The time for crying has long passed...

Tsuruno thought to herself as she approached the red planet with renewed determination. 

I'll make them all pay!

She thought as they approached Mars undetected. The escape pod also had top-notch cloaking capabilities, but that didn't stop the enemy from trying to find her. Tsuruno bit her lip in frustration, thinking,

He must have tipped them off about my coming, that traitor!

Hundreds of spaceships were orbiting the planet, searching in every nook and cranny for her. That could have easily gotten another Irregular discouraged, but not Tsuruno. 

"Let's target one of their blindspots,"

She said to Franklin, the copilot who had been piloting the escape pod. He turned and stared at her in disbelief, probably thinking,

Are you suicidal?

But Tsuruno didn't budge. Instead, she increased the force of her glare, which cowed the pilot into submission. He reluctantly started tailing one of the enemy spaceships and turned to update her about the situation.

"Huh?"

Tsuruno had suddenly disappeared, leaving the man stunned as to what happened. Scratching his head, he tried to fit all the puzzle pieces together, but the answer revealed itself to him in the next moment.

"Whoa..."

The spaceship they were tailing exploded, and he even saw Tsuruno running atop the chunks of debris. Of course, that got the attention of all the neighboring spaceships, but Tsuruno made short work of them. With each swing of her katana, a new spaceship was destroyed. She sliced through countless bullets, lasers, and beams, destroying the spaceships responsible with ease. Franklin mumbled as he looked on,

"Attack really is the best defense, but how did she move like that?"

Normally, a space-time rift would take longer to form, but her movement was near-instantaneous, so he was at a loss as to what to make of it. As he was wondering about this, Tsuruno spoke to him through the PsyLink,

Quickly, get out of here!

Excuse me for my rudeness, empress, but shouldn't I at least station myself nearby so that I can get you if anything happens?

Don't worry about me! Think about how you can withdraw safely!

Though she had destroyed some of the spaceships, many more were remaining. He would be killed if he were to be discovered, as the Stealth Ship escape pods weren't equipped with weapons. 

Okay, may Lord Albius protect you.

He prayed and then withdrew from the scene undetected. 

 

***

 

At the mention of his name, Tsuruno looked at the brown box in her left hand and clutched it. She had been supplying it with energy ever since Lukas gave it to her. She didn't know what it would do, but she could trust it would do exactly what she said it would do.

It didn't seem like she was lying about it, but this was far too reckless!

She thought amidst her freefall. She figured the enemy spaceships would cease fire the moment she started approaching Mars, and she had been right because the spaceships returned to their respective orbits.

What idiot would risk damaging their headquarters for an enemy the ground troops could handle? 

She thought as she landed with a crash, forming a massive crater in the process. Once the dust had settled, a face that evoked all sorts of unpleasant memories came into view.

"Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, look who we have here,"

"Lydia!"

Tsuruno rushed forward and bisected her in one flowing motion of her katana, but her two halves turned into Martian dust and collapsed, causing her to grunt. 

"Whoa! No need to get violent all of a sudden! We should enjoy our touching reunion a little bit more."

Lydia said, but strangely enough, Tsuruno couldn't pinpoint where the voice was coming from.

Is this.. an auditory illusion? How does she—

"Your power has always been poorly matched against mine, Tsuruno. So, what inspired you to march so bravely to your death?"

She asked in a mocking tone of voice. It was almost like a performance to her, like she wasn't taking the fight seriously. Tsuruno gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on her katana. 

"Why so angwy? Is it because you lost your adopted son? My condolences..."

She expressed what sounded like sincere, heartfelt pity, but it only served to incense Tsuruno even further.

She's always making light of every situation, mocking and looking down on others. Ugh, I hate her so much!

"Lydddiiiaaa!"

Tsuruno shouted as she started attacking the point where she felt Lydia was hiding. At this, Lydia's hand sprouted out of the ground, and she grabbed Tsuruno's neck with an uncharacteristically murderous glare in her eyes. 

"Yeeeessss?"

She answered in a low voice.

"I'll kill you if it's the last thing I do!"

She extended her right hand and cut into Lydia's shoulder. The attack continued diagonally until her katana was out of Lydia's waist, but just as her torso began to fall, her image distorted and turned to...

"Why did you do this to me, Mom?"

A thirteen-year-old Ishimoto asked her with a lifeless look in his eyes. Everything turned white, and it was as if time itself had frozen. 

"N-no! I would never do this to you! You know how much I love you!"

"Then, why didn't you save me?"

Another older-looking Ishimoto asked her with a bitter expression on his face. 

"W-w-well, u-um, I..."

As she stammered, more and more Ishimotos staggered towards her. All of them were horribly disfigured and sent despairing, accusatory glances her way. It was too much for Tsuruno to take, so she dropped her katana as tears gushed out of her eyes. The white floor started dissolving it like acid, and Tsuruno noticed that her feet were also dissolving. It was like the world itself was dissolving, and it was swallowing her up. 

"N-no,"

She started resisting, but it seemed hopeless. She was trapped inside one of Lydia's layered illusions. If she didn't do something now, she would never be able to escape and would probably go mad or be killed if Lydia was feeling merciful. 

NO! I CAN'T ACCEPT THIS!

She declared to herself as the illusion continued dissolving her. Everything from her waist down had already been dissolved, but she wouldn't be giving up very soon. She tried everything she knew for what felt like forever until only her head remained.

I... can't... accept... this.

 

***

 

Lydia and Shane stood before Tsuruno, who had become something of a lifeless mannequin. 

"She has given me so much trouble, so I will overwhelm her with my love. Day in and day out, she will cry in ecstasy. Oh, it will be so wonderful!"

She said with glee as she drew her silver rapier from its sheath, thinking,

I'm so going to enjoy this...

 She approached Tsuruno, almost skipping with joy at the anticipation of victory. She stopped in front of her and gazed at the pained look on her face with an expression of rapture.

Ah, yes, I want to see that face twist even more...

She thought as she readied herself for a thrust.

"Experience a fate worse than death, Tsuruno."

She said as she thrust her rapier towards one of her eyes. But then, everything happened so quickly in the next moment. Tsuruno's eyes snapped open, and she bent to the side, counterattacking with an upward slash of her own from a crouched position. 

"Aaaahh!!"

Lydia let out a high-pitched scream. She couldn't react in time, so her hand was sent flying by Tsuruno's counterattack. 

"Madam!"

Shane rushed in to protect her, throwing punches and kicks imbued with powerful destructive energy, but Tsuruno held her own just fine in the ensuing battle.

"I-it can't be..."

Lydia muttered in utter shock as she stared at the two of them fighting.

She sliced through 120 layers of illusions! And now, she's holding her own in a fight against Shane!

She didn't want to admit it, but Marcelo had been right. 

I sorely underestimated her...

But just as this thought occurred to her, a man came flying down from the sky, separating the two fighters and obstructing the battle in the process. Recognizing the man's face, Lydia recovered slightly and asked with a dangerous glint in her voice,

"Ryan, what's the meaning of this?"

He stood there with a broad smile on his lips. Then, he extended his hands and said,

"I've always hated you Administrators more than anybody else. You claim to be the supreme rulers of the Irregulars, forgetting a race far more suited for that role."

"Should I take this as a declaration of war?!"

He chuckled and answered,

"Take it however way you want to take it. It won't mean anything if you die. Do you know why we didn't participate in the Universal Irregular Tournament?"

"Because you were too weak?"

Lydia jibed with a nasty look in her eyes, but he only shook his head and responded, saying,

"No, it's because we didn't need to prove our strength. We are the strongest race of Irregulars, and we have known this for as long as I can remember."

"This is no time to be entertaining a madman's delusions!"

Tsuruno interjected, but he turned to face her and said,

"You'll come to regret that statement..."

At once, it was as if Hercules had flung her into the sky at full force, and she crashed into Mount Olympus, obliterating the mountain in the process. 

What's with this aura? It's so intense...

He was exerting an aura so powerful that if Lydia and Shane were not careful, it would instantly bring them to their knees.

"Madam, he seems to be on another level,"

Shane commented with a groan. It was taking him everything he could to keep standing.

"Yes, I never would've dreamed of there being a sixth Administrator, one who could even rival Marcelo."

Shane held Lydia's hand as he bit his lower lip in frustration. Lydia could guess what he was thinking, even without needing to read his mind,

I'll protect the Madam no matter what!

It was written all over his face. His loyalty was usually reassuring, but she was getting a bad feeling in this situation. She felt like he would  do something rash, and her suspicions were proven true by what he said next,

"I won't hold back. I'll use Embrace of Nothingness."

At this, Lydia immediately started protesting, but she suddenly found herself back in the laboratory on earth. She concentrated all her psychic energy and warned him telepathically,

Don't do it, Shane! Both you and your enemy will get irreversibly erased from existence!

To no response from the other side. She started scrambling for the nearest spaceship, remembering some of the conversations they had much earlier in their relationship.

"Why was I only the one who survived?"

Shane had asked her. Back then, she didn't know how to answer him, so she could only look at him with a difficult expression on her face. It didn't bother Shane, though, because he had already come to an answer of his own.

"I should have died back then..."

He started, but then he shook his head and corrected himself, saying,

"No, in a sense, I'm already dead, so feel free to use me as a shield whenever you want, Madam. I would gladly sacrifice my life for you,"

He was so young, yet he spoke those words with conviction, and he felt that now was the time to fulfill his promise.

No, no, no! I don't want you to sacrifice your life for me, Shane! I want you to learn how to enjoy living!

She thought as she ran at full speed to the nearest spaceship. As soon as she arrived, a bright light illuminated the night sky. It was like night had turned to day for a few seconds, and when she saw this, she slumped to the ground and started weeping.