Just a few moments before Kandy was abducted and the arrival of the angels.

“We’re not getting anywhere with this!” Dario shouted, frustrated. For all the effort he and Toku were putting in to try and defeat this teenager, they didn’t seem to be getting anywhere.

Sure, they’d wounded him in a few places, but nothing major, and they weren’t doing too hot themselves.

And judging from the glimpses they saw during their fight, their men weren’t doing too well against the relentless assault of the puppets either. For whatever reason the legends of the holy land were nowhere to be seen.

“Hath thou forsaken us?” Dario muttered to himself.

“Dario!” Toku shouted. “Can you hold him off for five seconds?”

“I’ll try!”

Dario raised his shield and chanted, “Oh, Holy Truth. Give me the strength to protect all that is good!”

A golden aura surrounded his shield and he moved in front of Toku.

He’d never expected to protect the king of another country, but here he was.

As for the warrior king himself, Toku raised his blade perpendicularly over his head and ran the fingers of his left hand down the tang of the blade, along the vein of dragon’s blood.

After his duel with Hugh, he’d realized that his cutting ability wasn’t as strong as he’d thought. He’d mulled over ways to increase it again and again, to no avail. Eventually, he’d approached Hugh during their march down from the Kaita Kingdom and his new friend had replied with a single sentence.

“You’re wasting what makes that blade special,” Hugh had said.

When Toku had asked what he’d meant, Hugh hadn’t clarified further.

That night, he’d tossed and turned in his tent as he’d tried to figure out what Hugh had meant until it finally dawned on him..

If he had to name what exactly made his blade so special, there were three things. The most obvious, when looking at it, was the vein of dragon blood.

But it was also just an amazing sword, and thus was incredibly durable and sharp.

Mana, while mostly formless like air, still had shape to it. When it coated the blade, it was in the rough form of a blade, but not perfectly.

Any blade, his dragon blade included, would cut when coated with mana, that was a fact. But if the form of the mana was less sharp than the blade itself?

Then the sharpness of the blade was being wasted. The sword might as well be as dull as a fisherman’s pole.

He hadn’t had time to put theory into practice, but who was he?

Kaita’s Warrior King.

As his finger ran down the tang of the blade, the mana surrounding it shifted from wild flames into a thin but near-tangible coat of condensed mana that was barely wider than the blade itself.

Toku grinned.

“Dario! I’m ready!”

He wasn’t sure how long he could keep the mana so tightly packed and sharp, but it didn’t matter.

It would only take one slash.

As soon as Dario’s shoulders began to shift to the left, Toku leapt forward and opened his arm up towards the right.

Time seemed to slow and everything aside from his sword and target seemed to fade away as he grasped the bottom of his sword’s grip with his left hand and swung downward.

His opponent, that irritating teenage brat, had raised his spear overhead to block his strike, but it didn’t matter. His blade sliced through the kid’s spear like a knife through hot butter—and it didn’t stop there. It cleaved the juvenile in half, from his left shoulder to his right hip.

Every excruciating detail imprinted itself into Toku’s mind. Then, as his feet landed and he exhaled the breath he’d been holding, time sped back up and his surroundings returned. He blinked several times, a bit taken aback as he came out of his hyper focused state.

Before he knew it, a foreigner—no, his ally, Dario, had wrapped him in a bear hug and was lifting him up and down.

“Toku! You did it! The Holy Truth has blessed us with victory!”

Toku looked toward the defensive line, then beyond. Winged humanoids had descended from the heavens and were laying waste to the field of Null Empire puppets.

The battle wasn’t over yet, but it looked like it was just a matter of time.

He patted Dario on the shoulder, and the latter released him from the bear hug.

“Where are the ones from your holy land?” he asked.

“I don’t know, but it seems their battles have ended as well. The battlefield’s quietened down quite a bit.” Dario responded.

And so it had, but that very fact bothered Toku. He’d seen the giant monsters, the vast field of ice and snow… if those of the holy land had emerged victorious in their battles, why weren’t they helping with the cleanup efforts?

Something was wrong, he was sure of it.

***

Tori and Boom descended onto the planet covered in snow and red soil to quite the sight.

Sweet had chopped up the youngest Karasu clone and was roasting parts of it over a wide flame. Between her hands was one of the crow’s legs, and the oil running down her chin spoke to just how deliciously fatty the meat was. A barrel of Blade’s finest sat by her side, half-empty.

“About time you guys got here,” she said between bites.

“Honey, I—” Boom started, but Sweet cut him off.

“So Tin’s dead, huh. I figured.” Sweet sighed. “I tried to call him to bring me back to Aarde for a good hour before I finally gave up. Who else?”

“Just about everyone, really.”

Sweet grimaced. “They really got us good on this one. I shouldn’t have asked Tin to teleport the two crows here with me.”

“No, you did the right thing.” Boom shook his head. “If all three Karasus had linked up on Aarde, it would have been an absolute nightmare.”

Sweet swung the barrel towards her lips and gulped down its contents.

“Still was,” she replied after wiping the froth off her lips.

Sweet eyed her husband for a bit before tentatively asking, “So how about the kid?”

“He’s probably alive.”

“Probably?”

Boom shook his head. “We defeated Karasu, but he used the last of his strength to open a black hole right behind Kandy. Poor kid got sucked in and… I don’t know where he got spat back out.”

“So he could be anywhere in the myriad worlds? That’s tough. Still, it’s not like the kid’s completely useless, I’m sure he’ll be able to survive. Chalk it up to Karasu to be a bastard til the end…” Sweet growled angrily.

“Well, uh. He’s actually still alive.” Tori cut into the couple’s back-and-forth.

“Why?” Sweet glared at Tori. “You better have a damn good reason as to why he’s not dead after all this.”

“We’re holding him for interrogation. He couldn’t have done all of this alone. Someone would have noticed.”

“I’m getting a crack at him.” Sweet cracked her knuckles threateningly.

“But of course. Shall we return to Aarde?” Tori asked, subtly cringing as Sweet tore off another strip of leg flesh with her teeth.

“Yep, we should do it before the meat rots.”

“You’re… bringing it along?”

“Oh, of course. That’s part of the interrogation.” Sweet smiled all too sweetly.

***

“How DARE you!”

Boom could hear Karasu’s voice echoing through the tunnel behind him and Sweet, who was happily munching away at some of the breast meat from Karasu’s youngest clone.

It’d been quite difficult without Kaukau, but through a cooperative effort between the legends of Boomtown, they’d managed to fashion a cage capable of imprisoning Karasu. At least, in his weakened, injured state.

They’d placed it, and Karasu, in the underground room where the titan’s heart, the orb that had kept Boomtown separate from the myriad worlds, had once laid.

“You taste pretty good, Karasu. Nice and fat, like a plump duck. Even your white meat is quite delicious.” Sweet ripped a chunk of breast off and dipped it in some hot sauce, then tossed it all in her mouth.

“Now, like I said. The longer you hold out on us, the more of your juicy little clone I eat. Oh wait, you liked to call them your sons, didn’t you?”

Sweet grinned as she exaggeratedly chewed. “Well, your son tastes mighty nice.”

“Fine! Fine! Just let me bury what’s left of him in peace, you monster!”

“That depends.” Sweet swallowed and tore another strip of flesh off the roasted crow’s breast. “On how many of our questions you’re willing to answer. One answer, one piece spared.”

She cocked her head and smirked, “I’d hurry if I were you, I only cut him into eight pieces and this is the second one going down my gullet.”

“Fine, fine. Ask away.”

“We’re not just going to believe you, of course.” Sweet’s eyes glinted dangerously. “Swear a blood-oath to tell only the truth for the questions we’re about to ask you.”

The two stared at each other for a bit, but when Sweet’s eyes drifted back to the half-eaten crow’s breast, Karasu indignantly cawed.

“Fine!”

A wave of energy spread through the room, and an ethereal scroll appeared in the air between Sweet and Karasu.

After working out the details, Sweet and Karasu each imprinted the contract with their mana signature and the scroll disappeared as a wave of energy coursed through the room.

“Where did you send Kandy?” Boom started.

Sweet smacked Boom on the side of the head. “I’m the one who signed the contract, you idiot. He doesn’t have to be honest if you ask.”

She then turned around and asked Karasu, “Where’s Kandy?”

“Kandy?”

“The kid.”

“Emberos.”

Boom and Sweet shrugged at each other.

“Alright, I guess that’s one piece saved. Do you have any preferences as to which?”

“The head!” Karasu rasped.

“Coming right up.” Sweet pulled a familiar head out of her holding space and plopped it on the ground.

“Who are you working with?” she asked.

“I can’t answer that.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

After a long moment of silence, Sweet began to reach for the breast meat again and smacked her lips obscenely.

Karasu hastily spoke up. “I can’t.”

“Hm… okay.” Sweet shrugged. “I guess I’ll clarify that later. How many other bird-gods are you working with? Surely you can answer that. I know promises made through blood-oaths have to be quite specific.”

“...Three.”

“Three.” Sweet and Boom glanced at each other, already guessing which were most likely to be Karasu’s allies.

After much discussion, Sweet turned back to Karasu. “I just have a few more questions. Are you working with any of those on the other side?”

“No.”

“Why did you wait until Boomtown had returned to Aarde to commence your operation? Without us, you could have taken over all of Aarde in a single fortnite.”

“...I cannot answer that.”

“Why did you choose Zero to be your ally?”

“He was a second-generation warrior with a great innate talent. And he was native to Aarde.”

“Makes sense.”

Sweet pondered for several minutes what to ask for the last question, but nothing came to mind. Eventually, Boom tapped her on the shoulder and whispered into her ear.

Her eyes widened, and she turned to Karasu one last time.

“My final question. Was it because of Boomtown’s appearance that you and Zero put your plan into action when you did?”

Karasu’s eyes almost seemed to laugh at the couple as he cockily answered, “Yes.”