1

"Let's go, Amagi!"

Uehara's orders were swift and snappy. With the Nullity in view, the black-haired girl approached it with incredible speed.

The brunette needed nothing else before she bent her knees and pulled her bowstring back. Out of it came a volley of small arrows that rained on the hands on the Nullity's remaining wheels. With the possible interceptors taken out of the picture, Uehara got an open lane to her target – the body in the midst of the wheels.

Spinning through the air, her aerial attack stopped a short distance away from the Nullity's body, mere inches created by the large scythe that blocked her sword.

That whole sequence happened in a matter of five seconds or so. Kazuki felt that it was even shorter than that.

"Wow..." said Kimura with a dumbfounded look. "Are they for real? How was Amagi not hitting her with any of those shots?"

"Looks like you still don't know her Armament's ability. Anyway, it's no use getting impressed now, not when we have work to do, Kimura."

"We're not going to lose. Ready when you are, Darling!"

Kazuki readied the bladed shield before focusing on the target at hand.

"Prismatic Reverb!"

Following Kimura's verbal prompt, Kazuki lifted his Armament much more easily this time. The stiffness on his body's muscles dissipated, and as he began picking up speed, a gentle breeze seemed to guide his way as he proceeded to flank the Magna Arbiter.

Hearing the song of the idol was just a bonus to having all ailments removed for the time being, and it was all he needed to get close to the Nullity.

Seeing Uehara get knocked back from the deadlock, he kept his sights on the back of the enemy. If Uehara had taken down one of the wheels, he can surely do it, too.

Eventually, the wheels protecting the Nullity will give, and they can attack the main body.

"Raaaggghh!"

Channeling his renewed energy in a shout, Kazuki pushed his feet off the ground and swung at one of the wheels.

Then, the Nullity turned its head. A full one hundred and eighty degrees, like a monster from a horror movie.

Kazuki's world turned grey through his strained eyes, and the empowering music stopped. He was left staring into the hollow spheres of death that stuck out from the featureless face.

Frozen in time, looking at a demon.

All the conviction in his body had flipped into terror and shock.

The two hollow eyes stared right through him, and in spite of the confidence he had, he felt his left hand tremble.

The next thing, he was on the floor, clutching his abdomen after getting hit by the blunt end of the scythe.

What was that?

The empowering effects from Prismatic Reverb were no more, and instead of music, it was a worrying chorus of female voices entering his ears.

"Arata!"

"Darling!"

"Amagi, Kimura, look out!"

Without looking back, he cried out to the two girls running towards him.

He had little time to raise his shield to defend against the array of shadowy hands flying towards them before they were hacked away.

"Innocence Arc!"

A larger arrow of light followed Amagi's command, nailing the Nullity and engulfing it in an explosion of light.

Before Amagi fell, Kazuki caught her in his arms. Lightly patting her in the back of her head, he turned to Uehara.

Likewise, he saw the noticeable fatigue on the black-haired girl's face. The red markings on her arms also flashed, their luster showing signs of fading intermittently.

It was clear that everyone's been through a lot trying to scale the whole temple already. Facing a Class S Nullity now was no easy task.

"Damn, I hate these kinds of boss fights. You know, the ones that come after you all went through hell trying to just get to it. Got any plans, Uehara?"

Uehara steadied her grip on her sword in response. "Easiest thing would probably be to cut down the wheels protecting it, but it's now a lot harder than I expected."

"By the way, the thing does have the annoying gimmick of evolving. When it started out, it was nothing but a Nullity concerned about its territory. Then, it started turning into that creepy thing. Learned a lot of vocabulary along the way, too."

He glanced back at the passage that led to the lower level, but what good with it do anyway? He would just be leading the Nullity to the helpless schoolmates stationed there.

Turning around, he caught sight of Uehara's focused eyes and infallible stance.

"An evolving Nullity? Doesn't matter. I'll cut it down and prevent it from hurting anyone!"

In her determined eyes, he saw eyes that berated him.

How could he let his own resolve be shaken that much after promising to himself that he will avenge Fujiwara? He let one hit take out his convictions when these people who weren't even privy to the situation kept fighting.

He got up alongside Amagi and placed his Armament over his chest.

"Now you're talking!" he replied just as Amagi shot down a couple of incoming shadow hands with her arrows of light.

"Arata, we take both sides. Amagi, you keep firing, and..." Uehara, with raised eyebrows, paused when she reached the neon-haired girl wielding a mic staff. Her eyebrows furrowed, and that visibly drew an annoyed reaction from Kimura.

"H-hey, what's the big idea! I can help, too! Geez, what kind of acting commander doesn't even know everyone's roles?"

"Well, you were the one who insisted on tagging along. I guess... maybe your floating disco ball thing would give us some much needed boosts, so go for that, please."

"Disco ball? It has a name!" Kimura pouted. "Fine, I'll show you what I got. Prismatic Reverb!"

She quickly got into action, summoning her sphere of kaleidoscopic colors which proceeded to rain magical energy onto the three of them in conjugation to her song.

With that came some more shadow arms that headed straight for them.

"Oh no you don't!"

Amagi shot down the rest of the shadowy arms flying towards Kimura before showing everyone her determined expression.

"Arata, Uehara, be careful."

The blade wielders nodded at each other before setting forth.

"You ready?"

"Of course!"

Together, they approached the Nullity from opposite sides. Jumping in near-simultaneous motions, the two of them swooped down on the enemy.

Seeing them, the Magna Arbiter raised its scythe only for it to be met with a volley of arrows.

Pressing his blade shield down on the wheels, Kazuki felt a crack appear on one of them. It was tough, but he knew that he's getting there.

With a shout, the blade powered through and cut through that wheel.

The advantage would not last long, however, as Kazuki soon found himself shaken off by the enemy. Seeing Uehara cut down the other and Amagi's arrows caused a third one to crash, they were doing quite well.

Now, only two wheels of protection left.

Just a little bit more, and they can grasp victory. It had been a long, winding fight, but the light at the end of the tunnel was finally in sight.

The Nullity looked to attack in response, but another stream of arrows blocked its movements. To his surprise, Amagi had closed in and leapt before unloading more energy arrows, some which cracked open one of the two remaining wheels.

Yet another wave of energy pushed everyone aside, but it would do little to stop the inevitable defeat of the Nullity.

They were mere seconds from victory. That much was certain for Kazuki, who raised his Armament in a show of confidence.

Then, the Magna Arbiter looked him in the eye.

2

"How many more of you pesky human scum are there?"

The Magna Arbiter wielded its scythe, but to Kazuki, it looked a lot less intimidating than it was at first. After all, the tides had begun to turn ever since the arrival of the rest of the team.

"More than enough for you," he shot back.

"An interesting twist," the Nullity responded. "You were about to accept death a while ago. Despite having seen through the memories of countless humans, it is still something I fail to understand. Is this what they call finding a reason to fight?"

"It is something that you heartless monsters will never understand!"

It was the swordswoman who answered the question for him as Uehara soared out of nowhere and cut down the last wheel. When the final wheel protecting the Nullity crashed and burned, the same can be said for Crimson Lust.

Having expended her power for the temporary buff to her fighting capabilities, she slumped onto Kazuki, the magical markings disappearing with a sizzling sound.

"A stark contrast from Reijy Ishida. He acted far differently from those who fell from the Temple of Recollection's defenses. Like those people, he fell to despair, but he was one who channeled despair into brute strength."

Snap.

That name being uttered was all it took to halt Kazuki's body.

He had managed to take that event off his mind for a while, but now, the Nullity's words had brought back that painful reality that he had to face.

"Reijy Ishida was a person who became stronger by losing his main reason for living. That much I can tell when this scythe of mine pierced him. Losing Akane Fujiwara allowed him to attain evolution and taking in the girl as part of himself. Perhaps it could open up the clue to our kind's evolution."

Kazuki wanted to attack to shut the Magna Arbiter up, but for some reason, his body would not respond. He stood, suspended in time, with Uehara leaning on him for support.

Completely powerless.

"H-how... Reijy Ishida? Akane Fujiwara?"

Kazuki saw Uehara's eyes widen in spite of her soft words.

She pushed him aside and gingerly stood on her own power.

"W-what did you do them, you monster!?"

Gripping her sword, she looked the Nullity dead in the eye.

"Akane Fujiwara was absorbed by Reijy Ishida in the ensuing transformation. The latter fell to this scythe of mine, so in simple words, you can say that I killed the two of them."

"Killed... them?" she mumbled under her breath. All the pent up emotions erupted in a flare the moment her grip on her Armament tightened. "I won't forgive you. I won't forgive you! Crimson Lust!"

"Uehara—"

Kazuki tried to stop her, but as it had been for the past few seconds, he was powerless.

"Stop, all of you! You're playing into its trap!"

All he can do was look on as the markings appeared on Uehara's body once again, now looking more like strained veins that radiated unstable energy.

The ability was clearly straining her, and it reflected in her movements.

"Innocence Arc!"

Hearing Amagi's strained voice precede the gigantic blade of light that pierced the Nullity, he could tell that the revelation had shaken her as well. He looked back with horror to see the teary eyes of his childhood friend. Her pained face, filled with grief and anger, was a never-before seen expression that caused him great discomfort.

It also brought to light the fact that the music that had been empowering them had stopped. Instead, balls of energy barraged the Nullity as Kimura came charging in. Finally having its scythe broken from all those projectiles, the Nullity lost its balance and wobbled at last.

But as soon as it did, Amagi's body crashed in violent fashion.

"Calm down, everyone!"

His words fell on deaf ears.

Once again, he was helpless. This time, it was in stopping the wave of fury that headed straight towards the Magna Arbiter.

The signature grace and elegance in Uehara's movements was gone for the most part, and she rushed towards the staggered Nullity a wave of unbridled fury.

"Sayaka Uehara. Such violent bursts of emotion. Completely contrasting what these memories have taught me," commented the Nullity with nonchalance. "The same goes for Miki Amagi and Yui Kimura."

Its nonchalance resumed even as it met Uehara's flying slash head on with its arm.

This time, Uehara was the one who was sent crashing the ground. The counter punch from the Nullity had easily broken her Armament, and she was swatted down like a fly.

"A-arata. Finish it off!"

Hearing Uehara's command, Kazuki scampered and stumbled forward. With the Nullity reeling after launching that punch, he saw an opening to strike.

He jumped to deliver the finish blow...

Only he was not able to.

A piercing force rattled his world beyond belief. When his back hit the ground, he could see the spike responsible for the damage protruding from the body of the Nullity.

More spikes followed, and the Nullity let out an earth-shaking roar as it convulsed.

Shit! Not again! But we took care of the flames... How?!

Before Kazuki can act, his world was rocked by an explosion.

3

When Kazuki regained consciousness, he flinched at what he saw in front of him. His sudden reaction sparked a chain of cramps that pulled and wrecked all the muscles and joints in his body.

Out of the light rose what he assumed was the Magna Arbiter in a brand new form.

Six hands weaved in the air alongside the fan of blades that sprouted from its back. Its formless face had been covered by a horned helm that concealed its eyes, leaving a newly-formed mouth exposed. Various wings covered its feet as it levitated in the air.

Topping it all off was the bright sphere that shone like the Sun on top of its head.

"Human emotions are truly powerful, so powerful that it gave us our existence. It is also a human being's greatest weakness."

The light from the Sun-like sphere shone with greater magnitude while the Magna Arbiter's hands hovered over it as if its fingers continued giving it power.

"In moments of my temporary weakness, I always sensed a power surge from you all. Is that the concept called hope?"

It finally dawned upon Kazuki when he heard those words being said. With his shield dematerialized, he had little defense left.

The turn of events irritated him more than anything. They had come so close. They had taken down all of the Nullity's wheels and even destroyed its scythe. They were so close yet so far.

He looked back, and nothing but hopelessness greeted him.

Whether it was the wounded Uehara using her sword as support or the prone bodies of Amagi and Kimura with their Armaments scattered on the floor.

They had sacrificed so much, but it in turn brought out the worst feeling of them all: barely taking it home. He couldn't blame them for being demoralized by the Nullity's revelations, but had he been a bit stronger, he could have delivered the finishing blow to the enemy and freed them all.

Had he been able to deliver the finishing blow, the Nullity would not have had the opportunity to transform further into its current form.

Now, they faced a gut-wrenching end, and the growing size of the energy sphere on top of the six-armed Magna Arbiter only served as a reminder to the countdown of destruction.

"This encounter had piqued my curiosity, but I have concluded human beings to be far too dangerous. It is your kind who would bring destruction to the two worlds."

Kazuki closed his eyes once again, when he heard a voice pass him by.

"You've all done well. I'll take care of this."

In the midst of the impending destruction, a foreign party's voice seemed to relieve the tension in the air.

It was not the hollow voice of the Nullity, but a composed male voice. Like a part of a passing tempest, the voice came and went before his ears were filled with the sound of flesh being ripped apart.

"Y-you..."

The Nullity struggled to speak, and the bright radiance of its energy attack gave way to the crimson hues of Mu.

"I've wanted to see you for three years. It's regrettable that our only meeting would end this quickly, Magna Arbiter."

Guren Izaya had a smile on his face as his glowing rapier plunged deep into the Nullity's chest. Its four arms hung down, and the rest of its body stopped in a weird, contorted way. It was as if Izaya had struck a very crucial nerve that paralyzed it for good.

"I remember you. You're the one who foolishly gave these humans power that they never had the right to touch!"

"Unfortunately, the only one you fought that I had any link to would be that girl with the sword. An indirect link, too, nonetheless."

Responding to the pained growls of the Nullity, Izaya laughed. "You can rest easy now. Just like the Render of Bounds, your role is over."

"Unforgiveable! Just unforgiveable!" it roared.

"It is finished."

No sooner had the silver-haired man said those words of finality did the Nullity get bisected. What was once a proud and mighty being, capable of evolution and infinite possibilities, evaporated into nothingness, leaving behind a thick cloud of miasma.

It seemed to all be according to Izaya's expectations if his next actions were any indication.

Without batting an eye, he pointed his rapier at the ever-growing cloud of dark energy.

"Unlike the Render of Bounds, you're not going to escape me," said the man to the wave of black and purple.

A smile slowly appeared on his face.