of his whole body, all but his head so Reaper could hear the screams as he fell into oblivion. After Harken had fully disappeared from sight Reaper withdrew his scythe and the hole closed up shortly after. "It is now up to King and Leo."

Not long after Harken's final demise did everyone on the battlefield return to get some well needed rest.

 

[King Weavel]

*Soma Plains outpost, near Yomi*

After much needed rest, a few returned near the outpost Sylvia and Greg had set up. They were going to go through the rubble of the Underworld Guard HQ. All the survivors had already gotten out, so it was just to find the dead so they could be buried properly. The rest who were not assisting in this task were planning and thinking about how they could help Kraw. Many of those whom were injured or tired out were still resting on the make-shift beds of the outpost, among the still reseting were Raoul, Ciera, Junior and Alicia II.

The Warriors were clearing out some of the rubble. Khan and his Dark beast armies were helping as well, making the process move rather fast. Dion was helping as well. He thought to himself, "These people helped me despite how horrible I am. This is the only way I can help them now. It appears I may have to change my career soon...Assassinations might not be needed.. And I do not wish to become an enemy of the Forbidden Alliance once more. I have to change my ways so I may live a peaceful live with Isabella and our child."

Mara used some of her energy and managed to lift some of the rubble. Rai was also helping, using his immense physical strength to lift some of the rubble as well. Carla noticed this and recognized Mara then and there. "You..You're Mara." Mara nodded.

"You and that Kiyoshi fellow destroyed my village..." She looked Mara straight in the eyes. "But you've seem to have changed. You're helping us, you betrayed the Zaka Clan...." Rai looked a little concerned as he stopped.

Mara looked guilty as she told Carla, "If you want revenge..Save for at least after this recovery effort, ok? I understand you have a right to it but-" Carla interrupted her.

"My intentions aren't to kill or harm you, Mara. It's clear..That Kiyoshi pulled your strings. You didn't want to kill those people. At least you're being honest and trying to use your powers for good. But if you ever stray, if you ever let someone use your powers for evil, rest assured, I will kill you. I reserve at least that right. But as long as you truly have changed, you have nothing to fear. I will not harm you or hold anything against you now. I just personally hate liars and do not wish to see you go down such a path in life. I can forgive you as you are sincere. But I can't ever forget. The tragedies of the past must not be repeated."

Mara looked relieved. "I..Understand. That's fine with me. I won't use my powers for evil and I won't let myself be used ever again. I am going to use the rest of my life to undo all the damage I've caused and help rebuild the areas destroyed by the Zaka Clan and the United Surface Army. I am a woman of my word. After what I've been through, I won't be used again. Rai will help make sure of that." Rai resumed lifting the rubble as he saw the situation was under control.

"Good. Sorry to bother you like that. I just had to make sure we could trust you. Now that's taken care of, I have to tend to another matter." Carla said as she walked off.

The group around Kraw consisted of Neil, Arisa, Hishin, Atoshi, Camack, Nina and Kento. They were the most capable fighters remaining. They were discussing several things, such as what they would do and currently they were dealing with the Sealed Realm, trying to see if they could open it.

Neil was testing his energy to see if he could open a rift into the sealed realm but he was unable to."It really is gone. Harken must have caused it to slowly collapse before my attack hit him. So that means all those Arlon energy crystals are lost..."

"Damn.. Heh well no use worrying about it. We should be strong enough. Leo's not going to be easy but since at least four of us have gotten the power of the Arlon energy. Still, who to give the other crystal to? I know Katsugi could use one of em..But this last one.."

Camack asked Kraw, "Kraw. Could I have it?" Kraw began to think about it.

"Wait..What about me? I owe you guys for every bad thing I did when I was in Crusade.." Magnus said.

"And if Magnus goes, I'll go with him! Time energy should be useful against this Leo fellow." Eve added.

Kraw shook his head as he told them, "You guys still look exhausted. You were the ones who had to run through that underground pathway before the airship hit the Anbuis base! You're tired and I can tell that. I'm sorry but you guys are in no shape to join us at the moment. You need some real rest. I understand you want to help but we can't bring too many people, Leo just wanted a one-on-one with me. It's already a bit of stretch bringing the others. I don't want Leo to think it's some sort of set up. Besides, it's best if you stay here, this salvage operation needs all the help it can get and probably needs some people to patrol the area for any of Harken's remaining minions. We can't afford to be reckless about this, Leo's got Katsugi as his hostage."

"So be it then....I understand. I hate sitting around doing nothing. I wish I could have avenged Gomez and fought Harken with you guys instead of just Harken's minions. However, you've got a point. So I'll just wish you guys who are going, good luck! I know you'll come back alive and with Katsugi!" Kraw nodded and said, "Damn straight we will! So don't worry about it!" With that, Magnus and Eve went to help out.

Kraw continued to think about giving Camack the crystal as he looked around, "Let's see..Not many of us really are fit to fight at the moment, even with reseting, they've been awake for hours. But there's only one fair way to decide this."

"Anyone else believe they need this energy crystal? If they do, we're going to have to do some sort of vote or something!" Kraw asked the group he was around. No one spoke up or wanted it.

"Heh. Well it's all yours, kid! Just hold it and shatter it over yourself and the energy will go flowing into you!" He handed Camack the crystal. Camack broke it his knife and he was empowered with the Arlon energy.

Alter Camack spoke to Camack, "Kid. Can you feel that power? "

"Now that's settled. We're just about ready to go here.." Kraw looked over and noticed Jackal and Mia were there. "Brother? And you too Mia? What is it?" Arisa questioned.

Jackal said, "We've one last thing to tell you. We honestly kept it secret from you for the longest time now....You see, me and Mia did not try to stop the Zaka Clan by ourselves for our own reasons..."
Mia explained, "Yes. You see, the people of the Underworld were rather dependent on us. They almost looked up to us like Gods. Some didn't even care about the problems the Zaka Clan caused, they think we'd just solve everything for them as if it was that simple. The people of the Underworld needed to learn to fight for themselves. Unfortunately because we did not jump in, Harken killed more people but they soon began to realize he was a threat to the Underworld. This caused people to grow concerned and angry. From these dark beasts, we were able to make an army. Because Harken grew so powerful and because we did stop him, the people of the Underworld realized they had to, they had to fight for their world! They now are no longer as dependent on us as they once were..That is one reason we did not stop Harken ourselves. "


Jackal continued once more,"Another reason directly involves you people. Me and Mia are aware of Shini, a being of immense power.. A being veiled in mystery. He is the true threat. We realized that you all needed to get stronger.
You needed to truly have to fight for your lives, you needed to experience desperate battles. Thus we wanted you all to come down to the Underworld to fight the Zaka Clan and we did not take direct action against Harken. Because of that, you all ventured down into the Underworld to stop him. You grew stronger, you saved it from Harken as well! Not only did you grow stronger but people of the Underworld seem to respect those from the surface more now. Because of your actions..I was easily able to make a new law of the Underworld. A law that dictates that demons and all other races from the surface must be treated with respect and cannot be treated like livestock, kept as slaves or treated as inferior like in the past. No one was stupid or hateful enough to oppose this law as they owe you people!"

Jackal took a brief pause and then said, "Say that me and Mia had just decided to fight all Zaka Clan, the Four Monarchs and the entire armies of the clan...What would it have done? Nothing! People would still depend on us even more and the problem would just occur again, the people of the Underworld wouldn't take it seriously as they'd think me and Mia could handle everything. There was a chance me and Mia would not have survived if we had attempted to fight the entire Zaka Clan...We are powerful but we are mortals none the less, we have limits, we can't fight millions of dark beasts and protect our children at the castle at the same time! Even though we could have forced beasts into being guards for us, we know better than to trust everyone.

He concluded, "Also, you all would never have came down here and never have obtained the Arlon energy. You never would have gotten so strong, you would all be unprepared for a battle with Shini! That is why we did not get involved until recently. If you hate me and Mia for this, you have all the right to. Perhaps we could have saved lives but...The Underworld is better this way, people realize Harken caused tragedies, they realize they cannot let it happen again and they cannot expect the King and Queen of the Underworld to do everything for them. They also have realized not all from the surface are weak. This war, it's even united people of the Underworld. There are dark beasts of all types helping out in this effort to rebuild, weaker dark beasts, stronger ones, educated dark beast from Yomi, ice beasts. That is all. That is the truth."

Almost everyone who heard it seemed a little shocked. Not angry at Mia or Jackal, as they had several points, good ones at that. Everyone knew they were stronger because of all the battles against the Zaka Clan they experienced in the Underworld.

"That's some deep stuff. Well I won't hold it against you. You did what you had to do. Can't say it was right but it's certainly better the people of the Underworld become more independent. And it's certainly a good thing we all got stronger because of the Zaka Clan." Kraw commented.
Arisa stated, "Yes...I have to say. I believe they did the right thing.. It's not good leadership to do everything for those you rule over..Brother and Mia did what they had to do for the good of the Underworld. It was a hard choice they had to make.." Neil nodded.

"I'm glad you all seem to be taking it well. Heh, no death threats or anything yet! Well we must be going and I know you all have something to take of us. We shall not use up anymore of your time. Remember, those of you with the Arlon energy. It's your duty to fight Shini. That is what the energy is for. We don't know when you will fight Shini but...The time is drawing near. Farewell, we'll meet again!" Jackal said as he and Mia left.

"He's right. Leo is one of Shini's minions after all..This hostage situation must be part of his plan." Atoshi commented.

"Yeah, it might be a trap then. But a trap we can't avoid, Katsugi means the world to me! I'm not giving up on her! Screw whatever plans those scumbags have, they're not going to succeed on my watch!" Kraw added looking fired up and ready to go.

"Ok, who's coming with us? Like I said, it might get ugly, it might be a trap. You better be prepared." Kraw looked around and saw Nina, Hishin, Atoshi, Neil, Arisa, Camack and Kento raised their hands.

Kraw looked at them all and spoke to them, "Allright! We're heading to the monastery, the plan is I'm going to give Leo his one-on-one fight that he wants but if he pulls anything dirty like calling up some of those monsters again or if he tries to kill Katsugi, you guys will be there to intervene. This shouldn't be too big of a group, better than bringing everyone who wants to help."

"Sounds like a wise plan to me. He seems to be a man of his word but he is not to be taken lightly." Atoshi replied.

Greg and Sylvia approached the group as they were getting ready to leave. Greg told them, "Once this is all said and done, the Forbidden Alliance will be here with some transportation up to the surface, some advanced carriages so you won't need to worry about getting back home. Me and Sylvia will watch over things here, if anyone or anything attacks this area, we'll be prepared and ready to stop it."

Sylvia added, "Yes. And I healed you as much as I could earlier. You all should be in good condition to fight. Just don't push yourselves too hard. You've done great in defeating Harken and the Zaka Clan. We know you'll bring Katsugi back safe and sound! Everyone here supports you 100%! We all want you to come back safely!"

"Heh, we will! Thanks for everything you guys!" Kraw said as him and the others headed towards the Raven. Neil was carrying the Arlon energy crystal meant for Katsugi with him.

Akio and Maya were standing outside, Carlin was inside and came out as she announced, "Repairs are done here. It's definitely ready to fly now. We'll take you to the monastery but if this Leo person fires or attacks us on the ship, we'll have to get out of there. We'll try to stay around if we can. But this airship is vital..Not only does it belong to Lowe but it's the Underworld Guard's main airship...We'll need it after this, it's the fastest way to get around in the Underworld and it'll be invaluable in helping rebuild cities and in the delivering of supplies. Are you all ready to go?"

Everyone nodded as they boarded the Raven.
Maya thanked Neil, Arsia, Atoshi and Kraw, "Thank you once more. We really are in debt to you. Is it possible we can accompany you and help you rescue Katsugi?"

Kraw shook his head. "Nah, don't worry about it. Besides you guys look worn out too. You've been through a lot. You helped us out too, giving us shelter and you fought Harken too. We'll be fine, besides we can't bring too big of a group into there or it may upset Leo."

Akio looked rather worn out as well, he was one of the few repairing the Raven, along with Carla and Maya. "Yeah. When it's a hostage situation, it is rather difficult... I can see where you're coming from. But if you need anything, you can always ask us." Kraw nodded.

Maya replied simply, "That's very true. But like Akio says, do not hesitate to ask us for anything. We still want to find anyway we can to help you. The Underworld is much safer and peaceful thanks to you.."

"Well. We'll keep that in mind, Maya. But don't stress about trying to repay us, we didn't do this for glory or rewards, we did it to stop that madman. Besides, this is plenty of help. You guys had to work hard to get the airship in good condition again in only a few hours." Kraw replied.

"So this Monastery, did Leo give you any sort of directions?" Carla questioned. "Yeah, it's near Jackal and Mia's castle. Can't miss it, there's not a whole lot of places near their castle." Kraw replied.

"Yeppers and if you need help, I can point it out for you. I've seen that monastery before, never been inside though. But I can point it out for you. So let's go here! Me and my Neil are ready and everyone else is. It's time to get Katsugi back!" Arisa said filled with hope and determination. Neil added, "Yeah, that Leo creep is going to get what's coming to him."

Everyone else was also ready and rather fired up. Carla took note of this. "So be it. You're all ready! Then let's go..The Raven..Engines firing up now! We'll launch in exactly two minutes! So get your seat-belts on. We're going to take you there fast but safely." Carla fired up the engines as she put on Lowe's airship piloting goggles.

 

[Pirogeth]

-The Great Monastery

The structure was insanely large. It was even bigger than Jackal's Castle. The place had a near gold glow to it. The stone was a darker tan color giving it that near holy color. At the top and towards the back there was a spire that extended above all the rest. Although it looked small in size from far away the tower was nearly as big as the Azull Arena platform. Inside this room was an alter and a room for solitary confinement. This was where the old religion sent Dark Beasts to 'redefine' their character. In the middle of the room Leo stood watching out the window towards the front of the Monastery. "The chips are almost in place and soon I will be fighting along side my Lord once again."
"You are seriously troubled you twit." Katsugi said from her cell.
"Do you believe me a fool to have loyalty to the one that almost raised me like a son?" Leo asked. Katsugi went silent knowing she could not argue that fact. In light of the new information Katusgi took this chance to interrogate Leo for facts.
"Like a son huh? What is Shini like?" Leo looked at her and lifted one eyebrow. There was some silent tension before Leo finally answered.
"If you truly want to know, the man is a great leader. He has expertise in battle like none I have ever seen. His methods are what you judge him by not his goal." Leo said trying to defend Shini's name.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Silence, they are here." Leo said looking out over the horizon. An airship was just about to get within landing distance of the Monastery.

-The Raven

"We are about five hundred meters away." A lookout said to Carla.
"Well this will be it. I wish you all a safe journey from here on out." She said with a smile. This relieved the rest somewhat as there was still some tension behind Lowe's death.
"Do not worry Ma'am, we will be in and out like a standard patrol." Cammack said.
"Captain there is an energy build up near the spire!" The lookout shouted. In a rush everyone looked towards the monastery. There seemed to be a power fluctuation coming from Leo's position. As everyone had finally laid eyes on it a beam shot forth straight for the ship.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Carla shouted as the beam closed in. They only managed to slightly turn before the beam went straight past the side of the ship. Several explosions went off as the beam ripped through the hull. The ship was in bad condition but still in the air. "We'll have to drop you off here." She said as she went back to directing the crew. Atoshi nodded and jumped over the edge. The rest did the same. Neil made a slide of ice to get down with Arisa, Atoshi caught Cammack in mid air, Nina carried Kento down, and Hishin helped Kraw make a safe landing. They were about one hundred meters away from the monastery. Looking back up they saw the damage done to the ship. The side the beam hit was nearly fried and some of the inside could be seen. It made a quick u-turn and started to head back. Now everyone started walking toward the monastery picking up speed every step until they were in a full sprint.
"Who is that?" Kraw asked as they were running toward the main gate. A figure stood at the gate with a sword unsheathed. As they approached the figure was slowly becoming more recognizable. They stopped once they were in talking distance.
"Atoshi, I cannot let you advance any further." The figure stepped forward, it was Ados.
"Ados, why?" Hishin asked.
"I am not Ados, you will address me as King. Now prepare yourself Atoshi, on behalf of Vel and the rest of the worlds I shall slay you now."
"Hold it!" Another voice shouted. Everyone turned around to see four people walking up to them. It was Marx, Hannah, Armand, and Kington. "I Kington cannot allow you to kill Atoshi! On behalf of my family I have decided that the only way to avenge their deaths is by killing the both of you."
"I thought you reconciled?" Armand asked.
"It was for the good of the Underworld during that time." Kington said. He pulled out his sword. "You three will not intervene." Armand, Marx, and Hannah each nodded.
"Then you will die right alongside Atoshi." King shouted.
"Enough, I will battle you." Atoshi said preparing his chakrams.
"Atoshi, you can't-" Hishin said but was cut off.
"Hishin, you guys, you head for Katsugi. After all Leo wanted a one on one with Kraw. Do not worry about me I can handle myself." Hishin was a bit reluctant but Nina tugged at her shoulder.
"Come on, we need to get going." She said as everyone else headed toward the inner chambers of the monastery. Hishin nodded and followed the rest.
"Are you guys ready?" Atoshi asked.
"As I always have been." King said.
"Never been more ready in my life." Kington responded. Each began with a lunge toward Atoshi at the center.

-The Great Monastery, First Floor

A loud bang was heard right outside as everyone got inside. "Atoshi!" Hishin yelled. Nina pulled her back.
"No way is the first blow going to knock him out of the race. Besides, you have seen him fight. He is no amateur and I have full faith in him just as you should." Nina said trying to settle Hishin down. Her face went from worried to relaxed.
"I guess you are right. We should focus on Katsugi." Hishin said looking around the room. The main hall was rather large and had two statues of human like soldiers. Each of them was about twenty five feet in height. The hall itself took up a good portion of the bottom floor extending about one hundred feet in either direction.
"You guys coming?" Arisa asked as they were already up the stairs of the one entrance between the statues.
"Yeah!" Nina shouted. "Guess we will get left behind if we keep on admiring the place." Nina said with a smile. Hishin agreed and started to run forward. Unwittingly they stepped across a seal that lit up after the first step. There was some rumbling which caused the entrance to be blocked off. Arisa had no choice but to keep going as she left the two behind.
"What is happening?" Hishin asked as she looked around. She noticed the entrance they came in was now barred off like a jail. The light in the room soon vanished. The only light that came in was from the entrance. "Nina?"
"Yeah?" She replied in the dark.
"Are you breathing heavy?"
"I thought it was you." Nina said. To light up the room she cracked her blade against one of the walls near a torch. The sparks relit the torch. "Hishin?" She asked seeing something move in the edge of the light. As she approached she just saw one of the statue legs. Turning back she looked where she came from to see if the figure moved elsewhere. When she looked back the leg was gone. "Hishin?" Nina asked again turning back.
"RAAAAAAAAHHHH!" One of the statues heads shouted out as the light lit it up. It tried to smash Nina with its foot. Nina dove to her right dropping the torch. She wound up bumping into something.
"Ow." Hishin said rubbing the back of her head.
"Hishin thank goodness you are alright. I think we have a bit of trouble on our hands. How long before our eyes adjust to the dark?"
"I'd say about three more minutes. Please do not tell me it has to do with the sound I heard."
"You could say that." Nina said. Both of them heard a whistling in the wind and dodged out of the way of a sword strike just in time. There was another crash on the floor. "How are those big things so silent?" Nina questioned.
"If I had to guess must be the same magic used to bring them to life." Hishin said dodging another blow. The resounding crash kicked up some rocks. "Just two minutes and forty five seconds to go."

 

[King Weavel]

*The Great Monastery*

Kraw, Kento, Camack, Neil and Arisa moved through the Monastery. Kento was not happy they couldn't save Nina. It troubled him deeply. But they had no choice but to move on.

As they entered the next room, nothing seemed to be all that dangerous but the group figured there must have been some sort of trap and proceeded with caution. They noticed several strange statues.

However, almost out of nowhere, Neil stepped on a switch. The room began to rumble. Arisa ran towards Neil as she saw a flamethrower like attack coming from behind him, she managed to block the attack from hitting Neil but the switch caused part of the ceiling to come crashing down, closing behind Neil and Arisa, separating them from the others by creating a wall separating them. The others moved forward as soon as they noticed the situation.

"Dammit! This switch on the floor looked exactly like the rest of the floor itself... That's definitely not normal....Maybe it wasn't even stepping on the floor that triggered it.." Neil commented to Arisa.

"My Neil..Don't worry or feel bad. They'll be fine. Kraw and the others, even without us, they can handle Leo, they'll get Katsugi back! And we'll get out of here eventually!" Arisa said to Neil.

Neil nodded but before he could say anything, he saw several of the humanoid statues come to life as they breathed fire at him. This time Neil saw it coming and created a wall of ice that blocked the attacks. Neil and Arisa took on fighting stances and prepared to fight off the statues.

Arisa created a bow and arrow of dark energy and used it to quickly shoot the head off one of the statues, stopping it from breathing fire but it still moved forward and still had a large blade in it's hand. Neil used his ice claws and managed to shred the statue apart. Yet they could not rejoice just yet as there were around six statues all trying to hit Neil and Arisa with their fire-breathing attacks.

Kraw and the others moved forward but Kraw had some wise words for them, "Don't sweat it too much if you get separated, We just gotta keep calm. And we have to be even more careful for that damn traps. That one could have really hurt considering how fast that part of the ceiling came down..." Camack and Kento nodded.

"Nina....Be safe." Kento thought.

Alter Camack commented, "Kid. Stay sharp. I'll tell you if I can sense anything crazy. These traps are magic based, very little if any technology involved so I might feel something." Camack nodded.

The three pressed on after that momentary break they took to catch their breathe. They realized they might have to run if any other traps like the previous ones were set off..

 

[Pirogeth]

-Great Monastery, Courtyard

The dust once again settled, the initial attack had done some major damage to the courtyard outside the monastery. As the three spectators looked on they saw the three locked into position in the middle of the rubble. Atoshi, with his two chakrams, had blocked King and Kington. Ados's claws had stopped Kington's attack and his sword was stuck in between the blades on Atoshi's chakram. Kington was in the best position with his blade being big enough to hold a strike against both of them. As they put pressure on their weapons an aura formed around each blade. There was the dark black aura of Kington, the maroon of Ados, and the deep sapphire of Atoshi. Each gritted their teeth pushing harder and harder on each other's blades. Finally each slid their blade off at the same time as sparks lit the area. Atoshi took off first into the air with Ados quick to follow. Kington was a bit behind but took off slightly after Ados. The three flew up higher and higher into the sky until they reached the clouds. Once in the clouds Atoshi made dive at Ados. He chucked his first weapon down at him and kept one in his hand for defense. The clouds were a thick mess which clouded everyone's sight. Ados just barely managed to dodge the chakram. The tip scratched his eye blinding him on his right side. He did not see Atoshi until he was about five feet away from him. At the speeds they were going there was no time for reaction. They collided in the air, both Hymn and vampire stumbling to find means of attacking without injuring themselves more in the process. Ados fired a beam of energy out in a random direction causing some damage to the courtyard and the monastery itself. A spire fell off of the monastery falling down toward the entrance. Atoshi then tried to dig his chakram into Ados's skin. Because it was not made of Colite the blade just glanced off. Ados, now knowing where Atoshi was, grabbed hold of him with his claws and plummeted downward. As he went down he saw Kington still following their path up. As he dived he fired a beam out toward the other vampire. He barrel rolled to the left to avoid the first hit. Ados started to fire several energy blasts in hopes of hitting Kington once, however, he underestimated Kington's experience in battle. He easily dodged the random shots and came within striking distance. The vampire went in for the mouth but Ados tried veering out of the way. The blade slid along the scales on his neck. Although the blade was not Colite the blade did make a few cuts because of the enchanted material it was made out of. His grip loosened on Atoshi letting him go. The dive was almost too much to recover from. As Atoshi was headed straight for the ground he spanned his wings and tried to stop. The act was enough to slow him down so he would not die on impact with the ground. He crashed into the ground. Getting up he saw the fight continue in the skies. Kington was now facing off against Ados. Several beams of energy lit up the sky as Atoshi recovered. Near by was his other chakram half buried in the ground from his toss. Picking it up he unleashed attack at the two. "Veil of Night!" He shouted activating his ability. He tossed his chakrams and the battlefield was cloaked in a dark cloud Atoshi blitzed through the cloud and found a target, Kington. He started making several slashes, however, due to his experience some of the attacks were blocked by the other vampire.
"Not good enough Atoshi." Kington said thrusting his blade through the smoke aiming for Atoshi's chest. A quick spin to the left in the air and the blade was easily dodged. A horizontal strike came next, and with Kington's power behind the blade it was a quick strike. Atoshi backed up hoping to avoid the attack entirely but he was still cut by the blade. His chest had a large red line across it now. As he was trying to figure out how much damage had been done Ados came up from behind and punched Atoshi square in the back of the head sending him downward again. The veil of night attack had cleared but Ados was now facing a quick strike from Kington. He was already in a full charge against Ados. There was no avoiding the blade. The tip met with Ados's skin and pierced on through. The blade was now a good foot in his shoulder. A swift tug on the blade and a large gash was cut open. The roar from Ados made Kington cringe and Atoshi wake up right before he hit the ground. Flipping into an upward position Atoshi crouched when he hit the ground to absorb some of the impact. He then used the ground as a springboard to get back into the battle. As Kington was about to back away from his victim Atoshi came up between the two like a bullet. He took advantage of the situation and used his chakrams to do some massive damage to both of them. Up along Kington's left side there was a new large cut, for Ados his wound was ripped open further. Still in agony from the wound Ados now let out another, and extremely large, energy blast. The thing caught Kington off guard sending him to the ground. The blast was angled towards the monastery but it did not hit it. The explosion only knocked out the outer wall. He now set his sights on Atoshi who was a good thirty meters above him.
"You will die next." Ados said as he charged toward Atoshi. He first blasted a few beams of energy at him. Atoshi nimbly dodged the weak strikes but they were not meant to hit him. Instead Atoshi was now in position to be hit by Ados's tail. He noticed the slightly pointy scales at the end of the thing making it a dangerous weapon. He could not go further back because Ados had matched his speed and to go any other way he would get caught in an energy blast. Instead of taking the lethal blow Atoshi picked taking the energy blast and flew right into one. The tail swung in and missed but the path he chose left him burning and unable to keep flying. Ados went in for the now falling Atoshi for the final kill. He was going to tear Atoshi to shreds in his mouth as he opened his jaws as if to eat something flying by.
"He is mine!" A shout came from below. Kington uppercut Ados hard enough to stop his forward momentum and send him straight up. Kington now rushed for Atoshi's falling body. Ados was only recovering from the hit when Kington got there. "Now I will avenge my family!" He yelled getting into an offensive position while charging. The sword was over his shoulder ready for an extremely powerful cut. He added a spin to his motion so the blade would not be easily dodged. As he got in range his took the heavy swing. Atoshi blocked the attack with his chakrams.
"You did not think I was going to get knocked out that easy?" Atoshi said as he kicked back the blade and went in with his chakrams. He stabbed Kington through the chest and pulled the blades outward making a two red lines form on his torso. To add to the attack Atoshi kicked Kington in the chest sending him toward the ground. Finally he charged the chakrams with his energy. "Finisher!" He yelled tossing both chakrams at Kington. They crossed once in the air while headed toward Kington but curved again just in time to meet at their target. Once they hit together Atoshi's energy was released and an explosion formed. Atoshi went to retrieve the blades that were now flying upward. From the looks of things it was now Ados versus Atoshi.

-Great Monastery, Third Level

Cammack, Kraw, and Kento now made their way up the steps to the third level. This would be the final floor before getting to the steps of the tower Katsugi was trapped in. "So it is down to just us three huh? I wonder what will be in store for us." Cammack said out loud.
"No need to talk that way. I am sure we can get to the end just fine so long as we pay attention." Kento said looking around.
"He is right. Keep your eyes open." Kraw stated taking the lead. The hallways of the third level seemed to open up into a circular room in the middle of the structure. On the floor was a seal of some kind and the walls were held up by column supports. The roof was actually simple glass looking up to the seven towers that decorated the monastery.
"I assume this is some kind of meeting room, where they all had service or something." Kento said looking around. There were numerous statues between the pillars all of which had an alter beneath them.
"I count seven and each have a symbol on the alter." Cammack said. 'Heh probably one for each of the seven sins.' Cammack's alter ego said. He nodded to silently agree with him.
"Funny how he should pick some place that so suits his master." Kento said.
"We do not have time to appreciate the structure right now. We must save Katsugi." Kraw said already at the hall leading to Leo's tower. The two tried to catch up realizing they were now behind. Instead the seal on the floor lit up making a barrier on all the hall way leading out of the circular room.
"What? We cannot get out." Cammack said looking around.
"Do not worry about us Kraw, you complete what you set out to do. You are just a stone's throw away." Kento said seeing Kraw turn around.
"Thank you." Kraw said turning back and running off to the tower.
"So what do you think will happen to us?" Cammack asked.
"Not sure." Kento replied looking around. "There does not seem to be away to escape."
"NO ESCAPE!" A loud voice boomed through the room. "YOU MUST ANSWER THE THREE IMPOSSIBLES BEFORE PASSING." The voice said.
"The three impossibles?" Cammack questioned.
"I think he means three riddles." Kento said stepping forward. "Are you the one that controls the traps in this monastery?" There was some silence before the voice answered.
"YES." It replied.
"Then if we answer all these questions correctly will you set our other friends free?" He asked hoping to get an answer.
"NO." The voice said. "THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN TO THE OTHER CHALLENGES MUST ANSWER THEM THEIRSELVES."
"Hmm…I see." Cammack said. "So what are these questions you wish to ask us? I mean what are they about?"
"THE QUESTIONS ARE OF ANCIENT HISTORY WRITTEN INTO MY BEING SINCE I WAS CREATED."
"When was that?" Kento asked intrigued.
"MANY YEARS AGO, DURING THE LAST STRUGGLE."
"The last struggle?" Cammack asked nobody in particular.
"It was the end to the Tri Clan war…or so Atoshi told me." Kento said. "The Dark Beasts were driven back to the Underworld and started fighting for power, The Last Struggle was the battle between the last lords, yet, after that I have no idea what happened." Kento explained. He looked up to the ceiling. "I am ready for what questions you have for us."
"THE MIGHT OF THE MIGHTY, WHAT ALLIES DID THE GREAT ONES HAVE?" The first question boomed out over the room.
"That one is easy, they were allied with the Vampires and the Behemoths." Kento said. Two of the walls in the back came down, however, the rest of the hallways were still blocked off.
"I'm glad you knew that." Cammack said. "There is something bugging me though. What happens if we get a question wrong?" Cammack asked.
"A CURSE, ONE THAT CAN ONLY BE REVERSED BY THE SEVEN." The voice said. "THE SEVEN, A POWERFUL FORCE THAT CAUSES DESTRUCTION ON A GRAND SCALE, WHAT DO THEY FORGE?" The threat of the curse hung in the air as well as a silence after the question was asked. They had no idea what the seven forged or what precisely the seven were. Looking around at the statues around the room there was nothing significant about them. Both of them were completely baffled.
"Cammack…do you know the answer?" Kento asked whispering out of the side of his lips. Cammack only shook his head.
"But I can take a guess." He said stepping forward. "The seven forge a weapon…of immense strength." Cammack said answering the riddle. 'Kid…I think you just lost.' His alter ego said.
"YOUR ANSWER IS…WRONG." The voice boomed. There was an aqua green light that lit the floor's symbol right before the entire thing collapsed sending Cammack and Kento downward.

-Great Monastery, Entrance

It had been several minutes and both Nina and Hishin were worn out dodging the unseen. Now that their eyes were adjusted to the dark they could make out the attackers. The huge statues were running around at incredible speeds without making any sound. "Even though we can see them I am still worn out." Nina said getting near Hishin as the statues turned back to face them.
"I know…we have to take them down soon, very soon." Hishin said gripping her daggers.
"Hey wait I have an idea." Nina said in a moment of inspiration. She whispered the plan to Hishin. She nodded in agreement. Both took off in separate directions. Hishin took the left as Nina took the right. Both statues each took one of them. Just before they met in the middle both Hishin and Nina shifted sides, in the confusion the statues nearly ran into each other. Taking advantage of this situation Nina now changed her blade into a whip and tied it around the legs of the two statues. Hishin proceeded to now jump on top of the fallen enemies. He empowered her blades with her energy and let out an intense slash. The strike was powerful enough to cut the head off of the statue she was on top of. Nina let go of her blade and jumped into the air. Her claws extended as she filtered more of her power into them. "Shade Slash!" Several curved dark blades hit the other statue crumbling it away. Nina landed back on the ground and retracted her blade. The entrance was still blocked off but there was a small opening high above the door. Most likely it was ventilation for the large structure. It was just large enough for the two to squeeze into and get through.

-Great Monastery, Second Level

"I hope the others are alright." Nina said as she walked down the dark hallway. The only light came from the dim torches on the wall.
"I would not worry about them. Each of them are strong and these traps are nothing." Hishin said full of confidence. They kept on walking down the hallway as it got darker and darker.
"Ow." Nina said rubbing the back of her head.
"What is it?" Hishin asked.
"Something hit me." Nina bent down to pick up what had dropped. "It is a rock." She said examining it. "Where did it come from?" She looked up at the ceiling just in time to see the whole thing break apart. With such a surprise there was no time to get out of the way of such a large part of the ceiling falling. Luckily the second floor did not give way to the impact. After the everyone had stopped coughing everybody got up. There was a lighted room ahead where everyone could see what damage had been done to them. The first to emerge was Kento, then Nina, next Hishin, and finally Cammack.
"Wh-wh-WHAT IS THIS?" Kento's voice exclaimed in a rather girlish way.
"My question exactly." Supposedly Cammack said.
"This is not my body." Kento said looking at his arms and his legs. "If I am here then whose in there?" Kento pointed at Nina. Confused as well Nina looked at herself.
"Ni-Nina? What am I doing inside you?" He looked down at his body and saw the new additions. A kick in the shin followed. "Ow what was that for?"
"You keep your eyes on the enemy." Nina stated in Kento's body. Hishin, who was now in Cammack's body, glared at Cammack himself.
"Yes yes, I get it. I'll stay focused." Cammack said. 'Hey, I came along for the ride too. At least-'
'Shut up!' Cammack screamed in his mind.
"How do we reverse this?" Hishin asked.
"Well we only have on clue…the seven are supposed to somehow negate these effects." Kento said. "We should head toward the third floor. If my memory serves correct, we should be able to reach the third floor by going down this hallway." Kento pointed ahead.
"THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN CURSED, THE SEVEN CHALLENGE YOU!" The same voice boomed throughout he room from before. It was not long before they saw their challenge. Several dead warriors came to life from coffins along the walls.
"Kento give me my blade!" Nina yelled. Kento tossed the blade latched to her waist. Nina caught it but was unable to keep it up. "Gah. What the hell? You have no muscles Kento!"
"Sorry I have always been well practiced in speed."
"This could prove to be a problem." Hishin said grabbing the single dagger Cammack had. It was longer than the ones she carried and the hilt did not allow her to grip it all that well. Even with all these new problems, they all readied themselves for The Seven's challenge.

 

[King Weavel]

*Great Monastery, Second Floor*

Neil and Arisa looked relieved as they finished off the statues at long last. "Those things didn't know when to quit.. But that's the last of them..Now it's just time for us to break out of here..."

"I've got just the technique, Neil! So let me handle this! Yo-Yo Drill!" Arisa created a large yo-yo and from the center of this yo-yo emerged a drill, she swung it at the wall and it drilled a large hole through it, large enough for both Neil and Arisa to jump through. "Great job Arisa!" "It's no problem, Neil!" With that, the two left the room.

Neil was still carrying the Arlon energy crystal with care, it was unharmed during the fight but it was slowing him and Arisa down a bit. It was rather heavy after all. They also had to be careful so they could avoid any other traps they could encounter. They weren't aware the others had set them off, after all.

*Great Monastery, the Tower*

As Kraw entered the area, he saw Katsugi imprisoned inside a cell and of course, Leo himself waiting."So you've finally made it here, Kraw. You remember our terms, correct? A one-on-one fight between us and if you win, you may get Katsugi back. If you try to break her out I cannot guarantee her safety."

"Just fight already! Kick his ass, Kraw! I would if he hadn't kidnapped me up while I was tired out!" Katsugi shouted. Kraw nodded and looked happy to see Katsugi was unharmed as of yet. Leo responded, "I told you to be silent, your only purpose here is to be the bait, not to provide commentary of any sort. Remember that." Katsugi shrugged, remaining rather defiant but heeding Leo's words at least for now. She realized however that Leo wouldn't harm her with Kraw around.

"Heh, you heard the lady, Leo. Let's get this started here! I think it's time for some pay-back!" Kraw proclaimed. "Well then. Let us begin the fight, Kraw!" Leo declared.

Kraw said as he readied his axe while Leo readied his blades.

Kraw decided to attack in close range combat. He figured he'd have a better chance of dodging that way. At first Kraw ran up to Leo, poured some energy into his axe and made it grow fifteen times it's normal size and swung it at Leo. Leo dodged it as he stuck his blades in the ceiling and rose up.

"That trick again. Bringing down the roof is a bad idea. He's near where Katsugi's cell is..." Kraw decided to use a long ranged attack to hit Leo. He put a fair amount of energy into his axe and tossed it off, it released ten crescent shaped blades that were fast enough to hit Leo. But it was not quite enough force to knock him down, his grip on his blades was firm. Leo swung both one of his blades at Kraw as he moved in closer and jumped down. Kraw barley managed to block it. Leo's blades were now both out of the ceiling as he had landed and moved in to fight Kraw with a close combat style.

"This again...Heh. But I've got some new tricks I can pull off to hit him this time!" Kraw thought. With one hand, Kraw readied his axe to block. He used some energy and poured it into both hands to increase his strength but with the other hand he was going to punch Leo with all his might. This way he could block at least one of the blades and manage to hit Leo while he was close like this. Kraw blocked one of the blades and managed to punch Leo with his right hand, knocking Leo back with immense power. Kraw also was able to dodge the other blade due to Leo being knocked back. Leo seemed amused but relatively unharmed after he recovered from the blow.

"So that Arlon energy has indeed gave you greater power. But do you know how to use it properly?" Leo asked a rhetorical question to Kraw. Leo continued as he moved away from Kraw once more, using his blades and latching them into the ceiling, "I also have some techniques you are not aware of."

With that, Leo coated one of his blades in Nifire. This caught Kraw off guard but he recognized it was Nifire, the same stuff Leo had used to make the wall in Harken's castle. Yet Kraw had no idea just what it would do if it touched someone. Kraw barley managed to dodge the blade. But to Kraw's surprise, Leo then came down off the ceiling and coated the other blade in Nifire.

"Heh. So he's changing his strategy up. He knows he can't get me when he's sticking one of those blades in the ceiling. But now this might get tough..I don't like that fire stuff his blades are covered in now..." Kraw thought.

Leo swung both his blades at Kraw at the same time, one coming from Kraw's left side, the other from the right. Kraw dropped his axe and did a back flip just in time to dodge the blades. But they came around again, Kraw blocked one of them with his axe but the other blade managed to cut into Kraw's skin just barley piercing his armor around his back. Kraw thought to himself, "Urgh...What is with my wound? It doesn't feel like a burn..It's cold..Shit and it hurts like hell!" Kraw winced in pain but shrugged it off as he picked up his axe and ran towards Leo.

Leo latched both of his blades into the ceiling and told Kraw, "That is Nifire. It'll freeze your blood, Kraw. Simply put, if you let yourself get hit too much, it will be the end of you. But that would take away the thrill of the fight if I just aimed straight for your heart with a Nifire coated blade....So perhaps you've still got a chance to save Katsugi. But you'll have to do better than this!"

Kraw looked annoyed. "Son of a bitch! You just want to make this difficult, huh?" Kraw thought. He noticed Leo was not near Katsugi now. It was the perfect time to destroy part of the ceiling without worrying that it would fall too close to Katsugi.

He used a great deal of energy and caused his axe to grow thirty times it's normal size. He jumped up and smashed part of the roof and just barley hit Leo with it. "Heh, sorry Leo, I had to renovate the place. No biggie, it looks better this way with a nice view of the sky!"

Leo caught up as he had been knocked down by the attack but he still looked rather unharmed, no signs of any serious bleeding or any bones being broken. "Almost good enough, Kraw. Almost but not quite." Kraw looked rather irritated. "Shit. This guy just won't die. He's got amazing endurance, I'll give him that.."

"But to beat him....How can I? What's the best way to go about it? I can't be reckless this time like the last battle..With those blades coated, they'll do more serious damage..My back still is killing me with this pain..Heh. Another time to improvise defensively until I can come up with something. Some weakness, otherwise he'll get me at this rate. I can't let that happen!" With that, Kraw went into a more defensive stance as he prepared to stall for a few moments. Kraw channeled some energy into his arms.

Leo swung both his blades at Kraw, both coming straight at his head. Kraw grabbed both blades and hurled them away from him. Kraw apparently had used a technique similar to the Titanium body technique but only for his hands, it allowed him to touch the blades without being hurt by the Nifire they were coated in. The technique wore off ten seconds after he forced the blades away from him.

"Quite a demonstration of skill, but I could tell that maneuver used up a fair amount of energy from you. You can't keep that up forever, Kraw!" He called out to Kraw. Kraw didn't look irritated this time as he was watching Leo's movements and trying to find some sort of weakness or a opening.

This time Leo began to swing with his blades repetitively, as if they were blades of a fan. He applied more Nifire to them. Kraw realized he couldn't dodge them like this, so he countered with A Grand Meteo Impact, he jumped up, readied his axe and landed just above Leo, he crashed down and created an rather large explosion. But once the explosion cleared, Leo was once again, rather unharmed. But Kraw's intention was mostly to use the technique to force Leo back and dodge his rotating blade attack.

Leo smirked. "You can't keep this up forever, being defensive, Kraw." Kraw didn't respond nor did he seem all that worried. Yet Kraw could not hide the pain and damage from his previous wound, it was taking it's toll on him and slowing him down. Leo prepared for another attack as Kraw remained rather defensive. But he seemed to spot an opening this time as he saw Leo was about to cling into a different part of the ceiling that remained near Katsugi.

Kraw poured a great deal of energy into his axe. He tossed off his axe like a tomahawk and it moved far faster than normal, barley managing to cut into one of Leo's legs, causing him to bleed. It then came back to Kraw. Leo jumped down quickly to avoid another sort of attack.

"Heh, you better not go back up there again..You'll be open, you can't out speed my axe any longer now!" Kraw smirked as he had finally accomplished at least some real damage to Leo for the first time in the fight. Leo clapped. "Well done..A small victory for you. Savor it as it will not happen again."

Katsugi observed the fight looking very concerned. "Kraw...You're still a bit tired out from the fight with Harken...And that wound..It's no good! Just hang in there..."

 

[Pirogeth]

-Great Monastery, Courtyard

The clang from the chakrams and claws resonated out several times. Neither Ados nor Atoshi were landing direct hits to each other. The two stopped their assault and stared each other down. The seconds passed as each of them looked into the other's eyes. Both were breathing heavy and sweat was forming on Atoshi's head. "I must admit, I did not think you have come this far Atoshi." Ados said when he caught his breath.
"Same with you, if you used this full power when fighting before, I would have been dead." Atoshi said now smiling.
"You have a lot of power but still not enough to beat me." Ados said now charging at Atoshi. It was not long before Atoshi charged at him as well. There was a bright flash in the air as the two passed by each other. Their powers were released as each of them stopped mid flight.
"Tell me Atoshi, how does it feel to be beaten?" Ados asked in a slightly arrogant matter.
"Well, I always know…that I can…return to fight another day." Atoshi said taking in exhausting breaths.
"Huh…nice way to think about it." Ados said with a smile. His eyes closed after that as he stopped beating his wings. He landed in the courtyard with large thud. Atoshi now descended back to the ground. He went over by Ados who now had an extreme cut across his side. It had started from the initial wound. "Atoshi…I know you can…beat Shini."
"Hang in there, do not die." Atoshi said.
"Heh, heh. I'm tougher than that Atoshi. No way will this cut kill me. I just need to rest a bit…return to Vel. I must wrap things up there before I go. I am King and always remember that." King closed his eyes and his body was now limp.
"Ados…" Atoshi trailed off staring at him. From the rubble kicked up from before another eruption of power surged.
"I will not be satisfied…not until you both are DEAD!" Kington yelled. He powered himself out with a large amount of energy. He was bending the light around him as if he was surrounded by heat. "Feel the wrath of my blade." He charged at the off guard Atoshi. The blade was about five feet from Atoshi when he was knocked out of the way. "BRIAR BLADE!" The blade now had sharp thorns appear on it. The tip jut straight into Ados's chest just like a sword of Colite would.
"Your blinding rage…will not defeat him." Ados said struggling to keep his vitals up. Kington twisted his blade in Ados's chest making him cringe.
"What would you know of power you pathetic dog?" Kington asked finally pulling the blade out. Ados now dropped again to the floor.
"Ados! Kington, you have to stop your anger, you will only get yourself killed." Atoshi said hoping to stop Kington.
"I have already come this far, there is no way I will stop, not until I am satisfied."
"Killing us will not bring your family back, and it will certainly not make them happy." Atoshi said.
"Happy? What happiness can they have when I held their lifeless bodies in my hands? What happiness can I have without them? The only happiness I can have is seeking justice on those who caused this. Too bad Sartos died in the incident back then, I would have liked to drive this blade through his heart." Kington took a step forward. "Now fight me Atoshi!" Kington said now in a full sprint at Atoshi.
"I pity you." Atoshi said whipping out his chakrams once again. The blade came down with an intense force but Atoshi did not dodge it this time. Instead he blocked it, the only way to prevent a secondary attack. Kington's blind rage sent him into a flurry of unsuccessful attacks. Each one was easily blocked. Atoshi could see the anger growing in his eyes. The aura around him was fading with every swing. It was only a matter of time before he was worn out and Atoshi could go in for the final strike.

-Great Monastery, Second Floor

Nina had leapt off the wall and passed three skeletons in the hallway. She turned back and quickly rushed through them knocking out the hip bone while doing so. "You know I am getting the hang of this. Speed does seem pretty fun." The bladed whip slammed another wave of skeletons up against the wall shattering them to pieces.
"I do not mind your weapon either Nina." Kento said retracting the blade. They seemed to be doing well so far. Cammack, in Hishin's body had taken to the blades she had and started fighting. He kept on suppressing the inner voice because he knew that he would just take advantage of the situation. Hishin was now slightly shorter and still trying to cope with that but she had no trouble as she recognized the dagger attack pattern.
"This challenge was nothing. I think we will have our bodies back in no time." Hishin said.
"ONLY THE FIRST OF TWO!" The voice announced. The skeletons suddenly broke apart by themselves. "NOW THAT YOU UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER'S PHYSICAL ABILITIES IT IS NOW A TEST OF KNOWING WHO THEY ARE!" The hall suddenly turned dark. The lights then lit the hallway in full again, all four of them were there. "PROCEED." All four followed the orders and found themselves at the steps to the third floor. They climbed up the stairs and they found themselves in a miniaturized version of the large room with the statues. "Welcome." The loud booming voice from before, it came from an old man in this room. Incense was burning in front of him as he added herbs to it. "You must be the ones."
"Who are you?" Kento asked.
"I am the guardian of this monastery. I have lived here since ancient times. I remember when even Jackal was but a pup. I have observed much from here."
"Surely you cannot still be alive?" Nina asked trying to figure out whether this was an illusion or not.
"True my physical body is no longer living." The old man said as his body had a green hue appear around him. "But I still have many powers and duties here."
"So what is the challenge?" Hishin asked starting to get impatient.
"When the lights in the hallway dimmed, I took a member of your party. I replaced them with a perfect doppelganger I created. If you can guess which one is the fake then I'll give your friend back, the curse will be lifted, and you may pass. If you answer incorrectly then I keep your friend and you will be cursed like this forever."
"Not good." Cammack said. "Who will get to choose?"
"It is up to you." The old man said. Each of them looked at each other…one of them would be untruthful and none of them knew who was the doppelganger.