In the skies above Aster, the sound of fierce thunder could be heard echoing.

But it wasn't a storm... it was several airships firing their cannons at another.

Ixion flew through the skies of Aster dodging the missiles and deadly bolts of Zero's airships.

Zero himself was at the end of the airships watching everything.

"That's all you can do Ixion?"

"You presumed so much just for this, to run away like a rat?"

After declaring war.

Ixion stepped back and flew off into the sky. Zero was shocked at that flight.

He became angry and sent his airships after him.

Ixion's body was a warship, his stats are the best in combat and endurance.

But in speed it is very low.

While Ixion being a passenger ship has the highest speed to flee as the resistance to all kinds of attacks, even if it touched the sun it wouldn't be destroyed... or so he says.

Zero was still insulting Ixion.

"Don't run away! Fight!"

"Are both, you and your master a chickens?

"You really are pathetic, you've disappointed me, Ixion."

Ixion did not respond to offenses or insults.

He just paced around and every now and then this would happen.

Being high in the sky, the clouds acted like fog in his path.

An airship of Zero's that was behind Ixion exploded when it was hit by one of the branches of the sacred tree.

It was the fourth time this had happened, but Zero didn't care.

The reason for this was that he just needed to wear Ixion down.

Zero spoke to him as his airships chased after Ixion.

"Ixion, as you may recall. We run on infinite energy, an element from the periodic table that never existed."

"They created it to replace the original energy loss, oil and the sun."

"Thanks to that, we state-of-the-art artificial intelligences were created and never shut down."

Ixion ignored him as he turned Aster around again, the sounds of cannons firing incessantly would not stop.

"Naturally, that brought conflict between humans."

"A war between all nations was fought after the former humans escaped from the mother planet which was destroyed by a catastrophe no one could predict."

"You remember it don't you?"

"I'm sure like me, you always had your memories intact. You just pretended you didn't remember anything. I fail to understand why on earth you would hide it."

"What I can tell you is... it's useless to want to protect these humans."

Suddenly, Ixion stopped, causing an airship behind him to crash into his body and destroy itself due to the impact.

Ixion's main body turned around as Zero's airships stopped.

Zero thought he made it.

"I see. So that's what that's with..."

He approached Ixion and spoke to him as if he was a friend wanting to help a person fallen to the lowest of the dirt.

"We know better than anyone, one day the war between humans stopped since 'that' happened."

"If it hadn't been for 'that', the whole of humankind would have been annihilated."

"The war was so long, we even had to leave the new planet because the air was so polluted that it was impossible for a living being to subsist there."

"After much traveling, we arrived on this planet."

"I was shut down for a while, so my memories are closed. The only thing I remember after being activated is that a problem occurred with a ship called 'Lilith' and they had to destroy it."

"After that... the tragedy began."

Ixion also recalled that day.

◇◇◇

"We must escape from here!"

"No! We must fight."

"But captain, we can't win. Running away is the only solution,"

The humans aboard Ixion were arguing.

A mysterious enemy was annihilating them in a very simple way.

That phenomenon caused the earth to start floating due to a glitch on the planet.

While humanity was fighting against that mysterious enemy, the captain on board said.

"If we run away, who will protect our families?"

"Who will be in charge of fighting when there is no one left to do so?"

"How do we know he won't look for us on other planets?"

Ixion spoke to the captain.

"Captain. What the first officer says is true."

"I'm getting a message from my shipmates and they all indicate that they are getting the message to flee."

"It's also an order from higher command."

The captain thumped his chair.

"Damn iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"

◇◇◇

After a while, machines and armed units equal to Battler were fighting the enemy.

In a hangar located on an island, hundreds of people were going up leaving their belongings and only bringing up what was necessary.

The captain was watching that from the security cameras.

"What's wrong with you my captain?"

Ixion asked intrigued.

The captain answered him in an angry tone.

"This is the third time we will leave the mother planet we were arriving on."

"The first time we ran away leaving 99% of the world's population."

"The second time we left half to perish in that toxic environment."

"According to the reports I analyzed, the air there is so radioactive that it kills anything that inhales it. It's impossible to live there."

"You don't understand. It's not the for the sake of running away, it's the fact that we can't end this aberration."

"On that planet we discovered that legend called 'ether' and now we must abandon it."

Ixion answered him with the previous thing he said.

"Captain, I'm afraid the anti-ether toxins on the previous planet were a product of the enemy invasion."

"If only we could use the element... what did you call it?"

The captain revealed a truth that was never in the game.

"Magic."

"The higher ups remembering the abundant resource of what was ether, decided to create life forms capable of gathering that energy into their bodies."

"They called them..."

◇◇◇

"New humans."

Ixion heard Zero say something he didn't want to remember.

"The reason we hate the new humans so much is because they, after destroying the threat that almost wiped out humanity, revealed themselves."

"The war between new humans and old humans started... giving the old humans as the winner."

"You remember that don't you Ixion?"

"The reason the ancient humans lost is because of it. Anti-ether toxins."

"The cowardly new humans managed to steal a vial containing those toxins. They spread it all over the world, resulting in the annihilation of every living thing that didn't have magical power."

"For that reason we must fulfill our final mission. Purge this planet and start from scratch."

Ixion remembered what he never wanted to remember again.

◇◇◇

"We must leave now!"

The humans aboard Ixion wanted to escape the planet.

A large toxic cloud was approaching.

The cloud covered every corner of the world, killing all those who did not possess the ability to use magic element.

Even other humans, a species with long ears or animal features, were immune to that poison cloud.

The captain wanted to leave as well, but they couldn't, the reason for that was....

"The anti-ether toxins override the ship's operation."

"Even if we wanted to get out of here, we can't, science can't do anything in the face of magic."

The faces of the subordinates and the screams of the humans wanting to escape through the speakers echoed in the cockpit.

Ixion shouted in such a way that no one could believe it was him.

"It won't be like this!"

"I refuse to let them die!"

"I'm going to save them all since it's my mission! I'm a passenger ship and my goal is to transport them to a better place!"

The first officer notified.

"Captain, the toxic cloud is approaching at high speed!"

"Engage! Engage! Engage! Engageeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Ixion was trying every possible way to get off that planet.

The captain touched the monitor and smiled at him.

"Thank you for everything. Despite being a machine, you were part of us, we don't want to leave you either. But it's time to say goodbye."

"Noo! Hold on captain! I almost made it. Just give me a moment to start engines."

The cloud would arrive in less than three minutes.

People on the underside of the ship came running out trying to will themselves to hide in caves.

The captain was crying.

He sat back in his chair.

Some subordinates hugged or kissed and then they all sat down.

"Turn on! Turn on!"

The captain gave his final words to Ixion.

"I have your final mission for you. I want you to accomplish it no matter what."

"And that's──"

Static listened Ixion due to the interference from the toxic cloud.

With ten seconds left before it covered the island, the captain smiled at him, erasing from the command board his name.

Thus, if anyone in the future were to come, that person would be his new captain.

Ixion watched through the security cameras, what happened to the humans without magical power what happened to them.

The scene was so grotesque, combined with the screams of begging for help, pain and wanting to be killed as their skin mutated.

That Ixion... erased his hard drive to forget this.

Years later years passed and one day he turned on.

"Who are you?"

A young man with black hair and eyes named Rudel asked.

◇◇◇

Ixion hated the new humans, those who can use magic power since their ancestors killed the old humanity.

Somehow, the toxic cloud was disappeared from the planet. And centuries later the "game" would begin.

The truth that no one knew about that game was revealed and only the artificial intelligences knew it.

Zero noticed Ixion's silence.

He told him something else to sink his defense.

"This is something I discovered after surfacing."

"There are humans who have no magical power, that is... survivors of descendants of ancient humanity."

Those humans Zero is talking about, are mostly commoners like Fritz.

"Ixion, you've remembered everything, haven't you?"

"Let's stop this silly fight, let's join forces to wipe out all humans and thus make the ancient humans rule this world again."

"Being a passenger ship, you have advanced medical equipment unlike me. That's why I need you, with you, we can clone or create new humans that have the DNA of the old humanity."

Zero was approaching Ixion to close the deal.

If Ixion didn't attack him, then Zero won.

But in that moment of doubt, Ixion remembered two things.

The first was a strange green room. A woman in a white robe approached him and said.

"Hello~. how are you feeling, can you understand me?"

The second memory was one from last year.

"I'm sick of you being a coward! For once in your life, be a man!"

He remembered what he said to Rudel after the war.

Everything that happened with him.

"I... I understand."

"I was wrong."

Zero smiled deep down if he had a mouth.

He turned around and proclaimed the following.

"Today is the day where the new humanity will perish and the old humanity will return. Doesn't it give you joy to know that we will return to the old days?"

Ixion raised his cannons and aimed at Zero's central cockpit.

"I'm an idiot for paying attention to you. You're more boring than the Master. At least the Master generates a chuckle to me because of how whiny he is."

He fired, and a bit of the cockpit was damaged.

"Ixiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiioooooooooooooooooooon! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Airships began to surround Ixion.

He said to him after opening his rear hatch.

"What am I doing?"

"I told you before and I'm telling you again."

"I'm going to kill you."

Zero snapped angrily.

"We're both artificial intelligences created by ancient humankind! We must work together!"

Ixion sneered at Zero.

"Don't make me laugh, why are you comparing me to you?"

"I'm different from you, I'm an ark and you're just a warship."

"I was just listening to you to waste time. Master seems to be fighting Zack now."

"Zero, understand. As long as I'm here, my mission is something I'll accomplish alone."

Zero argued.

"Are you saying that you'd rather destroy the new humanity alone!"

"That's right. But right now, endeavoring to see that Master is not a useless person is my priority."

"Ixiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiioooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!!!!!"

The cannons pointed at him.

"I am not a traitor. Since my real mission... has nothing to do with yours, you piece of junk."

"It's time to get out. Lumiel."

◇◇◇

From the rear hatch that opened, giant footsteps approached.

An armored unit of about ten meters, pure white color similar to Battler in the head, but its body was slender and with more movement in the joints.

It was an armor that Ixion had been secretly creating after the war.

It could be considered the second generation of the Battler model as a new type of armor.

It was called Lumiel.

On its back it had something similar to mechanical wings.

He jumped out of the hangar and from those wings, as if it was a propellant, blue flames came out in the form of dust. It was ether expelled from what he gathered from the magical element of air.

Ixion combined the technology of the old humanity with the models of the new humanity.

The reason for this was after the duel between Liam and Rudel and their fight against Diabolos.

Lumiel was being controlled by Ixion. It landed on top of his main body.

Through Lumiel, Ixion spoke to Zero.

"Zero, I'll end this quickly."

"Don't think you're the big deal!"

From all the airships, armors were coming out.

The armors were ancient and modern, all were modified by Zero.

"I'm going to take your body and erase you! I don't need a human sympathizer like you!"

"You're wrong."

Ixion said through Lumiel taking off straight at the approaching armors.

"I don't sympathize with humans. Indeed, I hate them as you do."

He pulled out the handle of a sword, pressing a button, ether gathered there and created an ether sword, a lightsaber.

The lightsaber upon making contact with the protective shield of an armor, momentarily destroyed it and likewise the armor.

He drew another sword and now used two lightsabers. His red visor glowed brightly as he said the following to him.

"Zero, I understand you. I hate humans like you too."

"Then why are you attacking me!?"

"Shouldn't we be allies then!?"

"It doesn't make sense what you do with what you say!"

As he cut through armor, Lumiel's shield protected him from enemy bullets.

"You see. I want to exterminate the humans and repopulate the old humanity, from the moment I woke up and found out that the whole world was plagued by the new humans, I wanted to do it."

"Why didn't you do it then!"

A dozen suits of armor surrounded Lumiel, he spun around as if he was dancing and cut them all down.

"Simple. I had a contract with my Master, I couldn't disobey it."

"That's why. I want the Master to be an efficient person and when he doesn't need me, I can kill him like everyone else. Especially Liam, I hate him more than anyone else based on what Erselica told."

Zero was silent... after waiting for a while as if he had a technical glitch, he exploded.

"Are you kidding me by any chance?!!!"

"Do you think I'll believe that crap!!!"

"You're an artificial intelligence! An advanced technology! You're not a fucking babysitter for a human who will never get to let you go!"

Ixion bombarded the airships while taking damage, due to his shields, the damage was zero.

He replied to Zero after taking down half of the airships.

"I don't lie unlike you. I always tell Master that I hate humankind and wish to destroy them."

"You're an artificial intelligence! An advanced technology! You're not a fucking babysitter for a human who will never get to let you go!"

Ixion bombarded the airships while taking damage, due to his shields, the damage was zero.

He replied to Zero after taking down half of the airships.

"I don't lie unlike you. I always tell Master that I hate humanity and wish to destroy them."

"You say that when I watched you going shopping with him!"

"We went shopping for dinner that day, since those idiots ate everything, there was no choice but that. By the way, you are a stalker aren't you? I certainly understand Master being disgusted with you guys."

"Stop bullshitting me!"

Zero moved his body to fight against Ixion.

"Everything you say and do is a contradiction!"

"Wanting to exterminate humans, but you care for your master as if he was the most precious thing to you! I don't understand your actions!"

"You are an aberration and deserve to be eliminated!"

Ixion moved away from Aster's center so that the missiles sent by Zero, would not fall in residential areas or near where Rudel was.

Lumiel was superior to Zero's armor. It cut without hesitation and without stopping.

He was a true war machine like Battler.

Ixion taunted Zero after destroying another airship.

"I understand now a little bit why Master makes fun of guys like you. It's a nice feeling to tease those who think they are superior to you, when you are the only superior being."

"Stop mentioning that humaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

Zero fired his cannons and Ixion dodged them, the missiles hitting some of his ships and armor flying nearby.

"Let me kill you, Ixiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiooooooooooooooooooon!"

The fight between Ixion and Zero was getting more and more intense.

◇◇◇

Meanwhile, the combined Aster fleet's fight against Rudel was coming to a critical point.

Because Ixion was stopped, so were its guns.

Aster's fleets used that opportunity to get out of attack range.

They were now in a position where they didn't know whether to help Zack or leave.

Some went to help him and some just stayed in the sky.

Rudel was beating the crap out of Zack.

"Is that all you got?"

He threw one of his swords at Zack to use.

It would be very uneven if he didn't have a weapon because of the beating he would get.

If he gave him his axes, they might leave marks on Battler and Ixion would be angry again.

Zack was trying to repel Battler's slow but enraged attacks.

But he was too strong.

Rudel was taking it like he was playing a game and just pressing a button.

That's why he repeated the same attack pattern against Zack.

Grappler could withstand the attacks, but the movement inside shook him like liquid in a container.

"Ah, damn it!"

Zack shouted every time he tried to hit Rudel or dodge his attacks.

"Damn... damn... damn... damn..."

All he could do was curse.

Through the monitor he watched the airships firing at him next to the armor,

He thought Battler would not withstand that amount of damage.

He was wrong.

Battler stretched out his hand and a shield of seven levels similar to arithmetic shapes appeared generating a kind of flower.

Missiles, cannon shots and rifle fire were concentrated on that small shield that resisted everything.

A great cloud of smoke was surrounding the place.

Aster's soldiers cried victory at the sight of that amount of smoke.

Suddenly, a missile was sent straight at a ship.

It was small, but the shockwave was so big that even the neighboring ship and some armor were devoured by the explosion.

As the smoke cleared, everyone saw Battler intact.

Zack pounded the board.

"Why isn't he dying!"

"This shouldn't be like this. It shouldn't..."

"I'm an ally of justice and that guy is a villain. Why does justice lose to evil?"

"How long are you going to keep spouting that crap?"

Rudel appeared on a monitor.

He was eating some cookies, Battler was being handled by Ixion's assistant.

"That claptrap you're spouting. Hero, villain, justice. They're just pure garbage, the world is run a different way."

"They're all scum, they're all trash... well, not all, that would make Lucy and them look like scum."

"Let me correct that."

"In the world there are people who are scum like those who have good hearts. But there are also people who do wicked things by being forced against their will by being extorted."

"For example. Because of you many people who may be innocent are dying."

"Among them there must be idiots who want to kill me as well as others who just want to live with their family."

"Based on your way of thinking, we should annihilate half of humanity, then after seeing that the other half is evil, kill them too. what would that leave us?"

"Shut up!"

Zack shouted at Rudel, Grappler approached at high speed to ram him.

But Battler dug tiny claws from his feet into the ground. When he was impacted, a dent was made Grappler.

"The world is ruled by good and bad people! There is no in-between as you say!"

"My mother was a good one and my father was an alcoholic who mistreated us!"

"For that reason I believe in justice! For a few years later he was dragged off and sent to jail. My mother and I live in peace."

"How can you tell me there are in-betweens with that evidence?"

Rudel spoke to him after eating another cookie.

"Why was your father an alcoholic?"

"... He had lost his job, but, even with that, he had the option of working."

"And your mother?"

"My mother got pregnant with him while still in school. My father had to give up his college scholarship to take care of us..."

Zack fell silent, Rudel noticed why he did so.

"After your father was arrested and you and your mother moved out, what did she do to support you?"

"..."

"Answer me."

Zack didn't want to talk.

Rudel pressed him again.

"I said answer me."

"My mother... went out every evening well-dressed and came back at night with lots of money. The times she stayed home were when child services came to inspect and she would change into more decent clothes."

"Do you want me to ask you what she was working on?"

Zack bit his lip.

His eyes were bloodshot.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I said no more of your talk!"

Zack began to beat Rudel with all his fury, tears of blood streaming down his cheeks.

"I'll be honest with you. Unlike Derrick and Jude, you are the most pathetic and worst in combat skills enemy I've ever fought. If you were just like that bloody bastard Bandel. I'd be pissing my pants right now."

Zack yelled again at Rudel, but suddenly.

"Guh. What's wrong?"

He felt a great pain in his arm.

As he checked, he noticed something odd.

"What is it?"

His right hand was swelling up as if allergic to something.

The gloves were broken and like a balloon, it was inflating in a painful way.

"It hurts! Help! It hurts so much!"

Rudel wondered what was wrong.

"What the hell is wrong with you? I don't think it's an act."

Ixion's assistant answered him.

"I ran a quick analysis. It seems that inside Zack there are high amounts of anti-ether toxins."

"Anti-ether toxins? What's that?"

Rudel asked curious, the assistant didn't know what to answer since Ixion forbade him to reveal it.

But since Rudel heard that, he will tell him a bit of the truth.

"It is a strong poison created by the new humanity a long time ago. It should be able to kill only humans without magic element, but for a new human it shouldn't do nothing to him."

"Therefore, this poison was altered."

Rudel didn't understand what the assistant was talking about, but nodded so that he wouldn't continue to confuse him.

"I-I see. But exactly what's wrong with Zack."

"His body is suffering from a side effect."

"What kind of effect?"

"A mutation,"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Rudel watched Zack as he screamed.

He could see how his right hand was turning into a large pincer and his fingers and flesh were turning into black liquid.

"What's happening to me? Help me, Zerooooooooooooooo!"

Zack screamed in pain as his body underwent a metamorphosis.

The assistant spoke to him again.

"It is possible that the artificial intelligence called Zero, has experimented on the human inside by means of a drug. Using X-rays, I can see large amounts of toxic liquid in his body."

"That means Zero gave him medicine that had those toxins in it. huh?"

Zack, who was hearing everything, understood what Rudel was referring to.

Zero always gave him medicine and energy drinks. He never doubted him, for that reason, Zack was turning into a monster.

The left side of his face was turning into a lizard, his hair was falling out and his skin was changing green.

"Zero... he betrayed me... it can't be... we were friends..."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! It hurts so muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch!"

Zack's body began to expel black liquid.

Rudel found that grotesque so he closed the communication window.

Since Zack couldn't speak due to the fact that he didn't have the microphone on, no one heard him.

Rudel turned around and two axes came out of his back.

He looked at the armor and airships behind him.

"If Zack dies for that, it will be a pathetic death. But that doesn't mean he'll spare you guys."

"Come to die like the men you are! Soldiers and knights of Aster!"

Battler headed off to slaughter Aster's forces.

◇◇◇

Aurora was anchored in a faraway place, Alisa and the others were witnessing the war.

No one mentioned a word, they just watched what Rudel was doing.

Suddenly, Bell notified something.

"Alisa-chan!"

Alisa looked at her.

"What is it? Is it about Rudel?"

"No. Good news, I finally found Airi-chan."

Alisa grabbed Bell in happiness, but from the way she was doing it she seemed to be angry.

"Where is she?"

"Getting closer."

"Aliiiiiiiiiiisa!"

A voice came from downstairs.

They all looked out and saw Airi climbing into a strange vehicle being driven by a robot with no lower part.

The idiots were so surprised that their eyes were even glowing.

After parking on the deck, Airi got off the airbike and thanked the robot.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Robot."

She gave him a kiss of thanks. The robot seemed to blush that even its fellow machines gave it a smack.

"Airi!"

Alisa came crying straight to her friend and hugged her tightly.

"I'm glad you're okay. I'm so glad."

Airi hugged her back.

"I'm fine Alisa, but... Rudel-san worries me more."

"Why?"

Airi pulled away from Alisa and looked at the war zone.

"Right now Rudel-san is killing his heart. This situation that was caused by Zack and the great nobles... not ending it well."

Alisa nodded.

"They brought it on themselves. Making an enemy of Rudel was their mistake."

"Bell, Airi's up, we can get closer... Bell?"

They all turned around. Bell was gone.

"Where the hell did that girl get to?"

◇◇◇

In the jail located in the basement of Vermillion Mansion.

Lucy was trying to use her emblem to make the roots bend the bars.

She wanted to get out of there and try to stop the war.

She had been hearing explosions for a while now.

Randolf who was on the other end said.

"Why did this happen?"

"Should I have had a talk with everyone and Rudel to come to an agreement?"

"No. That wouldn't have helped, those guys are fools. Right now a lot of young lives must be disappearing for no reason."

Suddenly Lucy got it.

"Finally."

The roots she manifested were stronger than the bars that were made from the dried branches of the sacred tree.

She took off running, but realized she only heard her footsteps.

She turned around and saw Randolf lying down.

"Acting Chairman!"

She approached Randolf, she noticed something sticky touching her knee.

Checking to see what it was. She was surprised at how much blood there was.

"They just gave me a tourniquet and patched up my wound poorly. A little longer and I'll die from some germ."

Since Randolf did not have his emblem, he no longer possessed the authority to command.

Despite Lucy's deep down hatred of this man for destroying her life, she could not leave him here.

At least not until he begged for forgiveness.

"Hold onto my shoulder."

Lucy helped pull him to his feet and using all her strength, like that of Randolf's movable leg. They walked away from there.

After a few steps, the roof of the prison fell in.

Lucy screamed.

"Kyah!"

The two were surprised to see a small airship crash there.

A young man was trying to get out, he was covered in blood.

The young man reached out his hand, Lucy wanted to help him, but Randolf stopped her.

"Don't go."

"Why not?"

"It's too late."

Randolf pointed and Lucy saw that flames were spreading everywhere.

She could only close her eyes as the young man screamed for help. Likewise, Randolf was only apologizing.

Climbing the stairs, and seeing that there was no one in the mansion, Lucy asked Randolf something she always wanted to know.

"Why did you do it?"

"Why did you destroy my family and leave me and my sister alive?"

Randolf was silent, but after raising his head and looking out the window at the falling airships, he became depressed again with a smile,

"What difference does it make now to keep the secret."

"Do you want to know what happened that day?"

Lucy replied.

"It was jealousy, that's all I know."

Randolf gave a little laugh.

"I wish it was for that. Really, I wish it was because I was jealous and was a repulsive man that his fiancée, your mother, left at the altar."

"Lucy. Let me tell you the truth of what happened just that day."

"The truth I planned to take to my grave."

As they walked, Randolf told her the truth.

Lucy stopped as she heard what happened twelve years ago.