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Author's note: A new theme is made for Before Light - Remastered, now on Youtube. Feel free to have a listen while reading, cheers! Youtube URL:https://youtu.be/VfedmXxtSE4

 

<Ⅺ>

  Standing up high on the wings of the Betelgeuse, unswayed by the raging winds and snow, ash and debris of Demon smog, Starbreaker General of the Skyworld capital Solo watched the lands beneath cloaked in dark, teeming with unsavory Demon kind, scanning the fierce forces gathered at the North Line with his red mechanic eyes.

  “ Demons have flocked around the main gates, my Lord.” Solo reported back through his Starbreaker visor gravely.

  “ More than thousands of them down there, ranged from Grades A to E. Also a couple of Dark Unervas, with One Archdemon visible.”

 

  “ …I see…” The muffled voice of a man replied, illusive and devoid of emotion, calm and distant, brooding and contempt.

  “ That will not be a major problem for you…will it, General?” 

 

  “ I must admit, it might be a challenge.” Solo candidly replied.

“ But as soon as I get my hands on the Asset, the tide will turn in our favor.”

 

  “ …Good…” The Lord on the other side mused in satisfaction.

“ Get the Weapon…and bring Yuri to me…Along with the Demon that has grasped her memory…Bring them all back to me. My eyes are everywhere…General.”

 

  “ Understood.” Solo nodded as the conversation came to an end. The General knelt lower, brooding on the way to accomplish his mission in the most effective route.

  Now that Seito is on our side again, without the memories and reasons to go rogue, He can hold the frontline while I charge in and get the Asset…The problem is to get it before the Demons break the North Line…!  

 

  With most of the higher-graded, vicious Demons of the first Scourge kept on the other side of the imposing mountain gates of snow, the Dark Unervas must be planning to unleash the swarm that once nearly conquered the Capital and plunge the world back into Darkness. 

  But they can’t easily achieve that goal for what is located deep under the North Line walls, the one Legendary Weaponry dating back to the age before civilization’s fall, The Great Fall, that was buried deep under the snow for eons after the Great Fallen War, still capable of repelling Demon kind with its radioactive Light waves even under towering feet of snow.

  Word has it that the North Line was built not of brick or stone, but of earth, the Legendary Weaponry rose from beneath through its sheer power to harness gravity and magnetic fields, and many many other physical attributes on which the world relies to exterminate all Demon race.

 

  And tonight, under this snowstorm sky, He would be the one to retrieve that Legendary Arsenal, for the best of the Mission. For The Ultimate Mission.

  Solo breathed to keep his calm as he made his way down toward the main cabin of the Betelgeuse ship.

…

……..

  Secretary Reina, accompanied by the significant unmistakable form of Seito, was already present when Yuri and Firren reached the central hub to get their mission briefing from their Captain.

  Through the readings of the virtual map and the radars, the astonishing amount of vile monstrosities widened their eyes with shock at the never-before-seen proportions of Demonry.

  Above the swarm was the hovering large red signal of the Archdemon, and at the very back, located most closely to the North Line Mountain Walls, was the one prominent red spark

 

  of Vitas/Vernui.

  “ Our Mission is simple.” Bradson briefed them tersely, stern and grave as ever, his frown carved deep between his brow.

“ Apprehend the Pretender, and secure the North Line. Any questions?”

 

  The Starbreakers affirmed in silence.

 

  “ How about Solo, the General of the hour?” Seito asked soon after.

“ Isn’t he gonna help?”

 

  General? Yuri wondered who Seito was referring to. And from both Reina and Firren’s grim expressions it seemed that this General person seemed more a menace than help.

  Even Grandpapa Bradson’s frown deepened so at the mention of this person.

 

  And as if summoned by the notion and wonder, The General stepped into the headquarters, as if time slowed and his steps echoed to infinity.

 

  “ Certainly, I will help thee good folk.” The resounding gallant voice of the General hummed next to Yuri’s ear as the towering figure emerged out of the light, casting a shadow over Yuri’s small frame compared to this mountain of a figure.

  “ But…only after I finish my Mission and fetch this ‘Weapon’ inside the North Line first. It is, after all, the way to turn the tide.”

 

  “ So…We’ll have to hold long enough until you get your errand? Is that what you mean?” Seito questioned, perplexed by the General’s plan.

 

   Solo grinned mysteriously. 

  “ You’ll see.”

 

  Yuri wanted to ask what this ‘Weapon’ is, but feeling the intense atmosphere around the room she decided to not bring up the question too soon. 

 

  “ One more thing.” Bradson Captain’s guttural voice seemed to still the flow in the room.

“ Yuri, you will be staying on ship.”

 

  The words felt distant and unreal to her ears. The others, though surprised at first, eventually agreed to the Captain’s assessments and judgment.

  Firren too, though silent, felt the decision was better for Yuri.

 

  “ But…Grandpapa, I am fine…” Yuri tried to reason. 

“I can fight. I want to…I Have To…I Can’t let him just take my memory and let it be used on the Demons against us!”

 

  “ Yuri, your body isn’t well recovered yet!” Reina ushered Yuri back, calming the girl with her hands upon Yuri’s shoulders.

  “ We, Captain and I…we can’t risk letting you get hurt anymore…!”

 

  “ But I Can! I fixed my wristband and got my Armor back. And it’s my Memory he has…I Have to Get it Back Myself!”

  Yet the more Yuri tried, the more determined the Captain and secretary were to their decision. 

 

  “ She has a point.” The Starbreaker General however stated his view gentlemanly.

“ It is her Right. It is her Memory that was taken. Who better to take it back than herself? Just saying.”

 

  “ The Captain will have the final say.” Reina sided with the old Captain’s choice as she turned to Yuri with grave concern in her eyes of pleading persuasion.

  “ Yuri, leave him to us. Your heart may be ready, but your body isn’t. It is War down there, and all will lose meaning if you are gone. You matter the most to us. We nearly lost you before…Never again. Yuri, please stay.”

 

  Though her spur and stubborn determination were still directing her forth to the fields of snow below, Yuri could not make herself go against sister Reina and Grandpapa Bradson’s wishes in person, knowing that violating their goodwill will only hurt them more from the truth of the happenings they had failed to prevent days before.

  Reluctantly, Yuri turned away, swallowing back the words of refutation.

 

  “ Did I miss something?” Seito asked, bewildered and in the dark.

 

  “ It’s…Vitas.” Reina shortly whispered, unwilling to disclose more as the Starbreakers prepared their armaments and weapons to battle.

  “ He…”

 

  “ Vitas who?” Seito asked, a question that stopped not just Reina, but also Firren and Bradson Captain all short.

 

  Solo, however, with a thin grin, turned to his locker as he suited his armor. 

 

  “ Vitas…the lonesome Starbreaker that followed you here…You don’t remember…?” Reina stammered, eyeing the preparing General behind Solo with utmost hatred and disbelief.

 

  Seito however was pretty confused.

  “ What are you talking about?! I came here alone, did I not? Who is this imaginary person you—”

 

  “ Nothing much to bother, old chap.” Solo slapped the baffled big man on the back with a chuckle.

  “ Let us all focus on the mission ahead. It’s gonna be War down there, am I right…?”

 

  Reina tried her best to pull her searing bear fist back, refusing eye contact from the one General that was mainly speaking to her more than anyone else in the room.

 

  Seito had really forgotten everything…erased all that once mattered, of the past, even parts of the present.

 

  But…that is for the best.

 

  Reina’s bearing fist softened as in defeat, powerless affront the reality shown before her.

 

  Who was she to make others suffer by remembering what will only cause them harm? Especially Seito…of all people. She doesn’t want to see him suffer anymore, and if ignorance is what can maintain his sanity, then…so be it.

 

  Reina silently activated her armor, as the rest of the Starbreakers did, as they prepared for lift-off.

 

  

  The four of them, Firren, Reina, Solo, and General Solo, readied at their launching positions as the countdown started to rattle.

 

  Firren took a deep breath.

 

  His fiery blades, his weapons of retaliation strapped tightly to his wrists, are reserved all for the man, the one scoundrel that dared hurt Yuri so.

 

  The countdown reached its end.

  And they are off.

  Soaring down like shooting stars landing with explosions bringing midst and snow high before they subside, revealing the lineup of the emissaries of Light, standing readily, intensely before the menacing armies of dark swarm rumbling chaotically toward them.

 

  The winds raged, howling vehemently hard to distinguish them from the screech and roars of the sea of black pouring forth, as Firren made the first move, stepping forth with both flaming blades clasped side to side, flaring with atomic blaze. And with a cry, the Commander swung down his blades.

  “ Fierzen Vaell!!!!!” Firren summoned the powers through the incantations of the elden tongue, spells that unlock the strength that blesses this one strike, this astounding slice across the frosted earth a horizontal line that burst out in flames one second after, surging out a blinding wall of red and yellow, dancing in the night, barricading the side of good, setting a thick inescapable trap for all those charging Demons that burst into the fiery settlement, melting and becoming one with the growing conflagration that pressed onward against the arrays of Demonry.

 

  Through this wall of flame, the Starbreakers have gained a fortress to start.

 

  “ Splendid, splendid.” General Solo praised with his fists tunneling the snow before his feet with those arms clad in thick blunt crushing boulder-like claws.

  “ You do your thing. I’ll be on my way.” And with rumbling shudders reaching down beneath the snow, the General was gone, digging deep under toward his goal.

 

  “ Well, there he goes.” Seito shrugged, swinging his lightning greatsword up to his shoulder.

“ What now?” 

 

  “ We blast our way forth, and get That Traitor back.” Reina answered, fuming with the Nanoparticles of her arsenal surging out of her armor and up to her side, transforming, transposing into myriads of turrets, rifles, and automaton guns, lined up across the fiery wall.

  “ Poleastra Nomos!!”  Reina summoned her incantations of thunderous bullet rain, letting her fury set sail, unleashing all the rage and ammunition her dozens of rows of hovering magnums could possibly muster, pulverizing waves and waves of Demons and Unervas alike as Firren pushed the burning barricade forth, inch by inch pressing onward while Seito felled many a larger Demon with simple but crushing slashes of his Greatsword.

  Like an impenetrable mobile fortress of infinite destruction, did the three Strabreakers form to bring Doom upon these deviant kinds.

…

………

  Seeing what the just three Starbreakers are capable of, more than half of the Demon fray, consisting of low-ranked petty beasts, started to flee in fear and scamper off into the snow.

  “ Come back, you!!” Varium scalded the cowardly Demon flock beneath her in rage.

“ The ritual hasn’t started yet!!  Where is your faith?!”

 

  “ Let those that are anchored to their carnal sins be.” The shadow underneath Vitas/Vernui spoke, lengthening more and more across the pale brisk lands toward the towering gates of the North Line, as the young man cowered in agony and resistance, fighting the powers eating inside him.

  “ Not all souls are worthy of Revival. Only those with Want and Wrath, have the power to persevere…is it not so…Vernui?”

  

  “ I Never Wanted This!!” The young man shouted in anger, pinned to the snowy floor by an unseen force.

  “ I never…wanted to hurt Her…!”

 

  “ But You Want Her…” The growing shadow crooned, its wings like eerie fingers drawing wider across the lands.

  “ I am but a residue of your thoughts, the parasite of your Being. I act…only to Your Will and Lust! Vernui…Face your true self. Do you not Want to Bring Her Back with You?! To Rebuild the Bliss and Paradise the World has Forsaken You All?! I am but the shadow, and you…The Hand of thy works…!”

 

 “ You…!!!” Vitas/Vernui uttered regretfully, the deeper he felt the Darkness in his heart, the more he knew that it was true. His memories of the present, and the memories of his past, fusing into one mind, one of realization and desire.

 

  Vitas and Vernui, are now one.

 

  And their goals are clear; their actions justified.

 

  “ Yes…” The shadow over him cackled as Vernui knelt down in submission, abiding to his purest senses, the undying feelings that faded not from the destruction of the corporal self, a hatred to those that had betrayed them, forced them to their utter demise, and a Love that ceases not and extended through time and space, calling for the Return to the old, simple days…The days when all was true and free from suffering.

 

  Until the Lord of Light doomed us all.

 

  “ Deeper…deeper…” The shadow bade Vernui as the man searched, reaching out to the memory he had possessed from his victim, his love, to start the ritual, to start the Return of their Longing.

 

  Yuri…I did this…For Both Of Us!!!

  

  Over the field, a thick dark mist started to gather above the snowy grounds.

…

………

  Yuri stopped at her steps as she turned around, as if a voice had called out to her from the innermost point of the battlefield below. An urge, a whisper, begging her to join, to understand.

  

  No. Yuri gripped hard her fist, trembling.

 

  I will not join you.

 

  I will not try to understand.

 

  I will take back what you have taken from me. 

 

  And Stop You, Veruni!

…

……..

  “ Oh no…!!” The terror in Neliya’s voice manifested into a gasping whimper.

“ Those are Demons…Everywhere…!”

 

  Indeed, what was once a pallid field of snow, now flooded in gory black pus and demeanor.

 

  Looking up as the loud howlings rattled around the whole ship, Lima and Neliya noticed the photon missiles and artillery droids soaring off to dark horizons, vanishing into the smog of ash and snow either shooting lesser Demons down from the air or colliding in a ball of flame, sinking into the snow to oblivion.

  The thundering roars of the missile launchers of the Betelgeuse only added more apprehension than the sense of glory, as the wolf cub scurried onto Lima’s shoulder, hiding close to her nape.

  Racing to the side of the glass window, Lima checked if the Starbreakers have set off, to see a long fence of flame reaching from one side to the other, moving slowly forward incinerating all of Dark in its path. That is Firren, and Secretary Reina too, with dozen of phalanx full of unstoppable photon rifles firing at anything that moves, and Seito, blasting lightning and bringing down everything in its path.

  

  And Yuri…nowhere in sight.

 

  So perhaps the Captain had forbidden her to go…Lima concluded, taking the terrified Neliya by the hand to lead her back to their room and rest, only to be grasped by the other hand vehemently by a newcomer that silently with astonishing agility took Lima by the hand in hopes to lead her to a different destination.

 

  Lima blinked quickly, to see it was Tricia, the silent child of secrets and mysterious abilities, grasping her hand tightly in hers, looking worried to the core.

 

  “ Tricia…?! What’s wrong?!” Neliya wondered in surprise, but the green-haired child didn’t wait to explain, neither could she with her handicap of speechlessness defect, and pulled Lima away in rushing steps, leaving Neliya alone and bewildered on the spot.

  Hoping that things are alright, Neliya treaded alone back along the glass corridor, only to be stopped by another that came before her.

  “ Neliya, apologies but…can I have a word with you…privately…?” 

  Neliya looked up, meeting the earnest grey eyes of those of Kai, the bosom advisor of Neo.

 

  Can it be…something about Neo…? Neliya nervously thought of a reply, only to be muddled by her own ominous thoughts. Are they saying bad things about Neo for being close to something weird and unfathomable? Have I overstayed my welcome—

 

  “ It’s…about the book of Sensei,” Kai spoke, at last, lowering his voice lest anyone hears.

“ Especially about the Runes at the back…I heard that you are able to decipher them. I hope that…you would teach me, and tell me more about it.”

 

  Neliya was relieved, but also stumped by why Kai would suddenly be all curious about the writings and codes inside her book.

 

  Nonetheless, the timid one agreed, and led Kai to her room.

  A safeguard droid standing by the healing chamber for the children saw them two leave, and followed once Neliya and Kai was a few steps away, its monoeye swirling in adjustment.

…

……….

  There a virtual hologram hovered, reflecting two children walking down a corridor at the front. As it lowered, many other holograms, screens abright, capturing footage mostly of the violent dispute in the fields of snow, made way for the hologram of the two walking children to come near the one watcher in the dark’s presence.

  

  Lowering side to side to another hologram, of Lima and Tricia running down the glass corridor, hand in hand in haste.

 

  And a third one in the middle, following none other than Yuri, racing toward somewhere as fast as she could, donning almost all of her armor.

 

  “ Ready…to take flight…Is it?” The Watcher mused, chuckling to himself.

 

  “ How shall it be? How will things turn out…? How…unnerving…” 

 

  As the figure’s tall shadow sat back down on his throne of wires and devices, gathering all the footage and lights dazzling into his all-seeing eyes, of everything happening in the North, all under his surveillance.

 

  The one cracked imperfect red jewel sparked a dim eerie glow upon the wired crown sitting above the Onlooker’s head of black hair mottled with strokes of grey and white.

 

  “ If only…You would all do…as my Designs…The World would be, a Better Place…”

…

……….

  Asking someone who couldn’t speak of what they were doing might seem too arbitrary, Lima thought, as she fought the urge to ask while her hand was pulled along by Tricia, the prime lead of the children, down the corridors heading downward near the hangars of the ship.

  At first, Lima thought it might be just be of coincidence, a strange habit that each individual has once in a while, such as twirling the end of one’s hair while speaking something contradicting to the heart; biting the nails while nervous…But what Lima saw of Tricia was more than just that, more than just a simple gesture that could be categorized as a common personal habit.

  It was a pose, a way of seeing, or rather tracking something, the way Tricia used her left hand to block her left eye while navigating the corridors swiftly and with ease.

  How, and why is she doing so? And why does it seem familiar…Lima tried to answer her own qualms, only to face more questions than answers. Seeing that asking for an explanation was very much futile, Lima decided to go with the flow, preparing for whatever unscrupulous happenings will eventually take place.

  Yet, through experience, Lima had seldom seen Tricia at the wrong of things, even before they boarded the Betelgeuse, roaming the wilderness in search of their Mentor Sensei, Tricia’s lead had brought the least harm to the pack. How she does it, Lima never questioned, for there are far too many things out of her ken, even though she considers herself to know slightly more than the other children, but now, being pulled by this mysterious child, Lima couldn’t help but wonder the magic mechanisms that were at work within this silent girl’s head.

 

  Still in thought, Lima nearly tripped at a sudden turn, guiding her own balance through her stumbling feet, and pulled her body back up, only to catch a glimpse of an armored figure dashing right opposite her trajectory. Lima skidded to an abrupt halt, saving herself from instant collision with this armored person, relieved that Tricia too had stopped for once.

 

  The wolf cub, clinging onto Lima’s shoulder all this time, flew out with a short yelp and landed on the person’s arms.

 

  “ Tricia…and…Lima?!?!” 

 

  Lima looked up and shared the same surprise as the armored person that just spoke.

 

  “ Yu…Yuri?! Where are you going?!” From the armor and the sword rifle Yuri held tightly in hand, Lima knew immediately that Yuri was also heading to battle. Where the battlefield might be Lima quickly guessed in a foreboding brood.

 

  “ No!!” Lima demanded adamantly, standing in Yuri’s way.

“ No, Yuri! You are not going down there! He is not worth It! Let the others Kill Him for all I care! But I won’t let you risk your life like this!”

 

  “ But it’s my Memory!!” Yuri argued back, as adamant as her friend she so dears.

“ It’s part of me that he has taken…I want to know why…I Want to Know if He is Lying!”

 

  “ He definitely is, Yuri!” Lima shouted back, trying hard not to lash out on her friend.

“ Listen, I have never known anyone called Vitas! He is a Demon in disguise—”

  “ His real name is…Vernui.”

  Lima stopped short, eyes so wide, her golden pupils reflected all the light from above, glistening as bright as her utter realization.

  

  The wolf cub barked in recognition of the name, also pulling Lima back to her senses.

 

  “ …No…No way…” Lima stuttered in disbelief, recalling all her memories that coincided with the name Yuri had spoken.

  “ He…He looks different! He…He doesn’t belong…He isn’t supposed to be here…Anymore…!!”

 

  “ What do you mean…Lima…?!” Yuri feared what Lima was about to say, but still, she had asked, she had to. She wanted to know.

  “ What do you mean he isn’t supposed to be here?!”

 

  “ He…He…!” Lima tried to find the words, but a sudden realization traced her thoughts further to a grander revelation that she delayed her reply.

  “ He…Vernui…He is Destined to be a Demon…That is the only possible way to explain it…! Yuri, you can’t get near him! He is not the Vernui you think you know! What you see in your memory is not what it is!”

 

  “ Then that is what I shall find out!” Yuri determinedly decided, grabbing her sword rifle tightly, as she placed the comfortable wolf cub back onto Lima’s shoulder.

  “ I shall get back my memories, Once and For All!! And Take back what Vernui has taken from me!! Lima, if you don’t want to be part of this, I won’t force you to, but please…Let Me Do It on My own!!”

 

  “ Yuri!!!” Lima cried out as her friend, her savior, her dearest companion rushed down the corridor despite her disapproval.

 

  Yet, at her most desperate moment, Lima felt a gentle force push her from behind, urging her to follow behind Yuri.

 

  Lima turned around in astonishment.

 

  “ …Tricia…? Why…? Is this the Right Way?!” Lima demanded, knowing that her cries would heed no answer, yet the silent girl neither nodded, nor shook her head, but tapped at the center of her chest.

 

  The Heart.

 

  And pointed forth at Lima’s chest, touching the golden pendant hanging down around her nape.

 

  Both Lima and the wolf cub stared down in wonder at the glistening marble at the center of her necklace.

 

  And Lima understood.

 

  “ …Alright…” Lima took a deep breath.

 

  “ Dog…Elza, You are coming with me.” 

 

  “ Woof!” Elza the Wolf cub, getting its name from rune on its collar, barked back in enthusiastic fervor, as the two rushed forth, racing down the path on which Yuri had tread.

 

  Her Heart had already had its answer.

 

  She will never leave Yuri alone, Never Again! 

 

  And now, Yuri needed her, as much as she need Yuri.

 

  The times may have separated them for some time, but the Memories, the Light between them, shall never diminish.

  Tricia smiled, before heading back as her task was accomplished.

  Captain Bradson sighed gravely, putting his left hand down that had been covering his left eye for some time, as the old Captain resumed command on the arsenals of the Betelgeuse ship, firing down at the seas of Darkness, assisting Firren and the others down the path to stop the Dark Unerva’s Ritual.

…

………

  As most of the armies of dread Demons swarmed against the Starbreakers in fierce battle, another portion of them demonic kind with their claws and wrathful strength slammed the frost-coated walls of the North Line, intending to break the barrier that separates them from the awaiting main host of demonry on the other side.

  Scrapping and bashing the monument, little did they realize a shadow loom up behind them, not even the instant bludgeoning of fists so mighty could the Demons discern before their visions diminish to dark and their existence dissolve to ash, all evaporating upon the crushing fists of ruthless Starbreaker General, emerging out of the cadaverous snow like the first mountains to ever been pushed out of sea level.

  Solo scanned the North Line through his round blunt helmet visor, searching for a way into the extending monument that may only be known to Starbreaker agency. Following the vague corroded runes once carved upon the cement surface, leading vertically down to the snowy bases, Solo realized the North Line he now sees is just half of its latitude visible above the tall acres of snow that had accumulated across eons and centuries since the rising of the Wall.

  If there could be an entrance to this construct, it would most likely be underneath this solid sea of white. Sighing reluctantly, Solo dove back down into the snow, swimming through the hard aggregations of frost until his reaching fingers ultimately sensed an evident current, surges of waves, rich energy emanating far under just ahead, a force field sending waves of grand power, Light Force and more, Magnetic, Heat, Sound, Gravitational, Elemental, Molecular…All. All of the fundamental Powers that construct the existing world radiated over the General, basking him within its glory. 

  Solo felt the amalgamation of power wash over his sinking form.

 

  Ahh, You were here all this time…

 

  Solo made one more push forward, his hand entering the zone of many colors cloaking all over the depth of the North Line.

 

  Defender of the Old Earth, I herby summon thee…to safeguard the New World!

  Buried deep in the basin of the cement wall, the elden armor hummed in answer.

…

……..

  “ Is it just me, or are they doubling in stark numbers?!” Seito shouted, decapitating Demon bears attempting to ambush the Lightning Starbreaker from behind.

  “ I don’t recall this big a crowd!”

 

  “ There must be many more of them coming from all sides!” Reina shouted back, sending Star bullets to all of her operating projectile turrets as they fired nonstop at the raging waves of Demons pouring down at them without end.

  “ We have to hurry! We won’t be able to stop Vitas in time!”

 

  “ Then we push on, Faster!" Firren demanded, ushering more flame out of his blades, sending not just horizontal walls of flame, but vertical ramparts of blaze and spark, trapping misshaped Demons in scorching enclosures of torment.

  But with each passing of the foul creatures, numerous more took their place, bursting out from yonder darkness. 

  Firren scanned the battlefield as his target indicators flashed all over his visor before the violent sea of monstrosities in their path. His feet kicked something as he pushed his flaming barricade forth, nearly tripping him to the snow.

 

  “ Watch your step, Firren mi’boy!” Seito hollered as he stabbed a Demon Girrafe springing out its long neck in assault, only to be departed from its head by the Lightning Greatsword before it struck Firren at the last second.

  “ One rash misstep might cost all our Lights now!”

 

  Firren quickly repositioned himself as he quickly glanced back at what nearly induced his untimely fall.

 

  There, sticking out of the snow, was a brown wrinkled protrusion ripped off the upper portion, leaving its latter thickened half sticking out of the white field.

  And it wasn’t alone.

 

  Many many more of the brown protrusions, most of them severed and scorched by flame and battle, but their bases, their slightly outspread roots, yet remain.

 

  Firren’s mind lingered at the strange image as he turned back to face the battlefield, a familiar unease brewing up the tension tightening like a metal chord strewn around his guts.

  He had seen those things before. But it wasn’t the appearance that startled him, but the memory behind what the piercing object implied.

 

  What is it? And what is this…fear? 

 

  Firren found it pretty hard to admit, but deep down, the obscure dark brown protrusions out of the snow sent an unwelcomed feeling, one that he hadn’t felt in a long time, deep into his Light-heart.

 

  Fear, of what he had nearly taken grasp. Nearly, at the tip of his lips, at the brink of recognition, so close, yet so far—

…

……….

  As Yuri, Lima, and Elza the wolf cub got to the hangars underneath at the lowest level of the Betelgeuse ship, they soon realized that they were not alone.

 

  Flickering the lights on, Yuri first noticed a shadow vanishing to a side behind the rows of four air cycles, gliders that Starbreakers rode to traverse faster across the skies, parked at the right side of the hangar.

  Lima noticed the scampering shadow as well.

 

  “ Demon?” Lima whispered.

 

  “ …I don’t think so, No.” Yuri whispered back. “ I got no Demon detection from my visor.”

 

  “ You got no detection on Vitas either. And I heard there are Demons that hide from scanners.” Lima retorted doubtfully.

  “ I think it is a camouflage Demon from outside that had sneaked in. We’ll hunt it down.”

 

  With a soft tap upon the golden marble of her necklace, Lima summoned out golden particles that enveloped her body in a gold metallic suit, close yet distinct from Yuri’s Starbreaker armor, sleek yet lacking many offensive abilities save for defensive usage. Most of the offense however comes from Lima’s light blade.

 

  Yuri’s eyes were glued by the shimmering armor all over Lima that the edge of her eye vaguely caught a sudden movement behind the rows of air gliders dashing to a side.

 

  “ I’ll corner it from the left! You go to the right, Yuri! Now!!” 

 

  Separating to two sides, Lima and Yuri both charged, weapons raised, about to strike when to their utter shock, the shadow leapt upwards, high up to the ceiling, and glided to the back of the hangars, landing gracefully behind Yuri and Lima, who both turned around in terror.

 

  Except for Elza, the wolf cub, who barked in enthusiastic realization, rushing forth to the shadow who crouched at the back in hiding.

 

  “ Pu…Puppy…!! You remember me?!”

 

  Both Yuri and Lima heard an elated squeal from yonder, of a girl, a youngster that seemed older than Lima, but younger than Yuri, a close teenager between their age that had just spoken.

 

  Who, though? As Yuri and Lima exchanged bewildered looks, not recalling anyone with that voice on this ship.

 

  But somehow, the way that the voice called out to Elza the cub seemed oddly specific…and familiar in a queer way.

 

  Can it be……?

…

……….

  

 

  With felling strikes Firren blasted forth a path with his flaming barricades, pressing onward while his eyes would catch glimpses of the same brown darkened matter piercing out of the snow. Sharp yet brittle, hard but crisp. This is something he once knew, but through his recovered memories, Firren was stunned that none of them could register what this phenomenon should be. The more he couldn’t understand, the more he saw this unknown familiar material sprouting out of the frosted ground, the more frantic he became.  

  Before Firren could quickly make up an answer of his own to keep his mind astray, his focus was deterred greatly as Reina's cry of utterance pulled Firren’s scanning eyes up at the murky skies above, where the long-awaited overpowering adversary of the Starbreakers emerged out of the grey, slithering above slowly as it gained altitude, higher and higher it went.

 

  “ The Archdemon!” Reina cried urgently to all.

“ It’s heading upwards—towards the Betelgeuse!!!”

 

  “ I’ll handle that snake!” Seito smirked, remembering his last battle against the Grand Serpent that ended with epic fail on his part as he lighted his Greatsword with yellow and bluish sparks that danced upon his blade, sizzling in anticipation before Seito gave a loud cry, heaving his tremendous Greatsword in circles at extreme velocity. Then stopping his spinning weapon abruptly, Seito sent a series of holy beams of light and heat, electric bolts and magnetic waves, all straight to the sky towards the uncouth Demon serpent, which turned a one-eighty opposing its initial trajectory, facing the coming storm catastrophe dashing straight at its hardened spiked face, opening its jaws so wide, it welcomed all that Seito had sought to bring it down into its insides which bloated and extended. None of the Starbreakers could believe what beheld their eyes, as the rocky segmented exterior of the Archdemon started to separate and extend, into a ball of ash with its head remaining in one piece among the tempest sky, kaws wide while its body scattered across the atmosphere, like a ball of dust spread wide and vast, like a universe and its asteroids and planets its rockbound pieces. And within that universe, the powers, the current of energy Seito had mustered and released, swirled and bulged in rapid imbalance at the middle, like an atom fusion bomb about to go off.

 

  “ It…It handled my beam…!!!” Seito uttered in sheer astonishment and awe, for normally no Demon would withstand such extent of his assembled power, now seeing his profession and works of destruction all contained and absorbed, ready to shoot back against him, Seito had nothing but respect towards this grand existence.

  “ Worthy…Worthy of the name, Archdemon!!! Reina, Firren!! Both of you stay back!!!!”

 

  “ It’s gonna take in all that you deliver! Stop giving it more energy to destroy us all!” Reina shouted as she watched Seito spin his greatsword once more, sucking all the electric force out of the sky into his one brewing strike.

 

  “ On the contrary, It has signed its own death warrant!!” Seito laughed, his blade like a cyclone gathering more and more light and flashing bolts.

  “ The energy he kept is unstable. All I need… is one push! One more strike at the lightning at its center!! I will break him…Trust me, I’ll get this done before dinner…!”

  Trust me, I’ll get this done before dinner…

 

  

  Reina stopped short in her tracks, though her arsenals went on firing, her direct command over them had ceased abruptly, for her Light-Hearted skipped a beat at what she just heard.

 

  “ …What did you just say…?” Reina asked, her voice hollow among the battlefield.

 

  “ I said the lightning inside the Archdemon is unstable and I’ll break it from its inside—”

 

  “ No!” Reina cut him off drastically, straining her voice now.

“ It’s…it’s what you last said…to me…”

 

  It’s Futile. Reina told herself, reminding herself that the Demons aren’t decreasing in numbers and swarming in on them.

  “ Forget it…forget anything I said…”

  Stop those fruitless struggles, and accept what it is all meant to be. The world is different now…the memories don’t mean anything anymore…but a burden of the present.

 

  Let them be…leave them all behind…

  But, Reina couldn’t help but ask herself, 

 

  Why is she here? What is the purpose of slaying these Demons, ridding the land of corruption and vile existence, cleansing the world…if the one you dear isn’t there anymore? Isn’t there to share the memories…a perfect world where she is alone, with the blank face she knew so well yet couldn’t recognize her.

  What is the meaning of all this?!

  Dimming, Reina’s eyes slowly diminished in color as her faith in herself dwindled under the ruthless snow.

…

………..

  “ I never thought you are this interested in the Runes in Sensei’s book, Kai…” Neliya tried to start a conversation with this stoic boy, as they both entered the room.

 

  “ It’s because of the story, and…due to everything that had transpired,” Kai admitted candidly.

  “ Momo had spoken some unprecedented ideas, and this Demon that showed us these…hallucinations. And also, Lima’s reaction to the story when we had recited it some days before when you were sick after transcribing the runes.”

 

  Kai leaned forward, seriously, his face inches away from Neliya’s.

  “ I want to know more. So that maybe it can help us find Sensei, and the promised child’s whereabouts. And even…help all of us overall. Can you help me, Neliya? I know only you are able to accomplish this task.”

 

  Nodding with her face peach red at Kai’s flattering words, Neliya placed the thick book down on the table and flipped open the pages.

 

  “ So, Kai. Where do you want to start?” Neliya asked shyly.

 

  Kai brooded in a momentary silence.

 

  “ The tale. Is it really finished? I feel like the ending was a bit rushed.”

 

  “ Ah, indeed. I haven’t totally finished it yet…I was too tired then that I forgot to tell Lucky that the story wasn’t finished yet.” Neliya started flipping through the pages, stopping at the rear of a long elaborated gathering of complicated drawings upon runes.

  “ I stopped here. Perhaps I can transcribe it while you listen. Is it okay with you…?”

 

  “ That would be most impressive.” Kai nodded gratefully. 

“ Let us begin.”

  The safeguard droid, stopping at the closed door of Neliya’s room, slowly turned away, heading back down from where it went.

 

  While another, new pair of eyes flickered up to motion right under the bed behind Neliya and Kai, continuing the surveillance, for the one Watcher behind the countless screens, overhearing all that Neliya was transcribing.

  

…

………

  Yuri lowered her weapon, much to Lima’s disapproval as she watched Yuri step forth, reclining for a closer look, catching a glimpse of yellow glistening in reflection upon the blonde hair behind the glider in the way.

 

  Lima followed quickly, and what her eyes beheld made them both gasp in a spontaneous manner.

 

  “ Mo…Momo…?!” 

  The girl looked up from her hiding place, crouched at the corner as she stared in surprise and relief at her friends that have finally come to her rescue.

 

  “ Lima…! Sister Yuri!!” The blond teenage girl cried out in delight, flying out and burying herself around Yuri’s bosom.

  “ Where have you been?! Where is everyone?! And…And there are two enemies here that are after Momo! What should I do??”

 

  “ Calm…calm down…” Yuri quickly soothed the anxious girl, also trying to calm her own nerves at the unexpected sight.

  “ It’s alright…the two enemies are gone. You are safe…”

 

  We were the two enemies, Lima thought, her gaze riveted involuntarily at the person wrapped in Yuri's arms, that seemed strikingly familiar that Lima thought she was hallucinating. 

 

  Is this really...

 

  ...Momo…now???

 

  The blond girl noticed both Lima and Yuri’s riveted gaze upon her, the confusion and bewilderment palpable between her and her friends.

 

  Not as tall, yet her forehead nearly reached Yuri’s nose; her body mostly slim, and her limbs gracefully slender and long; in a tight protective simple light suit she wore that accentuated the significant growth around the bosom area and the hips that exceeds even Yuri’s balanced frame.

  It was not just the voice, but the fair facial features that gave helped Yuri associate this girl before her with the young infant she once knew, though slightly more mature she may have been, the large eyes left no childlike energy behind, with curvy pink lips that curled always upwards to a genuine smile.

 

  She was Momo, but…grown.

 

  Lima, watching enviously at Momo’s body, quickly connected the dots in her head, and soon realized what might have happened.

 

  Momo too, like Yuri, had grown older in physical form, through devices that were once used…to create Starbreakers…

  Though not fully well versed on the mechanisms, Lima used to know from a reliable source that those with a specific mutation in the Light Heart gene sequence are able to harness the powers of the Starbreaker, but to fully utilize that power, the individual had to be physically acceptable to the outputs of the Armor, thus…converting younger children into—

 

  “ But Momo, why are you here?!” Yuri’s question quickly pulled Lima out of her drowning thoughts.

 

  Momo motioned to a corridor behind her leading to the upper layers of the ship.

“ Momo was sleeping, after a painful memory…then I woke up, inside a big tank. I couldn’t find anyone, I felt lonely, so I came down the corridor to find you…”

 

  The blonde girl stopped momentarily, noticing something wrong just by the look in Yuri and Lima’s eyes.

 

  “ What is it…? Has Momo become…strange…?!” The grownup Momo inquired uneasily, thinking their gazes were of sheer distraught upon her altered body.

  “ Momo…Momo too has noticed some changes…are they…wrong…??” 

 

  “ No!” Lima quickly replied, recalling what she had seen nearly a day before of Captain Bradson operating a surgery-like maneuver in his office when she tried to ask the captain of the wolf cub’s collar.

  “ No, It is not wrong…You were badly wounded, Momo, and the Captain has chosen this way to save you, to let you become—a Starbreaker!! Momo…you have no idea…how happy I am to see you back, safely…” 

  Lima smiled, wiping her tears away.

 

  “ Momo, you are still you.” Yuri comforted also. “ You have the memories, and share all that we remember. There is nothing wrong with becoming different. You should be proud of yourself…Because You are still the Momo we know and love! See, Puppy knows.”

 

  “ Woof!” The wolf cub concurred happily.

 

  Hugging the small critter close, with the confidence she regained, Momo beamed once more like the bright spark she was among the children.

 

  “ Momo is Momo!!” the young girl cheered. 

“ And Momo is a Starbreaker now!” 

 

  And with a soft step, Momo was in the air high above, reaching the ceiling of the hangars before landing down slowly with grace for a long astounding minute.

 

  Both Yuri and Lima stared in silence, lost for words, while Lima felt more envious by the second.

  “ Lima! Now’s no time to stare!” Yuri quickly remembered why she came to the hangars in the first place.

  “ I’ll drive one of these air cycles. You’ll sit behind me.”

 

  “ Hurry where?!” Momo asked with gleaming eyes, hugging Elza the cub as she bounced in great latitude toward Yuri and Lima.

  “ Momo wants to go too!”

 

  “ Momo, there’s a war out there.” Yuri quoted what secretary Reina had described of the current situation earlier.

  “ It’s dangerous. I can’t let you follow.”

 

  “ But…Momo is a Starbreaker! Momo can Help!”

 

  “ No!!” Both Yuri and Lima rejected at once, saddening the blonde girl greatly.

 

  “ Yuri, let’s go.” Lima ushered for them to leave, but Yuri wasn’t activating the engine.

  At first, a simple notion, a flash of an idea, slowly took shape in Yuri’s mind, growing into a plan, solidly formed.

  “ Yuri? What is it?”

  “ I think…maybe Momo can help.”

…

……….

 Firren turned around, realizing the rifles and projectile turrets shooting all by themselves, aiming in no particular direction without further command.

  Fearing at first that Reina had been attacked, Firren halted his forces, searching with his scanning visor to see Reina there stood a distance behind, shrouded in melancholy and her eyes, along with her aura dimming without color.

 

  Not believing what he saw with his eyes, Firren scanned further, as his Starbreaker scanners detected Demonic residue all over them, lingering like smog shrouding their presence.

  Is it from the Archdemon Death that now gathers Seito’s powers in an extended universe of dread that emanated this corrupting smog?! Is this the reason why Reina had suddenly lost faith and inner strength?!

 

  Or is it something else entirely…?!

 

  “ Reina—” Firren shouted and was about to dash backward when someone boomed in a loud cry before him.

 

  “ WAKE UP, WOMAN!!!” Seito hollered at the top of his lungs, like thunder after a myriad of flashing lightning, jolting Reina back to her senses.

 

  “ Why is it that you stand on this field?! Why is it that you answer the Call of the Starbreaker?! To slay Demons?! For Glory?! What is it?!?!” 

 

  Opening her mouth, Reina tried to respond, but no words came to her quivering lips.

 

  “ Neither. We are all here for the same reason. To Protect Light, Protect Memory from those that tarnish and devour them!! We secure not just others’ Light-hearts, but Our Own!! Do not falter, Secretary. For you still have one most important Light to protect—Your Own!!! Don’t just stand there, Fight back for Light, For your own Memory, REINA!!!!”

  And with one ultimate deafening cry, Seito sent out the lightning cyclone he had mustered over the past few seconds, blasting them all out towards the Archdemon in the sky, a slanting pillar of sheer white separating her world in half. The electrical hue, dawning upon Reina’s wide eyes of enlightenment, realizing at the last moment what she had almost forgotten.

 

  Herself. Her memories.

 

  The Seito she knew, is always there. He is right there with her all this time!

 

  Spinning back to action, Reina grasped all of her hovering rifles all at once in one unified control, aiming each bullet at a fatal blow of a Demon, setting them all off, decimating waves of Demons that thought they were close to victory.

  Reina had returned, and Seito too, now burst in yellow and white, lightning bolts crashing down all over his presence like pillars of support, granting him all the electric energy of the skies.

  Laughing triumphantly, Seito slashed countless lightning stream further, straight at the opened mouth of the Archdemon Death, which to Seito’s surprise, did not devour the beam as he so expected.

  The Archdemon knew if Seito had made one more strike upon the unstable energy it had captured, it would implode and perish. As if already reading Seito’s mind, the Archdemon Serpent sought a way of survival and retaliation, by letting go of the rumbling ball of lightning back out of its expanded body, shooting all that Seito had fired into its body back out, clashing against Seito’s many streams of lightning.

 

  Two bursting force, emitted from each unrelenting end, locked to a tremendous standstill in the middle of the air.

 

  Light against Dark. 

 

  Elite Starbreaker agaisnt Archdemon.

 

  The center of their colliding conflict, growing, bulging like a bubble in a transparent manner, gradually enveloping the wide battlefield in an ominous shroud of shadow, half Light, half Darkness.

 

  Something in between, started to emerge, glowing in a never-before-seen light.

…

………

  

  Despite her disapproval, Lima knew the moment Yuri had a plan, there was no way of stopping her.

 

 Quickly, Yuri turned around to the hopefully excited Momo, hopping up to the ceiling and falling back down repeatedly.

 

  “ Momo! I need to know more about your abilities before deciding whether to let you come with us! Will you show me what you can do?!”

  Yuri asked with utmost seriousness, grasping Momo by the shoulder.

 

  “ Wha—”

 Before Momo could utter an answer, Yuri offered her own set of questions in quick succession, fast and precise, eager to know as much as she could.

  “ Can you jump in mid-air? How fast do you fly?....and an Armor! Do you have any Starbreaker Armor?! Do you hear any voices calling out to you in your head? And…”

 

  As fast as she could, Yuri made her assessments, and made a plan as her Commander would, and within less than five minutes, Yuri was ready.

 

  Lima sat on the air cycle, amazed and in awe at Yuri’s growth and determination to reach her goal and take back her memory.

 

  “ I am ready.” Yuri whispered to herself as she took a deep breath, to contain her anxiety.

 

  Nothing enough would ever prepare for what comes next. Only her preparations and wit could save her on the field, Yuri imagined Commander Firren’s voice speaking to her as she reared the handle, activating the air cycle’s engine, while Lima sat at her front, and Momo hugged her waist at the back.

 

  The hangar gates slowly lowered as the violent wind burst the cold and ash in, battering their armor and blinding their visors temporarily with force.

 

  Yuri stirred the vehicle forth, pointing its piercing tip at the dark beyond.

  I am coming for you.

  And I will stop you, Vernui—!!!!

  With one defining heave, jolting their bodies back as the world around them blurred, dashing past at full speed as the winds howled along their ears.

  Then all was pitch-black, save for the chaotic snow and dark ash bursting by the one headlight trailblazing their dark path of infinite possibilities.

…

………

  As the Hero Starbreaker of Lightning Seito stood firmly against the unrelenting Archdemon serpent Death in a grand battling standstill of the ages, reprieve and firepower support returning as backup, Firren turned back to face the waves of swarming Demons when he caught a glimpse from the side of his eye, a strange happening transpiring before his eyes.

 

  The corrupting smog that had enveloped their presence, began to disperse under the beaming aura of both Seito and Reina, lingering downward a thin trail of darkness, slithering into the snow floor, to the root of the brown protruding substance.

  Firren’s mouth gapped wide in astonishment.

  Quickly smiting off a wave of Demons with his flame blades, Firren scanned the area, to see the same Demonic smog wafting all over the battlefield, emanating out from the queer brisk objects pierced to the snow!

 

  And from that smog, Firren saw with his own eyes, 

 

  Demons rising back up from the ashes, reassembling their torn parts through dark nanoparticles that transposed back to their former glory.

 

  The Demons never perished even once.

 

  The smog, the corrupting smog has been regenerating all the Demons on the Battlefield!!!

 

  “ DAMN IT!!!” Firren cried, raising high a gigantic ball of swirling flame conjured out of his flaming wrist.

  “ Fierzen Foyier!!!!!” shouted the flaming Starbreaker, roaring aloud the elden incantations of power as he smashed that smoldering ball of flame down underneath him, erupting into swelling lava that swept miles across the snow field, swallowing Demons and melting deep into the pale ground.

  Firren watched in disbelief as the brown protrusion reached deeper and deeper into the soil, further down than he had expected, growing thicker the deeper it went.

  What is this thing…what is this Demonic object that kept on spewing dark essence to rejuvenate the Demon?! And why does it seem to have no end?!?!

 

  “ Firren?! What are you looking at?! The Demons are swarming in!!” Reina cried as the jarring amount of Demons forced the secretary to engage some of them, foul creatures, through close combat.

 

  “ The Reason for the swarming Demons, Reina!!!” Firren shouted back hastily in answer.

“ The brown substances protruding out of the snow!!!! It is regenerating them!! We must destroy them first!!!”

 

  Reina looked around her surroundings, petrified by the sheer amount of dark protrusions sticking out around them, reaching deep down into the frosted soil.

  “ Can you burn it?!” 

 

  “ I can! But…they are larger than I expected!!!!” 

Lo, through the lava Firren had produced, melting a deep wide crater in the middle of the snowfield, only to reveal the thick trunks piercing out more and more as the snow melted deeper.

  Dark pus and smoke burst violently the more the brown objects rose out to the surface.

 

  Angered and fueled with fear of the unknown entity, Firren sent down more flame, more lava, digging with all his burning might, just to see what was at the basin of this appalling device the Demons so implemented?! 

  But a flash of blue, a thin line drawing straight across the pitch-black sky did Firren catch glimpse for a split second, not giving it too much thought at first, but then his eyes widened as soon as he realized what his eyes had just beheld, forced him to stop his endeavor over the brown substance but shout out in alarm at the skies above.

 

  Reina followed Firren’s gaze, and the secretary’s mouth dropped low.

  “ …Yuri…?!?!”

  Soaring through the blizzard, across the night of hardships, riding on one lone air cycle was unmistakably, Yuri herself, in her Starbreaker armor. Two others sat close behind her that Firren could not discern clearly from the fast speed they traversed, and even though he wished he could burst up into the air to stop her, Firren knew that was no choice for him to make, neither has he the reprieve to leave his current post.

 

  It is her battle now, the task she had chosen, no matter how arduous and perilous it shall be, it is Yuri’s decision to go down this path, and nothing more that he knew of could sway her determined of her choice.

 

  All Firren could do now is watch over her and pray for the almighty powers beyond to aid her cause.

…

……….

  As the brave forces of Light stood against the tide of dark, Yuri followed her plan in steady progress, closer and closer to the crippled North Line, cutting down aviating Demons along the way that started to increase in number the deeper they flew. Winged Demons, large and small dashed here and there to collide their cycle and bring them down to their utter fall of doom, only to meet with their own demise under the blades of the two, Yuri cutting the front while Lima, strapped around the waist by Yuri’s grappling hook cords, defended the back, slashing forth through a bloody path while Momo, sandwiched in the middle, stared in awe instead of fear.

 

  “ There’s too many of them…!” Lima panted aloud over the bustling winds and snow. 

“ They keep coming back!”

 

  Yuri stirred the air cycle lower steadily. Once failing the hard task of driving an escaped jet to escort the children way back has spurred a dedicated resolve in Yuri to learn how to navigate the simplest of transportation. Firren had spent a whole afternoon coaching Yuri on driving this cycle days before and never would Yuri imagine the skill to provide such an opportune advantage.

  And now, able to hold on to the stirring bars to remain balanced in the air, Yuri quickly scanned the hovering black smog coating the field that have been sending an unnerving tingling through her senses the moment she beheld the thin hovering smog. And not just the unsettling feeling, but also voices, deep moans as if hundreds of thousands of them groaning in agony all at once, their painful gripes echoing louder than the billowing frost breeze in Yuri’s ears. Yuri had never had her ears filled with so much waling torment before, though the latent pain the voices and tingling may still cause, Yuri is very much used to the headache and ranting in his mind by now, and with the improvements of focus through her Starbreaker training, her endurance to such handicap has doubled since the first time she faced with this kind of ailment, and her resistance to the defects have lessened multitudely.

 

  “ I can feel it…” Yuri answered, dodging a speeding Demon bird with eight wings to the side as she used her disadvantage to trace the origin of the agonizing moans all over the battlefield.

  “ They resonate with my Memory…It is Vernui. It must be him, using My Memory on something, causing this much pain!”

 

  And I’ll stop him now, Yuri vowed as she accelerated her air cycle, dashing and evading Demons and large flying pieces of rock in the air that belonged to the extended Archdemon serpent now bloated into a universe of dark, storing the rumbling unstable energies within its core as it shot out a beam reflecting Seito’s retaliation, both beings of immense power, locked in an impending standstill.

 

  Passing the Archdemon, like crossing a threshold, the air became different the closer they zoomed into the inner sanctions of the Demon armies, the air thickening with demonic aura, the atmospheric pressure increasing in drastic levels. Demons in the air doubled in amount and viciousness, crashing from all sides nonstop, sacrificing themselves to commit in an effort of stopping Yuri from getting closer.

 

  Switching her visor targeting lenses further, Yuri finally caught glimpse of the center of the arrays of beasts, a murky spot of demonry where a lone slab of slanting rock sat high above like a pedestal, and above its smooth surface, knelt the one and only.

 

  Vernui!

 

  All the moaning cries and wailings of the mind increased in volume all at once as Yuri set eyes on the young man trapped in sacrilegious ritual.

  She was right, Vernui is the center, the origin of all this agony and power over the Demons!!

  “ Momo, Lima! Hang on tight!!” Yuri cried, grabbing hard at the handlebars and pressing the vehicle lower toward the target.

  “ We’ll do as we planned! Momo, are you ready?!”

 

  “ Ye...Yes!!” 

 

  Though her voice was bright as ever, Yuri could still sense the fear and apprehension in the young girl’s voice. Being just an infant days before, now on the battlefield on her first-ever mission as a Starbreaker, Yuri couldn’t help but feel sorry for the young girl sitting behind her, with her armored arms wrapped tightly around her waist.

 

  “ Momo…” Lima knew the little girl, thought grown in size, was still a young infant in heart.

  

  But the young girl has some things to say.

  “ Momo is fine!!” Momo then shouted asudden, before Yuri nor Lima could express their concerns.

“ Momo…has been protected by all the brothers and sisters…who think Momo is young and can’t do anything by myself. But Momo is stronger now… Momo is a Starbreaker now! Momo can protect others too! Sister Yuri! Sister Lima! Believe in Momo!! I Can Do It!”

 

  “ I believe in you, Momo!” Yuri nodded assuringly, and pumped the accelerators to the max, speeding down full speed toward Vernui’s kneeling spot.

  “ Not So Fast, Starbreaker!!!” 

  At the next moment, a large shadow darted out from the side, blocking Yuri’s view as she made a drastic turn sideways, evading strikes of sharp claws from above that sank deep into the engines at the bottom instead, scrapping hard and ruthlessly across the machinery, tearing the thruster off the vehicle in one fell swoop.

  “ Momo! Lima! You alright?!?!” Yuri turned around in check, trying to pull the air cycle back up but the motors croaked in bitter protest, rearing up morbidly in one last attempt.

  Both girls clinging at the back nodded quickly, still caught in the shock.

 

  “ The cycle is down! Guys…Time for Plan B!!!! Momo! Lima!” Yuri shouted aloud, setting her five grappling hooks all out behind her back.

 

  “ Yes!!” Both girls shouted back in unison, determination flaring in their eyes.

 

  “ At the count to three…we Jump. ONE!!”

  Yuri’s hands pulled the accelerator bar deep down to its full extent, freezing it in place with his icy elemental force before letting go as the cycle made one last dive through its remaining motors downward.

  Dark Unerva Varis, with her one enlarged right Demon Hand crushing the engines and pieces it tore off before swallowing them down her monstrous arms, looked up amusedly at the descending vehicle drawing a black line of smoke behind its path.

 

  “ Yuri…You idiot Starbreaker…! I’ll get you this time!!!”

 

  Running forth with its Demon arm crashing over the Demons in her path, Varium made her way forth to hunt down the fools falling to their demise.

  Yuri already saw the Dark Unerva crashing along below, but her plans remain the same.

 

  “ …TWO!!” Yuri shouted, standing up a little from her curved seat as Lima and Momo did suit.

  Varium made one forceful leap, shooting out her gigantic right arm out, all five fingers and tentacles bursting out front.

  Yuri let go of her handle and stood up straight.

  “ THREE!!! NOW!!!”

  At the shout, both Yuri and Momo kicked the cycle back down behind them as Momo’s legs and arms bloomed with light, yellow wings sprouting out all at once as the vehicle flipped in circles before crashing onto Varium’s face and exploding in a ball of flame and diesel.

 

  Shaking off the fires off her Unerva visor, Variuim threw the broken air cycle out of the way, only to catch a glimpse of a ball of light dashing in light speed out to the center of the field, exceeding all limits and soaring past all the avian Demons that attempt to block their path to no avail.

  Hugging tightly to Yuri’s waist as Lima grasped with life behind her back, Momo thought of nothing but fly, dashing against the wind and obstacles, crashing through any attempt to stop her.

  It was like chasing a light far ahead in the dark, feeling no gravity pulling her back down.

  Momo didn’t know why, 

 

  But it felt just like her very first Memory, 

 

  flying, with her mother, in the night sky.

  Yuri quickly focused her eyes on the locked square at the target on her visor and prepared her part. She had practiced it as many times as she could in her mind, her hands following her intuition as she placed one tip of her grappling hook onto the front of her sword rifle, and aimed.

  Vernui looked up behind him.

 

  Sensing a repelling force coming straight at him.

  Like vice, yanking him up the air by the waist, Vernui realized thick cords of blue sparkling energy coiling tightly around him, and before he could resist, the ritual was broken and his feet felt nothing but air.

 

  “ Got him!!” Lima cried in astonishment as she saw the Dark Unerva struggle to break free with its giant wings battling wildly but in vain.

  “ NO!!” Varium uttered in grave dismay.

“ The Ritual!!” 

 

  Dark midst and aura started to dissipate as soon as Vernui and his shadow were no longer present, and the dark smog emanating out of the brown brisk protrusions, slowly started to fade, and Demons returned no more after perishing under the Starbreakers' attacks.

 

  The tide has slowly been turned in the Light’s favor.

  Lima constantly kept her eyes on the Dark Unerva chained at the back by the grappling hook chords, making sure the Demon emissary doesn’t escape.

  With the pretender now captured, they just need to turn back, return to the Betelgeuse and the mission will be over—

  “ Momo? Momo?! We have to turn back!”

 

  Still accelerating at exceeding speed, the trajectory remained the same no matter how Yuri told the girl to turn.

 

  “ Momo!! Momo, Can you hear me!!??” Yuri shouted again, turning around to realize that the young girl’s eyes glowing bright without anything else, but a pair of pale dazzling voids staring ahead at the beyond, flying straight at what seemed like eternity, energy bursting endlessly, forward and forward they dashed, crashing to the side across the North Line wall, sparks of friction sputtering as the metal and cement screeched in dragged impact.

 

  Seeing they are all going to crash, Vernui quickly twisted in the opposite direction, trying to pull them all out of danger.

  “ What are you doing?!” His shadow questioned indignantly.

“ Is this not your design? To doom them intruders of the Ritual??” 

 

  “ Silence!!” Vernui shouted, flapping his dark wings with all his might, only to be pulled onward by the unstoppable force.

 

  Momo is out of control, caught in a trance, residing in the Memory, refusing to break free.

 

  Yuri understands that want, to stay forever in the sweet parts of the past. But Momo—That past is not what matters now, but the Present—!!!

 

  As fast as she could, Yuri shot out one more energy grappling hook out of her sword rifle, aiming at the upper portions of the North Line surface, forcing Momo to turn like a pendulum to a metal string, swinging upwards instead of forward and to the air they went in seconds as Yuri let go of the cord, flying higher and higher until that surpassed the altitudes of the mountain-like wall, straight up to space.

  Quickly, Yuri tapped wildly with her fingers atop Momo’s chest armor, the one that she chose for Momo, which was in fact a regular Starbreaker Training suit that she fortified at the joints and surfaces with her elemental powers to increase damage reduction, and revealing a set of small hovering screens before Momo’s armor Yuri knew she had done it right. With one last selection of a virtual switch, Momo’s armor suddenly froze, their velocity slowing down as the nanoparticles enveloping the young girl scattered apart and swirled like liquid down a drain into a small ornate collar around Momo’s neck.

  Released all of a sudden by the Starbreaker, Momo’s eyes regained their usual color for a split second before closing them slowly, falling into deep exhausted slumber in Yuri’s arms.

 

  With one grappling hook stabilized in the air, Yuri brought them all down slowly, sliding down the cord back down to solid ground, standing on top of the North Line.

 

  It was a wide boulevard, each side separated yards apart, approximately one-third of the Betelgeuse’s length, while both horizontal ends reached out left and right to infinity, unable to discern the end.

  Thin glaciers with snow covered the cement surface, as Yuri and Lima helped each other to their feet, while Momo slept behind Yuri’s back.

 

  What now? Lima thought, looking at one side where the Betelgeuse floated miles off, emitting beams and missiles all over the field of Demons that started to decrease in numbers that the smog had finally dispersed.

 

  The smog that Vernui used in his Ritual of the Demons.

 

  Lima quickly remembered of the Dark Unerva target they were after and spun around, to see the winged figure, clad in dark armor that was once of emerald shine, staggering slowly to his own feet.

 

  “ Lima.” 

 

  Yuri’s voice was calm, her eyes staring at the one ahead as she gently placed Momo down to a sit.

 

  “ Take care of Momo.”

  Before Lima could make any protests, Yuri stepped forth, weapon in hand, while her six grappling hooks she left behind hovered next to Lima to protect her friends, as she approached the Dark Unerva who she knew was Vernui alone.

  “ Very well…” The shadow’s voice crooned underneath Vernui as he steadied his footing.

“ You could defeat her… subdue her with your words! Show her the Truth! Make her yield!”

  The shadow then presented Vernui with his katana and round shield like humble arms of black nanoparticles, but the young man took them weapons not. 

 

  “ I will not hurt her again, neither will I tell her about your lies…!” Vernui snarled, refusing to take the sword and shield.

 

  “ She needs to know…the Real Truth…!”

 

  “ You fool…we ARE the Truth…to this World!”

  “ Why are you not taking your weapons?!” Yuri asked incredulously, her sword rifle raised, pointing at Vernui’s face.

  “ Are you not fighting back…for what I am about to do to you?!”

 

  “ No,” Vernui replied, straightening his body.

“ I want to talk.”

  

  “ I don’t want to talk!” Yuri cried out in refusal.

“ I Just want My Memories back. The Ones you have Taken!!”

 

  “ That…I cannot Vernui replied grimly after seconds of hesitation.

“ I need them. I need to know where your powers come from, Yuri. I need them!”

 

  “ Then I Will Stop You, and Your Demon Kind!!!!” Yuri cried, charging forth at the man who refused to wield his saber but took his shield of wind and barriers up, receiving the blow from Yuri’s sword, halting her strike as he tried to explain.

 

  “ Yuri, there is much you don’t know—”

 

  “ I don’t care!!!” Yuri shouted, twisted her blade to a side, catching it mid-way before swinging it back up from a different angle, only to be blocked again by Veruni’s agile moves.

 

  “ I don’t care…I DON’T CARE!!!!”

 

  Clashing nonstop, her Sword rifle swung down and up, left to right, seemingly hitting only the shield which was glued to its pace, appearing one step ahead of her blade.

  With a dash forward, Vernui pushed forth, sending a gust of wind like a wall pressuring Yuri back steps away.

 

  They both panted, on both sides, ending the first round in a tie.

 

  Slightly lowering his shield, Vernui let out a quiet long sigh.

 

  “ I am sorry…Yuri…” 

  The young man spoke with utmost earnestness, regret emanating out of his voice.

  “ But…The Light, The Starbreakers…they are not what you think they are. They manipulated you, to believe in the lies they create.”

 

  “ The only lie I know is yours…” Yuri panted, raising her sword once more.

“ You took something precious away from me…You pretended to be a Starbreaker, You pretended to know me, to share the same pain, same Memories…!”

 

  “ I didn’t know back then!” Vernui explained quickly to clarify himself.

“ I don’t remember who I was when we first met!”

 

  “ Then do you remember…” Yuri’s voice turned cold, simmering with contained anger.

“ Who you were, When you did what you did to me…? Do you Remember who you were, and still took My Memories away?!”

 

  Vernui didn’t reply. His gaze of agony at the snow gathered on the glaciers they stood upon.

 

  Yuri didn’t want to wait for his answer, and neither did she need to.

 

  Piercing her blade forth, the tip of her Sword dived forth, to which Vernui swung his shield up with vehement speed, clashing against Yuri’s sword at a faster, more fervorous pace.

 

  “ I didn’t steal your Memories, Yuri.” Vernui yet tried to clarify calmly, blocking all the blows coming toward him.

  “ I just needed to know, to see it, Feel it…Understand the Power you have that could change Everything!”

 

  “ My Powers are not for you and the Demons you help!!” Yuri made a double slash, attempting to break his stance.

  “ My Powers…I want to use that Power in me to save others…to save my friends that are gone…to save Those I love! And you tricked me…You Used Me!!”

 

  “ But Yuri!!” Vernui cried, raising his shield close, withstanding Yuri’s raging blows.

“ The Demons!!! They are those that were gone!!! They are the ones that Remember, and needed your power most!!”

 

  Yuri’s blade stopped in mid-air.

 

  “ The Demons, Yuri!! They…They were people…they were like us…!!! They didn’t choose to be like this, to become monsters…They had no choice!! They were betrayed, Like All of US!!!!”

 

  “ I don’t believe you…”

 

  “ You have to…!!”

 

  “ I DON’T BELIEVE YOU!!!!!!!”

 

  Fighting to resist her trembling hands, Yuri gripped tighter to her blade, only to shiver more at the fear of the words that were spoken to her ears.

  

  Demons…were people…

 

  No. Demons are not people!

 

  Then…What are we? What am I? Aren’t we all…Light-Hearted Kind…?

  Vitas’s turned his saddened gaze to the side, where the Demon armies started to dwindle as the flames and lightning and gunshots slowly devastated their population.

  Without the smog, the Demons were perishing in large numbers.

  “ Do you see those brown rigid spikes growing out of the earth, Yuri?” Vernui motioned to the lands beneath, where the eerie crooked substances sticking out of the snow, distributed vastly across the battlefield.

 

  Yuri didn’t know why Vernui was suddenly talking about those unremarkable things but remained silent as he went on.

 

  “ Those are signs. A way that some of us used way back to commemorate those that were gone. A place where their bodies could rest, knowing that we, that had remained, would not forget that they, like us, once existed.”

…

……….

  With the tenth burning ball of lava smashed to the snowy earth, the crater, extending hundreds of yards in radius, was finally deep enough for Firren to see what the brown sticking object was hiding underneath.

  Even though the smog had dispersed minutes ago, Firren still could not resist the heartwrenching urge to unveil the truth hidden deep under the snow.

 

  With one last heave of his blade, Firren’s wrist blade finally touched matter just inches beneath the snow.

 

  Brushing the last layer of snow on top away, Firren looked down for a better look.

 

  His body paused, remaining in position, stunned like a stone.

 

  Even though the Demons mostly scattered and perished, Reina still thought it was better to call Firren and pull the commander out of his sudden trance.

 

  “ Firren! What is it??” 

 

  But the young commander didn’t move.

 

  His visor and face, facing down at the scene next to his feet.

 

  “ Firren, what’s wrong?” Reina followed the young man’s gaze, motioning closer to where Firren stood, stupefied. That was when the secretary realized that Firren was trembling, very very slightly.

 

  And Reina looked down.

…

……..

  “ …Why are you telling me this…?!” Yuri asked, her voice incredulous.

“ What does that even mean?” 

 

  “ It means…That those who have perished, Those who have ‘Died’, were buried under those trunks. This is their burial ground, their graves.”

 

  Vernui explained calmly.

…

………

  There, emerging out of the snow in the center depth of the crater, was a pale frozen hand, attached to an arm leading deep into the snow.

…

……..

  Vernui continued in a gradually aggressive tone.

 

  “ But their souls did not rest. They cannot, for they were betrayed, they were slaughtered innocent. Like All of Us. Their souls take shape, The Nano Scourge aided their wrath, giving their Hatred, their Despair, their Want, their Vengeance… gathering them and granting their despondent Souls a new form…into Demons…! 

  That is the truth, Yuri…!

  That is what’s real, the hate, the sorrow! The Longing to return to the old days before the Fall of Man!!! That is what we have been striving for, but the Light! The Lord that claims to eradicate Demons…He is the one that destroyed it all!”

 

  Vernui panted heavily to catch his breath.

 

  “ The Demons are not the enemy, Yuri…Starbreakers are!  Light, is the ultimate Lie…!!!”

  No.

  Yuri held her sword-wielding hand tightly, resisting her trembling fears.

 

  No.

 

  This is not true!

  “ If you don’t believe me, ask the one behind you! Ask Lima!!” Vernui cried, pointing at the back with an accusing finger.

 

  “ Lima…the one who lived to see it all…surely you would believe in her…Would you not?!”

  Yuri turned around, meeting the teary eyes of the little girl who stared back, in sorrow, in regret.

 

  “ Is it true…?” Yuri whispered in question.

 

  “ Is what Vernui said True?!?!”

  Begging for whatever answer, anything of sound explanation from Lima with her persuading gaze. All Yuri got from her friend was a stiff nod.

 

  Yuri’s heart wrenched in shock and disbelief.

…

……….

  “ Lima is hiding something?”

  Neliya tilted her head in wonder.

 

  “ When we got to the end of the tale, Lima left all of a sudden, with tears in her eyes. Either Lima knows what the hidden meaning behind this tale is, or…she has a history linked to it that we do not know.” Kai explained with clarity.

  “ Either way, I want to know more, to find out what Lima knows that we do not.”

 

  “ Okay…” Neliya examined the last part of the rune and drawings uncertainly.

“ Here the final part goes—”

 

…

  " Don't cry, living one."

Said the rock.

" You are not alone.

You will never be alone…."

…

……….

  “ Lima…why…why haven’t you told me…? Demons…they were people…?!” 

 

  “ Not just people. But People with feelings!” Vernui exclaimed, his voice echoing across the wall. “ People with blood and flesh, not just artificial Light Blood or some insane fuel…! You, you and your Starbreakers, and all your Light-Hearted Kind, they are not the real residents of this earth! You are byproducts! Dolls! Parasites! Copies of the Orthodox Living Kind!!”

 

  “ This can’t be true!!” Yuri shouted, cutting him off in agitating denial.

“ I am here. I feel, I see, I remember…I try to Remember! I Am!!!! I am not a copy…I am Yuri!!...I am Who I am!!! I have a Mother! I have Grandpapa Bradson, I have sister Reina!! I have Friends!!!!......I…I…am…!”

…

……….

" Then where are my friends ?"

Asked the little girl.

" I can't find my friends."

 

Rock stood up

" See those falling from the sky?

They are light.

Light once lived far far away,

Under the deep blue Sea,

Swimming, 

Floating, 

Grasping,

Whispering.

They can hear you, young one.

Yes, they can."

 

So the little girl left the rock, 

Setting off to the shore, and stopped at the waves.

 

The little girl looked yonder 

And saw Light.

…

………

  Letting her tears run free, Yuri charged with a long painful cry, swinging her sword rifle down onto Veruni, hitting and striking, trying to wipe all that barged into her mind away by ending this blaspheming Demon.

 

  Only to strike ineffective blows onto Veruni’s round metal shield.

 

  “ If you think I am lying, Yuri.”

  Vernui spoke as he stuck Yuri’s blade upon his shield.

 

  “ Just ask your friend. She knows, doesn’t she? She knows of the past, did she not?! But why did she not tell you? Have you thought of that? ”

 

  Yuri herself had been pondering the same, every night, every day.

 

  It’s a curse, Lima had said, every time she tries to ask her of the past she had forgotten.

 

  It’s a painful burden Lima doesn’t want her to bear.

 

  “ Wrong.” Vernui shook his head bluntly, his eyes fixed on Lima’s wide petrified stare.

 

  “ No…” Lima whimpered, quickly springing up to her feet, and rushed forward, terrified by what Veruni is about to say.

  “ No…!!! Stop—!!!”

  “ It is because she is the one that turned into this, Yuri. She too, like All the followers of your so-called Light, the SkyLord, the Starbreakers, they are the ones that made you out of your old self that has Perished.

 

 

  Yes, Yuri. You are but a Soulless copy of your ‘Dead’ self. 

  And they did so, only to harvest your Memory, your Light, for their greed and insolent Want. The One that doomed the World, murdered us all, is using you for the power in your Past! You never knew. Even the one you call friend, would not tell you the truth… You are on the wrong side, Yuri. You always were.”

  Lima staggered to a stop as Vernui finished his reveal, looking at Yuri solemnly, as if in pity.

 

  The little girl opened her mouth to explain, but no words to possibly express her thoughts, her regrets. Her apologies.

…

………..

" Don't go, hopeful Light."

The little girl called out and the Light stopped.

" Who are you ?"

Light asked the girl.

" I am a little girl, and I need your Light."

Answered she.

 

Light hesitated

" Is it for Moon ?"

Asked the Light.

" We don't like Moon. The world is angry at him."

" Moon is good. He banished shadow."

The girl replied.

 

" Moon is a professor, and he has destroyed everything else."

Light answered.

" I am free, and I don't like Moon."

…

………..

  

  “ ……Is it true?”

  Cold, like ice, a toneless whisper did Yuri ask her friend stupefied behind her.

  “ Is it true…That I was made… by you?”

  Lima could not answer. Her sobs restraining her vocal cords.

  “ Is it true…That you made me… to harvest My Memory…?”

  “ NO!” Lima cried out, tears that could not stop.

  “ I Never wanted to use you…I Never Wanted that Power! I…I just wanted you to be happy…Yuri…”

 

  “ But I am not the Yuri of your past…Am I?” Yuri’s calm cadence sent dread all over Lima’s guilty soul.

  “ You never told me…Because you don’t want me to know.”

 

  “ I didn’t tell you because I don’t want to hurt you!!” Lima shouted back.

 

  “ No.” Yuri shook her head, finally turning to face her friend. Tears like mighty streams unceased.

  “ You just don’t want to hurt yourself. To you, I am not a friend, but a replacement for your Memory. A toy…for your loss.”

 

  “ No…No, no no no…No, Yuri…NO!!!!!” Lima wailed, falling onto her knees, the handle of her lightsaber clanking aloud to the floor and rolled to the side.

  “ No…Yuri…I am sorry, I never…I did not mean…No…Yuri…No….”

 

  Unable to explain, futile to formulate her own reasons, Lima could but sob, wail in regret and defeat on all fours.

…

……….

" Then can you help me ?"

The little girl asked the Light.

" Excuse me ?"

" My friends were lost, and I can't find them."

Begged the girl.

" Please, help me with your Light,

So that they can find their way back."

…

……….

  “ Now you know,” Vernui spoke at length, reaching out his hand to the silent contained Yuri.

“ The Demons your Starbreaker friends have slaughtered, they resist so that I can succeed, and the only way to fulfill this promise, is You. Yuri, I need the full extent of your Memory—”

 

  “ I will not give you My Memory.” Yuri snapped sternly, standing her ground firm.

 

  Vernui’s reaching hand twitched for a split second.

 

  “ My Memory is not for you, nor for the Lord of Light. It is My Memory, and I will find it, and help those with my Own Power!! My Own Way!!!”

  The grip over her sword rifle, tightened once more. The blue and golden linings shimmered with power.

 

  “ You are incapable of finding It alone.” Vernui reasoned still, trying to sound negotiable.

“ Your Makers blind-sighted you. Let me, Let Vernui help you! He knows you, he will facilitate the search—”

 

  Before this Vernui could finish his earnest persuasions, Yuri’s blade was drawn in a split second, setting its tip atop the man’s neck.

 

  “ Who Am I Speaking To?” Yuri demanded with a glaring stare, with each word full of unrelenting strength capable of halting a storm.

 

  Instead of cowering under the blade, the Dark Unerva just chuckled, his lips curling up to a sinister grin.

 

  “ You had asked.” The young man spoke, his voice doubling in two, one deep, the other high, eerily uttering each word with a vicious hiss, his presence looming out of the body and rising a depraved Deity of three pairs of skeletal wings sprouting out of its shadowy back. A long beak protruding out of its head perched above a long winding neck.

 

  “ And I shall reveal. 

 

  I, am Archdemon Plague. I speak for my kin, as this boy preaches my ideals.

 

 How may I be of thy humble service?”

  “ None needed.” Yuri coldly rejected the offer, raising her sword rifle high above her head in a high-stance combat form.

“ I’ll take back what you have taken from me.”

 

  “ And I too shall take more than I have in store.” The Archdemon raised Vernui’s arms like a puppeteer hoisting his puppet to grab hold of his weapons, sword, and shield both.

 

  With a ground-breaking leap, Yuri sped forth, swinging her blade down as Vernui deflected with his shield raised, to see Yuri’s blade switch directions like water winding through a narrow stream, swiftly evading his defense and sliding over down to the side to sever his waist. Vernui pierced his katana full speed down to break the sword rifle’s path, when Yuri triggered her rifle to fire a thundering bullet out, shattering the Dark Unerva’s stance as Yuri drew her blade up, swiping his katana out of the way and slit the inner side of his arm.

  Vernui and the Archdemon both snarled as the deep gash upon his arm burst out dark blood onto the cold glacier grounds.

 

  But Yuri wasn’t done yet, twisting like a hurricane counterclockwise against his shield, forcing the winged Unerva to fall back with swipes of his large wings, separating himself from Yuri’s flurry. But not for long, for Yuri shot out one grappling hook straight at Vernui’s bosom.

 

  The shadow pulled the strings, making Vernui raise his shield, but to his advent horror, Vernui did not heed, but let the grappling hook pierce through his shoulder.

 

  “ You Fool!!” Archdemon Plague uttered.

“ What in the Dark Mother’s name are you doing?!”

 

  “ Doing what I should have done ages ago.” Vernui whispered as the grappling hook cords pulled back, anchoring deep into his flesh while the man withstood it all, standing firmly his ground, looking straight at Yuri dashing towards him with her blade piercing forth—

  

…

………

Two Minutes Ago

  “ I am losing my patience! It ends here now, Archdemon!!” Seito boomed, standing tall as he pushed a stream of lightning against the Archdemon’s unyielding beam.

  “ Lo!! I shall unleash my Astra! Reina! Firren! Stay back!!”

 

  Firren and Reina sensed a dramatic surge of power around the Lightning Starbreaker and dashed aside to a temporary retreat, as Seito focused his breathing, inhaling deeply before letting out a long audible sigh.

 

  Then the Lightning hero man took one final breath. The air halted for a split second, then swirled in grave multitudes across the plain, all sweeping towards the blazing yellow Starbreaker’s direction, where all light seemed to grow dim under the one sheer presence of beaming light, in the shape of his zigzagged Greatsword held high above his head. The world darkened save for the one last light source that Seito wielded.

 

  Winds howled, 

 

  Rain and blizzard crackled down the skies, 

 

  And Lightning, one after another, flashed down, fusing into Seito’s searing Greatsword as the thunderous crashes echoed across the infinite universe, like a courageous chorus pumping in song to Seito’s utter cry, his shouts of the ancient Starbreaker incantations of unlimited power, ringing all over the field.

 

  “ Undefeated under the sky, 

 

  tempest and storm born from me reverence, 

 

  Witness thee, this blessed profundity, 

 

  And shiver you shall at its Wake—

  Behold!!!!!

  TERUMETERES · SAITEN KARANSHURA !!!!!!!!!!”

  Lo! 

  As if the entire universe, bestowing all the Light of the stars and galaxies to this one strike, the Greatsword wondrously bloomed, larger than before, longer than it should, and bulged Mightier than the word could ever describe; Into a grand bolt of sheer Lightning and Catastrophe that Seito wielded in the air as his body levitated with the force of his Astra, the Starbreaker Incantations, and with his sinewy right arm, tensed and bulging with utmost masculinity, Seito tossed the Grand ThunderBolt Terumateres-Saiten Karashura out to the open, soaring light speed up, severing the lightning beam of Archdemon Death through the middle, about to pierce the Archdemon serpent in to pieces—

  —When the large extension ball of the Archdemon aggregated all at once in a split second, squeezing all the lightning force it had captured from Seito’s first blow, twisting aside with the transforming, swirling bits of its agile body, turning into a large funnel of Demon smog and rocky ash holding the unsteadble lightning energy ball like a palm holding a ball, turning the Grand thunderbolt to one side through a remarkable yet unexplainable display none could comprehend, 

 

  and before all their eyes, Starbreaker and Demon alike, 

 

  The Grand Thunderbolt shifted trajectory, and sailed the other way, shooting straight at the North Line—

…

………

  As the tip of Yuri’s sword touched the armored surface of Vernui, the two of them, Starbreaker and Dark Unerva, both turned to look at the blinding light sailing straight at them.

  All Yuri could hear were Lima’s long drastic cries of her name.

…

……..

  The Astra hit the lone wall, shuddering the grave establishment along with the entire world, the planet, shivering all in its magnanimous wake, 

 

  leaving one massive concave on the once formidable mountain wall, where the mighty Astra had struck.

  Children on the Betelgeuse, glued to the glass window stared, wide-eyed, mouths agape in utter silence.

 

  Kai and Neliya too, eyes riveted to the massive turn of events outside their window, forcing them to pause -their deciphering work.

 

  Bradson Captain, Firren, and Reina were all at a loss.

 

  Seito too could but stare, mouth wide without words, forgetting to take his next breath.

  The North Line, was breached.

…

………….

  General Solo's dive in the snow halted as the frosty earth weighed down all of a sudden, squeezing him as the soil around him rearranged, swirled, distorted, crushing his body from all sides like a million strong arms twisting a reached mop that is he. 

 

  Not good. Solo felt the damage penetrating his armor and body, his bones breaking and his flesh crushed. The Asset was right there, just a couple of inches away from his grasp!

 

  With his last power, before his vision was swallowed into infinite darkness, Solo made one last leap into the depth.

 

  His fingers nearly touching the halo of Light that grew dimmer, and dimmer. And dimmer.

…

………..

  

 

  With a triumphant roar, the grand serpent, Archdemon Death, assembling back to its rocky serpent form, rose back up to the skies, spreading its shriek across the lands that were once separated by the North Line, now united,  screeching as if in celebration of the liberation of   its imprisoned kin.

 

  All the Demons roared along victoriously, as their dark midst, darker than it ever was, smothered out of the indented hollowed path, wafting out slowly, ominously.

 

  

  Then a thundering step landed down on the snow, reaching out of the dark north as it pulled a gigantic long body out, the sharp fanged-embellished snout pierced out of the darkness to the light, revealing a large triangular horned head of a canine beast with six legs and nine long slithering tails, roaring as it stepped foot on the forbidden soil, sending out Demons of graver form, grotesque and larger, more sinister and berserk in design and temperance, racing out to the open in raging ecstasy, as a humongous ball of spikes with large mad red bloodshot eyes staring both sides, rolled out as it swayed its tentacles vacuously along a raging puddle of pitch-black liquid, flooding the snow fields along with the toxic black smog and endless carnage.

  Bradson Captain was on his two feet now, terrified by the scene of millions, no, trillions of drastically more devilish kind, Demons that were sealed away after the first scourge, all returning from the uncouth north, swelling down to all sides, free to take over the various lands of the Light-hearted folk.

…

……….

  “ Good…!” 

 

  Vernui looked up among ash and rubble, covered in snow and debris as he quickly scrambled up to a leaning posture to the side, facing the devastating horde of Advanced Demonry swept over his presence, Demons, Monsters of all shapes and sizes, of every defiling image ever known and unbeknownst to man, marched past him with evil glee.

  The two huge bodies of the once imprisoned Archdemons of old stopped before the mortified dazed young man as they gathered before him, as if in waiting.

 

  The one gigantic hound-like Archdemon, its sharp snout lowering in anticipation, stood tall at Vernui’s right, with its six crooked strong legs as its nine long wriggling thick tails of thorn-like fur danced vigilantly like serpents of their own mind;

 

  while the humongous ball Archdemon of spikes and tentacles sat to his left, one side of its bursting red eyeball stared morbidly at Vernui’s Corrupted Soul.

 

  High above, Vernui noticed the elongated looming shadow of the one that breached the impenetrable gates, of Archdemon Death circling down in a low resounding growl, joining the other two Archdemons in the murky skies, lingering also as if in premonition.

  Not really looking at the Archdemons before him, Vernui traced his sight all around him, scanning for the fallen body where Yuri might be.

  Where is Yuri?!

 

  

 

  “ Behold, boy!” Vernui’s gaze was forced upward by his Shadow, only then realizing it had emerged higher than before, reaching high up to the sky behind him.

 

  “ My brothers and sisters…”

 

  The winged shadow cackled in its deep hollow laughter, rising higher and higher, gaining more and more solidity as the winds from the forbidden North grew stronger and stronger, mightily bursting forth grand gusts of overwhelming breezes, swirling all over the towering shadow that drawn out of Veruni’s body and soul, taking a frightening ghastly shape of a thin long metallic rotten corpse. 

 

  “ They have come to my Calling…Reunited at last! For our world…our forsaken Home…! We shall Taketh what has been snatched away from us! We Shall Prevail! Come!!!! Embrace my Corporal Form!!!!!”

 

  With arms that extended down over to the snow, massive hands carrying long sharp claws that arched upwards from underneath the wide palms; three pairs of skeletal wings harboring feathers of sheer dark ash spurring aggressively as it swayed slowly, sending storms with each small flap; and the head, with three curved up horns sitting prominently over its narrow head, a stinging beak piercing out under the thin twisted slit of red where the eyes were.

 

  Archdemon Plague, its full grace once imprisoned, now unleashed back onto the Lands beyond.

…

………

  An alarm started to moan within the dark chamber, pushing all the hovering screens of the battling north aside.

 

  “ Alas…” The watcher in the dark silenced the siren with a contempt swipe of his frail hand.

 

  “ Ca… Bradson…see what you have done…”

  The watcher sighed, sitting back as his fingers snaked down to the side of his throne, switching a small lever on the side as one screen reflecting nothing but darkness slowly gained light.

 

  

  “ …if only…you would…listen…”

…

………

 

  With his Betelgeuse scanner, Bradson Captain already could see wave after wave of enhanced Demons higher in rank than the usual ones they used to encounter, and also, sending most fear into his heart, were the old undefeated Archdemons, unleashed once more, to bring despair and devastation across the already hopeless world.

 

  Nothing they do could stop them now.

 

  And Yuri…somewhere out there…!!

 

  There is no other way…!

  “ Captain.” 

  Bradson Captain looked up, receiving the call from Seito’s speakers voicing in the Betelgeuse control hub.

  “ You may give the order for the others to retreat. Bring your crew to safety.”

 

  From the tone of the hero man’s words, Bradson Captain assumed what the Lightning Starbreaker had in mind, but still, he chose to listen.

 

  “ But this…is of my doing. And I shall stay, and fell as many Demons as I can to stay accountable for my own folly. My apologies, Captain Bradson, for I shall leave my post, to right my wrongs.”

 Even after firing dozens of lightning streams and a massive Astra incantation, Seito stood high and tall, with his Greatsword raised high, summoning bolts to his sword, engulfing his weapon into a bulging tempest, ready for one last stand.

  

  “ Firren, Reina, our collaboration may be short, but it is no doubt one jolly good cooperation.” The yellow Starbreaker chuckled to his two comrades, his big shadow like an unwavering cliff of the hill facing the raging tides.

  “ I suggest you take cover and reassemble a larger army later on while I stall them here, as long as I can.”

 

  “ What are you talking about?!” Reina muttered, standing her ground firmly, summoning more rows of nanoparticle arsenals before her, and she stepped forward.

  “ Have you forgotten what you have said? We are all here for the same reason. To Protect Light. It is our mission and our duty. And besides…Who’s going to look after your Light while I am gone?!”

 

  “ …you…” Seito tried to find the words to persuade them leave, yet in his silence, his loss of words, his comrades stayed, proudly.

 

  “ As a commander, I have already made an oath to always leave the battlefield last for my team,” Firren spoke, sharpening his wrist blades with sparks bouncing off.

  “ Seito sir, don’t mind if I stay.”

 

  “ Huh, surely I don’t.” The big man chuckled and sent down a pillar of lightning to recharge his armor as the three Starbreakers readied their battle stances before the final showdown.

  Awed by the Starbreaker’s noble determination, Bradson too rallied all the remaining cannons of the Betelgeuse and pulled out his all-controlling gauntlets for the last stand.

 

  But that was not the only noble backup the old captain received.

 

  “ Captain!!” Lo, Neo, and the pack of brave children gathered all around him, enthusiasm like flames igniting their bright strong-willed gaze.

  “ Request permission to navigate the Androids one more time in your aid, sir!” 

  “ Request Permission, Captain sir!” The children cried in wholesome unison.

 

  Nodding in admiration, Bradson allowed the cause.

 

  

   “ Starbreakers, brave children of Light.” Bradson Captain looked forth at the grand battle before their meager but courageous ranks.

  “ Fear No Darkness.”

    With loud chivalrous cries drowning the screeches of the Demon swarm, Seito charged forth at the lead, swiping cyclones and hurricanes at the face of the approaching Archdemons, combining his strength with Firren’s flame, storms of lightning and fire swept out, spreading across the ravaged plain, evaporating seas of lesser Demons into mere ash in seconds, while Reina’s photon lasers and light bullets sailed through every corner of the battlefield, penetrating lethal spots, one-shotting legions of savage beasts in seconds.

  Photon Missiles rained down from where the Betelgeuse perched as the towering explosions each war-head induced seemed to push the Demons back north in miles, while the endless stinging light rays and annoying sabers of the children-navigated droids pushed the dread array back more and more.

 

  Even against the upcoming swarm of endless Dark, the Starbreakers, with friendship and teamwork on their side, would not disassemble easily affront this overpowering menace.

…

………

  Quick fists banged on Neliya’s door as she stood up to answer.

 

  “ Kai!! Neliya!! There you are!!” Lucky barged in from the doorway, hollering enthusiastically.

  “ Come on, you two are late! Captain has agreed to let us help fight the Demons!! Let’s go and exterminate them now!! Hurry hurry!!!!”

 

  Following the grander cause, Neliya and Kai followed Lucky down the corridors, heading towards the droid navigating Nerve gear center to prepare for the commenced second phase of the great war.

  

  As soon as the two children left the room, the one with the pair of glowing eyes and slit thin vertical pupils, crawled out from under the bed and to the light, approaching the thick opened book on the table before her.

 

  A sharp dagger gripped tightly in one hand,

 

  grasping the pages, crushing the parchment with the other.

…

………

  Opening her eyes, Yuri was welcomed with a fresh long-forgotten air of silence.

 

  She sat up slowly, sitting amongst the white, the high walls ending at her two sides, in the middle of the concave she reside.

 

  Nothing stood before her, Nothing here, nothing there, nothing up, nothing down, nowhere in between.

 

  Yuri stood up, noticing that even the snow had stopped, and the world was all but pure white.

 

  

  She turned around, facing the other side of the world behind her, behind the broken wall.

  There, the silhouette of its familiar shadow stood, 

 

  was the familiar white building, with the clock on its tall face, torn and half crumbled, deserted within the void.

 

  Feeling her light-heart racing, Yuri began to rush toward the place, the building in her memory, the Past—

  Turn Back.

  Yuri stopped.

…

………

  Carrying the yet unconscious Momo behind her back, Lima hovered down through the energy grappling hooks that safely placed them both on to the side gently, behind a large boulder where they hid from the bursting sea of new advent Demons rushing into war against the flurries of explosions and elemental strikes in the middle of the field.

 

  “ Send her back. And return as fast as you can.” Lima bade the energy grappling hooks as they coiled around the slumbering girl and sailed out to the skies, escorting Momo back while leaving Lima, clad in golden armor, wielding one lightsaber, darting boulder after boulder in search of Yuri.

 

  “ Woof!” The sudden unexpected bark of Elza the wolf cub alarmed Lima as she expected the critter to be hiding in Momo’s backpack, not hers.

  “ Shh!!” Lima hissed hastily. “ Not now…! Everything here’s gonna kill us!”

 

  Lowering its barks to a prolonged whine, Elza pointed its nose yonder, motioning Lima to follow its gaze which she did, grateful that the puppy was by her side.

 

  There, Lima saw her, lying in the shadow of a slanting cement slab.

…

  " …Can you help me ?"

The little girl asked the Light.

 

  " My friends were lost, and I can't find them."

Begged the little girl.

  " Please, help me with your Light…"

 

…

……….

  “ Yuri…!!”

  Putting all thoughts, all regrets, and guilt aside, Lima raced forth, with only one notion in mind. 

  To get Yuri back safely.

…

………

  Yuri turned around slowly, face to face with a small child, blue of hair, standing steps away, longingly gazing for her attention.

 

  It was herself, in a younger form, in an older time.

  “ Turn back.”

  The child Yuri bade once more.

  “ Turn back…Yuri.”

  “ …I can’t…!” 

 

  Yuri sobbed in answer, desperately.

 

  “ I have failed them…I can feel it…I can hear it!! It’s there…it had been calling me, again and again, again and again! The past…that I have failed upon…I have to save it, Is that not what I am made for?! To save the Past with my Power, My Memory?!”

  The young child, slowly, shook her head.  

…

………

  “ Yuri…! Yuri!!”

 

  Lima whispered as loud as she can, holding the unconscious Starbreaker close in her arms.

 

  Yet no response.

 

  “ Yuri…! Please……Yuri…I am sorry…” 

Lima sobbed, cradling her friend in tight unyielding embrace, tears dropping like sparkling jewels upon the blue and white armor.

  “ Yuri, I am sorry…for all I have done…for keeping everything away from you…You are my friend, but in the end…I never treated you as one…Yuri…YURI…!!!!!”

…

 

  

 

 " …help me with your Light, 

 

 So that they can find their way back." 

 " They are Stars…

 

 Cheerful happy Stars."

…

………

  “ What has happened is not one to fix. The Past…is not a path but a dead end.”

  “ Then what am I supposed to do?! If not a tool…just a vessel carrying this Memory?!” Yuri asked adamantly.

  “ The Demons…they are wronged! They are the ones that are innocent… they are Real People!! And I have slaughtered them, thinking that I was right…What am I supposed to be…if I am nothing, nobody…Without a Future, without a Soul?! But a shell harboring the past that everyone else needs…?”

 

  The young child waited silently for Yuri to let out her tears, her sorrow, grieving over the hard truth of her purpose and identity.

  But an existence made out of reminiscence.

…

……….

  Mustering all her remaining strength, Lima heaved Yuri up her shoulders and with one tiny step after another, started marching back out of the wreck, out of the dark.

 

  Demons saw them and swarmed in, only to meet Lima’s wrath, piercing them with fierce slashes of her light blade.

…

  " Please, help me with your Light

  So I can find my way to them.

 

  They are Stars

  Cheerful happy Stars

 

  Who I played with 

 

  In the darkest times of my life

 

  In a castle on a hill…"

…

  Tripping over a mound, Lima stumbled and fell, twisting her body around to shield Yuri’s body from the fall. Snow puffed up in a ball of haze as they were instantly dissipated by the rushing Demons hungry for their Soul.

  Relentlessly, Lima crawled back up, slicing and felling as many Demons as she could, dragging Yuri and herself quickly to a crumbled cave at the side of the torn wall for reprieve. But the swarm kept on welling, squeezing madly in crazed thirst at the narrow opening of the shelter, pinning Lima into a dead end.

 

  Sharp spiked tentacles snaked in, thrashing insanely with utmost yearning, craving to devour them as one of its appendages cut Lima’s sword-wielding hand. The saber dropped to the snow, battered further away from her by the chaos.

 

  Elza the wolf cub leapt out of Lima’s backpack, barking and biting the assailants, fighting back hard the Demons a hundred times its size, to no avail but being beaten away by ruthless claws, slamming the poor critter down.

 

  “ Elza, stop!!” Lima quickly scooped the wounded pup up and hugged it close.

 

  Left with no more options, Lima huddled close to Yuri in her arms, with her own body, shielding Yuri and the wolf cub from all the strikes and thrashing behind her.

  The end was near.

  The Starbreaker team was also overwhelmed. Advanced Demons outnumber them one hundred to one, under the lead of the notoriously devastating Archdemons.

 

  The forces of Light started to dwindle, close to its fading.

…

………

  Yuri looked up from the tears that blurred her sight.

 

  “ I have to change it…I have to change the Past…! There is no other way. And I am the one with the Power to save it!”

 

  “ The Past is Already gone. There is nothing for you to save.”

 

  “ THEN WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!?!?!?!”

  “ Go on. Foward.” 

 

  The child replied tenderly.

 

  “ Yuri, What has happened is not your fault.

 

  There is nothing anyone can do, to change what has already transpired.

 

  The past is not what defines us, Yuri.”

  

    Yuri’s tout stance faltered, as her tensed sinews unbind.

…

………

  Holding as tight as she could, withstanding all the hurt and pain coming straight at them behind her, Lima endured.

 

  This is nothing compared to what Yuri had braved, and more so, she felt willing to stand in the way of harm.

 

  For she is Yuri.

 

  Her friend.

 

  Her savior.

 Lima smiled, resting her sweaty, bleeding forehead onto Yuri’s visor, as she hummed softly, weakly in spontaneous song.

 

  A song Yuri had sung for her, to help her find her way back.

 “ There was a castle… On… yonder…. hill…

 

  There were stairs… Leading up… And… Down…”

  Claws tore her golden armor but still, Lima sang bravely.

  “ There was a tall tree… in the yard…

 

  ….And…a pond… Next... To… The tree…”

 

  

…

………

   “ We never belong in the past, but in the vast unknown.

 

    The Now.

 

    We try to stay, we try to trust, 

 

    We try to pray, we try to give.

 

    We try to find and we never give up,

    That is who we are, Our Fate.” 

…

………

  Sharp tentacles entangled all over Lima, sinking their fangs deep through her shattering golden armor, biting into her skin, and pulled her back, away from Yuri.

 

  Lima fought hard, yet her fingers, her bleeding grip, wavered and were forced to slowly loosen.

  “ How I wish… there was a sound….

 

   To... remind... me.. that I... could... sing….”

  Lima croaked in a fading whisper, letting go.

  

 

…

………

  “ And there, within all our struggles, 

 

     Lies our True Value,

     Yuri.”

 

  

 

…

………

 

 

 “...There was a castle… On a Hill…

 

 There they were… at yonder gate….

  And…There I was…. At... The… Other…. Side…..”

  Lima’s fingers gave way, her body sailing off in the air, dragged away by the pulling tentacles, into the grotesque mouth opening wide behind her—

  — When at the last moment, Lima stopped.

  Her hands, feeling a tight grip, yanking her back from imminent demise.

  Lima looked up in disbelief.

 

  As the world behind her started to brighten, Light burst out of the ground.

 

  Protrusions, piercing brown stakes all over the snow, now pillars of blue Light shooting up into the heavens, circled by rotating runes of power, emanating a force unseen, untouchable, but felt throughout the battlefield, Stabreakers, Demons, all, felt the rippling of the soul, alleviating the heavy weight over them and dispersing of the midst over their sight.

  “ By jove…!” Seito uttered, as surprised as the gigantic Demons that halted their assault, gazing at the numerous large pillars of blue holding the sky and separating the clouds.

 

  Reina looked around in wonder, at loss of words in awe.

  Firren saw something drifting down, falling onto his cracked visor.

 

  He reached out his hand, 

 

  to see not just snow that fell softly onto his palm.

  “ It’s…Blue.”

  Blue Snow.

  Dark Unerva Varium looked around at all the Demons paused in motion as if time had stopped.

 

  “ What is this…?!?!What is going on?!?!” Varium cried, and was startled even more by the sight of the Demons turning away, leaving the battlefield and roaming off to the lands in various directions of their own will.

 

  “ Hey…HEY!! Come Back Here!! It hasn’t ended yet!!”

 

  Trying to pull the Demons back, only to realize her right Demon arm, once huge and grotesque, 

 

  had shrunk drastically into just a regular arm made of dark nanoparticles.

 

  Varium could just stare, speechless.

  All the children navigating their androids stopped in mid-flight, gazing at the towering blue pillars that slowly, steadily open up the murky grey skies, revealing the bright blue above, letting in shafts of Sunlight dawning down over the vast white snowy plains.

  Bradson smiled at ease, nodding proudly afar.

 

  Never had he imagined himself to live long enough to witness a small fraction, of the Powers 

  of the Herunis Carna, at full display.

  Vernui looked down at the blue snow sparkling in his palm and closed his eyes.

 

  For that one short instance, like eternity, 

  Vernuis was free from the Archdemon’s calling, 

 

  

  Nothing, but silence.

…

……..

  The Watcher was now on his frail skinny feet, trembling uncontrollably, his eyes fixed at the one enlarged screen before him, of the miraculous scenes before the North Lines.

 

  “ Impossible…” the watcher guffawed, clinging to the wires crown above his head with one hand, while the other supporting the armrest of his throne lest he falls to the side.

 

  “ After all these years…you have finally graced us…with your lost Blessings…!!!”

  The door slid open behind the watcher, casting a long beam of light upon the glass floor.

 

  A tiny figure stood in the foyer, looking at the watcher with startled eyes.

  “ Father…?” The tiny child at the doorstep inquired worriedly.

“ I…I think I felt it—”

 

  “ I do as well…My dear…” The Watcher soothed the worried girl, motioning for the child to come over for him to pet her glistening blue hair.

 

  “ It is there…My dear Princess…It has finally ascended to our presence…and as promised…It Shall eventually be Yours, my dear… Sora.”

 

  “ Yes, Lord father.”

 

  The princess smiled in answer, happy that her father was finally smiling, 

 

  for the first time in millennia.

 

  

 

…

……..

  Lima couldn’t move her gaze away, staring back at the blue eyes that glowed with majestic luminesce, dazzling like the starry void of the universe.

  Lima opened his quivering lips, but no words came out of her sobbing.

  So Yuri finished the song for her, singing softly.

  “ …Holding…The key, for you…to lock…”

  Together, hand in hand, they walked out of the crevice, to see the marvelous sight at full bloom before their eyes.

 

  Blue snow-like petals filling the skies and the air.

 

  Pillars of light rise up from each soul underneath the thick snow, fading eventually, resting eternally in peace.

 

  And the Demons, walking away on their own, their berserk bloodlust diminished in that blissful instant, like creatures in the wild, roaming the earth, 

 

  as it should be.

  With a low groan, the Archdemons, like all the other lesser Demons beneath them, turned away and slowly depart. Archdemon Death slithered off to the horizons and floated off to the end of the sky.

 

  Thumping footsteps of the six-legged giant canine Archdemon walked passed Yuri and Lima as if they weren’t there. A grand beast of its own right, calmly moving along its path.

 

  “ Woof!!” 

 

  Elza the wolf cub suddenly popped out of Yuri’s backpack, though wounded and battered, the small animal still managed to cry out loud brightening barks that stopped the canine Archdemon in its tracks.

 

  Yuri and Lima stared in amazement as the long snout of the grand beast lowered down to their level, sniffing the wolf cub climbing up onto Yuri’s shoulder which sniffed back, before the Archdemon breathed a large gust of warm wind with a low snarl, touching its snout with the nose of the wolf cub.

 

  Both girls exchanged looks of sheer excitement.

  When suddenly, 

  A loud groan of an engine behind them, rattling with an abrupt start that grew to a thunderous roar, bursting a beam, a hot red cyclone beam, twisting and turning, wrenching and wringing everything in its path, breaking the ice, sending scourge and flames across the plains and blasting the six-legged canine Archdemon off yards away with its unfathomable power.

 

  Just one beam of immense energy, was enough to send an Archdemon as large as an airship flying away to a distance.

 

  Yuri pushed Lima and Elza back behind her through sheer instinct as they all beheld one black armored rugged form, crashing out with its overgrown hulking arms from underneath the snow, climbing out and stood up, its one gigantic feet hoisting its body up high, casting an overpowering shadow over them, asserting dominance and pressure just by its sheer existence.

 

  The ebony armored being looked down, with its visor facing none other than Yuri, 

 

  a red mono-eye glowed eerily at the next second, as it two large shoulders, clad with enormous bulging spheric canisters, started to roar once more, calling upon the devastating beam able to bring down Archdemons, now both aiming at Yuri’s face.

  “ RUN, YURI!!!!!” 

  Yuri spun around, just in time to see the winged shadow of Vernui’s dark armor crash forth, sinking its blade into the neck of the dominating armored Being, which stood still, unperturbed by Vernui’s sudden intrusion, as the Dark Unerva’s sword, thrusting down into the Being’s neck, 

 

  simply shattered to pieces.

  With its tantamount large fingers like boulders at the top of the mountain, it grabbed Veruni in its locking grasp, crushing the man with but one grip before tossing the Vernui down onto the snow.

 

  With a gaping cry, Vernui fell flat on the snow, immobile and silent.

  Yuri quickly raised her sword rifle high and pointed at the armored dominance leaning down over her.

 

  “ What are you…?! And What Do You Want?!?!” Yuri shouted angrily, backing slowly as the towering existence edged forward menacingly.

  “ …I just want to make things…easy, for both of us.” 

  Replied the muffled deepened voice, 

  of General Solo.

  “ For the best…of My Mission…I need You— Herunis Carna.”

  A black fist, the speed of lightning dashed out from the edge of Yuri’s sight, and at the next second,

  Yuri’s world vanished into darkness, 

 

  her senses shutting down.

  and All was Silent.

 

  

…

……….

  Standing over the two motionless bodies under his feet, 

 

  The armored Being turned its visor morbidly to focus on Lima.

  The little girl, stunned, petrified on the spot, her horrified eyes staring wide at this overpowering presence of Destruction and scourge, 

 

  of an unstoppable force, 

 

  of Reckoning, 

  of The Bradinn.

  

  Letting the  Dominant Being pass, carrying Yuri and Vernui away in its large interlocking fingers,

  Lima could but step aside, in guilt.

-Before Light-

[..........to be continued]

  

 

Author's note: A new theme is made for Before Light - Remastered, now on Youtube. Feel free to have a listen while reading, cheers! Youtube URL:https://youtu.be/VfedmXxtSE4