That final explosion was microscopic to the human eye, potentially misjudged as any short flare, but augmented by the golden lenses that rotate inside Dana’s green eye she had seen it all, and with the image the anguish was magnified hundred fold.

The lenses slowly disperse into individual golden strands that crawl back into her black pupils, receding away with no more that needs to be seen, and once the final strand returns beneath the abyss, her body is let go to her knees.

Upon dropping on her golden knees, gray rocks are propelled omnidirectionally away, bouncing against each other as her head tilts straight down, her amber bangs draping around her head as her miserable green eyes just stare into empty space.

Her lips are parted ever so slightly, quivering and making soft hyperventilating sobbing nearly silent but only made audible by the complete lack of any other sound.

Droplets of tears drip off her eyes and on her thighs, the worst having come true, leaving her in a state of utter loss freezing her body.

Even now Kokei’s right arm remains extended, her hand stretched open, reaching for a hand no longer composed. Her entire arm shakes as silent streams of tears rush out her eyes, not audibly sobbing but instead almost in a state of disbelief, as she finally proclaimed her desires only for any chance to be shut right in front of her face.

But as seconds pass and there is still no man in her sight to receive her hand, her arm eventually gives out and drops by her side, her body leaning slightly forward and her head tilting down as pink strands cover her face too, directed the same way as her tears.

Only one not to tear, Ekitai just stares with his mouth open, his eyes wide but unable to weep. His arms remain by his side, his legs keeping him standing straight, not in an utter breakdown but that is not to say he was completely put together either.

He just gazes straight at the blazing cyan gate, the gate that had accepted his comrade, and let him depart his side.

So as he stares in an expression not even apparent of grief but rather almost dumbfoundedness, he simply admits to himself, “I figured that our time together would’ve been brief…just a day’s worth of memories that’d fade centuries from now…maybe I’d remember little moments but it’d all be like a dream….”

Waving back and forth so slightly, Ekitai’s arm swings with its hand still wrapped around the handle of the handgun, the copper wires wrapped around the barrel shimmering cyan, the screen interface still lit, a weapon ready for many battles to come but no longer joined with its second companion.

Lowering his head as his yellow eyes scintillate above a frown, Ekitai glooms as in a voice raspy yet gentle he contends to himself, “But…I thought there would still be a few more memories to make…I thought there was more we’d do….”

While the other hand remains on his handgun, Ekitai’s skeletal hand reaches into his overcoat’s inner pocket and pulls out a flask half filled with the immortalizing purple liquid, holding it out in front of him with an extended arm wrapped in the sleeve multiple sizes larger than his bony rod.

Holding onto the flask firmly, Ekitai’s arm then tilts, tilting the flask from upright to upside down, causing the liquid to funnel through the aperture and pour out in a thick purple stream that rains down onto the gray rocky floor, droplets leaping out in all directions as the pool gradually grows.

In silence Ekitai pours out the remainder of the flask, watching the downpour accumulate on the ground at his feet, letting even the final few droplets slide down the glassy casing and through the hole to join with the rest of the puddle.

A few more moments pass as his body just remains frozen, his melancholic yellow eyes just staring at the puddle, before alas he returns the emptied flask to his inner pocket.

“That one’s for you,” Ekitai whispers in a voice inaudible to anyone around him, spoken in between his swollen cheeks, below his bald head.

Yet as he stares blankly at the ground, a sudden entity whooshes straight past him with such speed that his coat wrinkles and breezes, causing him to raise his head in curiosity as it moves so fast he couldn’t even perceive it.

That entity charges with heavy steps, each clawing at the rocky floor with such force that a small crater is formed, propelling the beastly being towards the devil with its arms swinging back and forth, its entire body golden and burly, its intricate shell made of bolded ravines like armor plating among diamond shaped fragments dotted on its upper arms and abdomen.

Its fingertips are sharp claws, its hands tense in preparation to scratch, and from the head emerges a growl inhuman but instead with a heavy distortion that carries an intense electric tone.

Charging straight for the man facing the other way with rumbling footsteps, the golden beast finally leaps off the ground and unleashes an aggressive electric roar as it thrashes its arm for the nape with the intent of a clean slash, its claws long enough to theoretically slice through the entire neck if the strike was made as intended.

Yet as the beast slices at the man, a few streaks of crimson flames secrete from his heel and below ground past the beast before emerging from the surface and projecting long chains made of the obsidian dark crimson, four of them two wrapping around the beast’s wrists and the other two around its ankles.

The beast’s golden claws still glide through the air and towards the nape, only a few inches away from a perfect slash to the flesh before the chains sharply jolt its body backwards, causing it to fall on its back with the chains unraveling over the ground, clanging together as they were as heavy as the ones around the man’s neck.

In a persistence that could also be seen as downright ignorance, the beast pushes itself back on its clawed feet, its golden chest revealed to be made with the integrated chain of diamond fragments forming an arc around the neck in resemblance to a necklace, a form just as alien as it is angelic.

It raises its head up golden too, its entire face completely flat and entirely blank, a metallic canvas with no features of humanity and yet in its anguished roar it showcases more than any face could.

As the man stands still, the beast charges straight at him again, attempting to make a slash for the neck, only yet again for its wrist to be yanked along with its whole body from the surprising tensile strength functioning almost like a rubber band in that the harder resisted against, the stronger its whiplash.

Back on the ground, the golden beast pushes itself back up to stand and makes another charge, pulled back again, and then another, pulled back again.

Realizing it would continue to be held back, it then yanks its left wrist up to hold the chain steady, and with its right hand it claws at the chain itself with the intent to slice the restraints, although upon clawing at the chain there is little reaction.

It claws again anyways, and again, and again, but there is no chink, no scratch, not even a flash of resistive energy as the slashes fail to reach that threshold.

But even then the beast claws at the chains, its electric rumbling growl animalistic and intense continuing on and only pausing upon hearing a vaguely familiar human voice speak, an adult male Latino voice spoken softly almost like trying to reason to a child: “I have no reason to harm you; I’ll no longer hunt you, or any of you for that matter. This scrimmage is pointless, your defeat means nothing to me.”

Taken aback by the voice, the beast raises its head up from the chains to the back of the man’s head, staring for a few moments in silence.

Although it only then thrashes its arm against the chain before threatening in its electric voice, “And you think I’ll just let you walk away, that I won’t avenge him?? You really know nothing, nothing about him, nothing about us, do you?! You really don’t know that no matter where you go, no matter what false life you live, I will find you, and I will make you wish you never popped your head back out!!”

After that declaration of war, there follows silence, for the man just remains standing facing the other direction, the black jagged cape rustling beneath its shoulders, his long black hair waving in the breeze as though in contemplation for a few moments.

Moments pass as the golden beast glares back at the man without eyes, ready to make another strike the moment it can find a valid opening as the man just stands relaxed without needing to face its assassin.

In fact, the only reaction to such a bold declaration is the soft advice from the man: “Dana, live a peaceful life with them. It’s what he wanted,” to which the beast’s tense stance suddenly freezes, and it tilts its head to the side.

With that, the man then begins to slowly walk the other direction with quiet footsteps, his cape and hair waving as he gently concludes, “You are now free,” as the four dark chains restraining the beast suddenly flare bright red and burst into flames that then immediately dissipate into smoke that rise in the air.

Unexpecting to the release, the golden beast falls forward, its body collapsing limply on the lunar floor with its arms spread out and head on the side as the man just continues to stroll away.

As he steps away, from behind both Kokei and Ekitai rush up to Dana, Kokei instantly dropping down to her knees and scooping up Dana to hold her as her body begins to recede, her muscular brawn shrinking to her human proportions, the golden shell morphing back into her fair skin that is then cloaked underneath her black suit. Her head also melts down into its smaller and regular size, strands of melting gold forming the strands of amber hair that composes her bangs. In seconds she reverts to her human form, her sharp claws becoming soft fingertips, the blank mask becoming a featured face expressing exhaustion as Dana breathes a fatigued sigh as she’s held by Kokei while Ekitai kneels on the other side.

While Kokei tends to Dana, Ekitai glances up at the leaving man, staring up at him in silent contemplation.

As the man strolls off with its waving cape, up stands the aged gunslinger, pivoting its shoulder with its face locked at the man, and steadily he raises his arm up to aim his handgun straight for the back of the head.

His thumb swipes on the interface screen of the handgun before then pressing on the hammer and clicking it down, his other fingers calm and steady as his brown overcoat ruffles in the breeze.

With an expression not exaggeratedly aggressive or hateful, but instead one of mild melancholy, a frown that could not show passion or much for that matter, Ekitai just stares straight at the target with one hand wrapped around the firearm, loosely held yet perfectly steady, one shot at the perfect angle just waiting to be fired.

He had his aim perfectly immediately upon the initial raise, now he has no reason to keep his finger from pressing down, he has no reason not to take the shot. Yet he just stalls in place, aiming to fire but holding back, waiting for nothing as there’s no better shot than this.

Perfectly in front of the barrel of the handgun is the back of the man’s head, and just a single shot would make it clean through the cerebellum and out through the prefrontal cortex. Just one shot, and there’s still plenty more in the cylinder, and with the man just casually walking, who’s to say only one wasn’t enough.

But as the gunslinger just stands with his steady aim, the wires wrapped around the makeshift handle and barrel, his face telling of weariness with no fight left in his eyes, he ultimately drops his arm by his side, lowering his head and whisperingly cursing to himself: “Dammit.”

He then turns around and huddles back to Dana and Kokei on the ground where he drops a knee by their side, keeping his finger by the trigger in case of any sudden action, but focusing his attention to tending for the remaining team as Dana groans after having exerted herself to such extent even after the prior injuries.

All of them had, and all of them now just huddle together, the leader of the team that had finally brought them as one gone just as fast as he came, leaving them broken, miserable, and with nothing but each other as they cling to one another in slow recovery after the long and taxing battle.

On the ground and hunched together, the three allies sit in defeat as the man casually walks away, back in the direction of the central spike tower with his jagged cape waving with his hair, a clean victory and the reinstatement of the conclusion he had for many years and preferred to keep. He may have been mistaken the first time when he believed he had finished the great hero off, but he had finally been able to confirm it for good, and now his reign comes to its sunset as the monster returns to its cave.

As the man just calmly walks away from the battle, a sudden horrendous piercing pain strikes his head with such agony that it’s as though for a moment the entire universe inverts and implodes, and suddenly he drops to the floor with a yelp.

Instantly and contemporaneously Ekitai, Dana, and Kokei raise their heads in utter perplexity to the strange reaction, one they never even seemed to deal on their own to him, and yet out of nowhere the quietness has been interrupted.

Now on his knees, Exitium groans in excruciating agony as both of his hands cling tightly to the sides of his head, almost digging into his skull.

On a face that had been so calm and unprovoked, Exitium’s eyes are now wide with shriveled pupils, his teeth gritting tightly as he tightly grips his temples above tense cheeks, suffering from an abrupt pain felt as though he had been struck through the brain by lightning, his ears ringing and his head spinning as all his composure had instantly collapsed.

But only a few moments later the pain instantly ceases, his pupils expanding and his mouth widening, his cheeks relaxing. He lets his hands slip off his templates, his mouth still hanging open from bewilderment to the inexplicable pain, and he hastily glances back at the only culprits that could come to mind, the three allies.

Yet to his surprise the three are still on the ground leaning against each other, too exhausted to have been able to deal such a blow, but even more strangely they clearly are just as stunned as told by their faces.

Shaken up and even embarrassed, Exitium pushes himself back up to his feet, stumbling backwards before regaining his footing, placing his hand on the side of his head to confirm the pain’s departure before dropping his arm and pivoting around to continue his stroll as though nothing had happened.

But just one step forward, and the ground suddenly shook enough that he stumbles again, able to prevent himself from falling at the very least but still startled as rocks begin to quiver and roll around uncontrollably.

He turns around again to the same allies, seeing no other suspect that could be causing such tremors, but once again they’re on the ground and even disturbed from the quake, Kokei now more tightly holding onto Dana as Ekitai glances around for a source.

While it’s hard to find any from sight alone especially when it was the ground that rocked, what is easy to tell direction of is a steady rumbling sound coming from the side, the side that all three of the allies as well as Exitium face instantly to, the side being towards the cyan supersun.

Continuing the rumbling only begins to grow louder, causing Ekitai to throw himself back to his feet and stumble back in alertness, Kokei and Dana still on the ground in complete confuddlement same as Exitium, all four of their faces coated in the intense cyan light.

Louder the rumbling from the sun becomes, but furthermore, flares begin to start firing out of the surface at an alarming rate and size, as though the sun was suddenly becoming unstable in a way never observed before in the centuries of its existence.

Enormous flares dance out, curled like horseshoes so large their gaps can be made out from the Moon’s surface, and even if one was missed so many bursts regardless that it’s hard to track them all or even a fraction.

“Holy hell,” mutters Ekitai before he stumbles forward and bends down, wrapping his arm around Dana’s shoulder and hoisting her up along with the help of Kokei who followingly stands up, all three of them getting to their feet before staggering back from the terrifying sight.

Even louder the rumbling gets, and even larger the flares become as they emerge faster and at greater numbers, the rumbling so deep and severe that the Moon again begins to tremor, all four on the surface stumbling back as the rocks shake and leap chaotically.

All four stand and face the sun despite the oppositions to one another, each of their bodies casting a harsh black shadow down at their feet as the flares cause the star to almost begin to pulsate like a heart, flaring and regressing, flashing and dimming, and all of this as it’s practically consuming them given how proximate they are to it.

Facing the pulsating sun with utter horror in their eyes, Ekitai again mutters but at a higher volume, “Come on…we should get out of here…,” as he tries to nudge the group back, but only for Dana to hold herself in place, gripping the ground as if not wanting to move.

Perplexed by the almost suicidal reaction to such an apocalyptic sight, Ekitai glances at Dana with a raised eyebrow and asks, “What are you doing, we need to move, now!”

But beside Dana Kokei’s eyes expand even more, and her jaw drops as she murmurs, “Oh my…Ekitai…Ekitai look…,” as she begins to raise her other arm.

Immediately Ekitai follows Kokei’s finger as it’s raised and pointed to the sun, specifically to the fact that now all of the flares have begun to concentrate on one specific point, leaving most of the sun to become more neutral but for that one point to have almost a solar storm with how ferociously they thrash and fling, the rumbling still getting louder and the tremors getting worse.

The flares continue even more to centralize onto a single point, getting tighter together, but the tighter they get the more intense the storm becomes, flares getting wider and stretching further, like the star was taking the chaotic storm and squeezing it together, compacting it together, honing it together into one point of overwhelming destruction.

Then all the sudden, all of the flares retreat back into the sun’s surface, the storm seemingly coming to an abrupt conclusion.

At first there’s a brief relief in Kokei’s and Dana’s faces upon noticing the calming, except Ekitai’s face lights up with a pungent terror concurrently with bright cyan, and he immediately swivels in between Kokei and Dana as he bellows, “OH SHIT, MOVE!!” and thrusts all three of them forward with a leap as both Kokei’s and Dana’s relief becomes the same horror as their faces continue to glow brighter cyan.

As the three are thrown forward in an urgent dive, Ekitai facing the ground with each arm wrapped around his allies who face the star, the supersun breathes out one concentrated flare that does not simply dance at the surface but instead blast straight towards the Moon, incinerating straight through several of the gargantuan rings and crashing straight into the lunar surface where Exitium roars in shock before being instantly consumed, the blazing beam striking with an impact so devastating that it’s followed by such a powerful shockwave that the three allies mid dive are picked up and blown far ahead as they cry out in chaos.

Tossing and flipping in the air, the three allies are thrown among rocks of various sizes from small pebbles to entire chunks blown straight off the surface, a hail of them flying straight for the three to which Dana’s eyes open and she crosses her arms, summoning countless golden tentacles from her back to wrap around the trio with wires that then emit their own golden energy shield that form a bubble, shielding the rocks that instead bounce off or crack on impact.

While the shield protects the group from the debris being pulled from the ground, their bubble form allows for them to be further blasted back by the proceeding shockwaves, flinging them further back with their screams audible from between the tentacles.

Hail of rocks burst out from the ground coming from the concentrated cyan flare still beaming into the surface, and those rocks are flung omnidirectionally with a siege of them thrown as far as the nearby parking lot.

All of the heavy rocks crash into the pods of the lot, many of them bouncing off and splintering on impact, but that is until a huge chunk of rock half the size of the vehicles crashes onto the one with open doors and an engine active and rumbling, and on impact the entire pod combusts in a great explosion as others are met by equally if not greater debris causing the same devastation.

High up in the air, in between the golden tentacles, Kokei raises both of her arms as her entire body sparks with pink arcs that slip between the tentacles in vast amounts that wrap around the ball, sparking constantly with more arcs resupplying those that vanish, helping to suspend the ball’s movement in perfect stillness as rocks continue to bounce off the shell.

Inside the ball, Kokei tenses her face as she keeps her hands ahead, clearly terrified of the situation but doing her best to help steady the group from being flung with the rest of the debris. On the other side Dana glances at her, her entire back a forest of tentacles sprouting out from just about any pore that can be opened, as the ball was pretty tight especially given it being made of wrapping cables.

In the center, Ekitai just gazes ahead with little he himself can do in such a turbulent situation, only scouting forth as more rocks bounce off the shielding.

His gaze then sharpens forward before it widens again and he shouts, “SHIT HOLD ON!”

Instantly a giant rock a little larger than the ball strikes the golden globe, causing it to receive some knockback and for the pink electric field to be lost due to the shakiness of the generator, causing the globe to blow back again.

In a rather dicey move, the globe instead unravels itself, a few cables wrapping around Ekitai’s body as well as a set around Kokei as Dana reorients herself in the center whilst controlling the others to direct at the ground, where they latch onto the lunar surface tightly, the heavy breeze of the shockwave still pushing against them as Kokei’s and Dana’s hair fly back chaotically, all their clothing ruffling in the wind.

At the center of the group yet again, Dana tenses her face with clenched teeth as she fights against the heavy winds, her green eyes trying to peer through the dust and winds, trying to glance at the direction of the solar flare. Golden strands seep out of her pupils and form lenses in her irises, helping her better see, but it is when she’s permitted greater vision that her eyes suddenly widen and her jaw drops, and she mutters to himself, “What the-,” before yet another shockwave blasts her back, causing her to need to cross her arms over her chest.

All three of the allies dangle high in the air, wrapped around by the cables that also anchor them to the ground, all of them facing ahead at the direction of the flare to find that it’s still beaming into the surface, but furthermore it’s steadily clearing up a deep crater that’s inching wider towards the anchors.

Before a reaction can be made however, the crater reaches the anchoring golden tentacles, ripping them out of the ground and causing them to fling around aimlessly same as the three that were being held, who shriek and squeal as their bodies are thrown in the wind of chaotic currents, held at the whims of the storm which further grabs their attention as from within the flare itself emerges a distorted roar.

That is when the group notices that from the star beaming the storm down, a sudden bright segment slips in through the stream and follows, a segment so bright it’s nearly white, racing down the stream.

From within the surface of the supersun and traveling down the thick fiery current, the bright white flash drifts for the surface with such luminosity that it’s hard to tell that the true source of the light is in the shape of a humanoid, and that being made of pure white light like a silhouette arches its right arm back before finally colliding with the surface at the very core of the crater, at where the beam has been directed that being the body of the Devil, and upon contact the silhouette throws a single straight strike into the Devil’s face which on impact erupts an immense shockwave, one with such strength that it completely levels the curve of the crater such that it rips all the surrounding rocks off the ground and blasts them further back as the white silhouette reels its arm back and from its shoulders manifests a white cape that drapes down its back as simultaneously a hood crawls up around its head.

On the ground, Exitium groans in pain with a scratched face beaten and bruised and hair completely spread out, and in front of his red terrified eyes he sees the white being’s fist close as what appears to be small plates form on its knuckles.

High up in the air the group witnesses the sudden widening off the crater as it almost doubles in radius from a flurry of rocks that burst out of the ground, carried by another shockwave that nearly lifts the group again if not for Dana’s quick thinking of deploying another batch of tentacles this time plenty more concentrated on the ground, grabbing hold of the surface and the other two as they wave around albeit anchored to the surface.

As they struggle to reach stability from all the chaotic shockwaves and flying rocks, yet another shockwave follows but this time causing a specific hole to rip out of the ground at a sharp angle, and instead of a rock flying out it is instead Exitium’s body which flails uncontrollably amongst the other debris.

That is when Dana’s eyes widen in utter shock, shining in astonishment as yet another shockwave bursts and more rocks are flung, although this time all of them strangely straight upwards.

But it is amongst those rocks that truly cause the look on her face, as rising with the debris is the figure of the man, the white figure that then colorizes to have its cape black, its face white, and its body primarily azure albeit for white padding on the outer thighs and lower forearms, black and white padding on the ribs, and gauntlets black over the forearms colored same as the boots. From the neck down to the elbows rests a golden piece similar to a pauldron in the same style as Exitium’s, and also similarly is the insignia that is then carved on the chest by a bright azure light that draws the tilted icon of a pencil which then produces azure streaks that wrap around the body, three up to the pauldron, one for each arm which then splinter off into multiple branches, two wrapping around the back, and three seeping down the abdomen below the golden belt that then leaves two streaks down the thighs that also splinter off in a design similar to thigh buckles, down to the boots. At the shin of the boots the same as the feet gleam frosty blue crystals same as the plates on the being’s fingers, with one also on each shoulder shaped as a pencil like the insignia which is replicated at the head of the belt.

The white face then takes life as a pair of parallelogram shaped lenses flare up in azure same with a curved streak along the left cheek down by the mouth, and the two horns that rise from the inner vertices of the lenses up underneath the hood where they then extend on the hood itself to the top.

The figure alas takes animation, thrusting its arms to the side almost in the shape of a cross as the blazing solar flare behind him finally begins to flicker, and as the man bellows in the same distorted although somewhat familiar voice, “EXITIUM!!!!” and propels his body forth in an azure blast, the flare finally dissipates behind the summoned as he lunges his fist that radiates a bright frosty glow, aiming it straight at Exitium whose body is flying back towards the central tower.

In an instinctual reflex, Exitium raises his hand up and summons a great crimson burst of flames before him which then spread out into a gigantic multistory wall before materializing into the indestructible dark crimson which meets the fist of the striker, and upon impact from that strike frosty glowing cracks begin to crawl and spread out all across the wall rapidly before the entire dark wall glows prominently with cracks as present as scales.

A moment after the wall’s summoning, it suddenly shatters in countless fragments with every piece laced with a frosty glow, instantly dismantling the wall and removing the separation that would’ve protected Exitium from a blue translucent cable straight for the jugular from the man’s hand, which is used to fling Exitium in the other direction towards the crater before jerking the arm back to bring Exitium straight into his knee.

On impact there is a massive frosty shockwave that blasts Exitium’s body straight towards the crater, that shockwave also trembling the campus and even the great spike building.

With all the movements so quick, Exitium is sent towards the crater while the rocks are still in the air, creating a wall for him to collide into. Realizing this, he hastily bursts himself forth before then projecting an array of red cables in the shape of chains, all of them latching onto the rocks to use them in hopes to slow his momentum and not meet them in a straight collision, although that one save is only met by the speeding pursuer.

That pursuer throws down both of his arms as his hands begin secreting huge azure flames magnitudes larger than his body, and he then throws both arms outwards to direct each flame to his side, and after projecting several tens of feet away they then both spread out and form the shapes of humanoids starting from the chests albeit at a titanic scale, a wave as large as the original flames forming the abdomen before splintering off for the legs as two streams splinter from the original blaze to form the arms and another rises up and sprouts to create the head. Both bodies are so tall that they naturally land on the surface with little drop, tens of stories tall as they materialize to have white bodies with a texture similar to human skin, although with huge glaringly azure parallelogram eyes on the head and great frosty claws for fingers which immediately reach for Exitium from both angles as the pursuer’s pace doesn’t slow.

Given no time between strikes, Exitium hastily detaches himself from the rocks as they begin to collapse, and he bursts upwards to dodge the first titan’s reach before then bursting backwards to just barely evade the second beast’s hand, just narrowly dodging both of them as he leaps back.

Dashing backwards at a slight angle with his feet lower than his head, Exitium faces up and immediately dawns a petrified face as dashing straight at him from higher in the sky is the pursuer, who grabs Exitium’s collar yet again but this time holds on as he propels the two of them straight down into the crater at rocket speed, and just as they pass the surface the pursuer’s body blasts a wave of azureous flames that upon reaching the edge of the crater then rise up to create massive turrets whilst the pursuer collides back into the center of the crater, creating a final shockwave that spreads across the whole crater and out as all of the rocks finally rain down from above which the three allies avoid as their tentacles reel them back to the ground.

All of those rocks plummet down into the crater, down beside the pursuer who stands with one foot on Exitium’s throat, completely unwavering to the dropping debris regardless of how close it plummets beside him.

Down on the ground, Exitium groans as he grabs for the black boot, but fails to do so as he’s clearly exhausted, wheezing and panting as rocks drop just a few feet from his face at a speed that could easily cave him in.

Yet without fear the pursuer stares straight down at him with those piercing azure eyes, his cape made of an almost chainmail fabric waving behind same as his hood, standing amongst the hail as above him a ring of tall white turrets aim directly into the crater, each of them built like railguns with the length of trucks, their apertures flaring blue in preparation to fire as above them the two titans stare over the crater as additional terrifying reinforcement.

The final few rocks drop to the ground, the hail coming to an end, and the pursuer remains victorious with his foot on the devil, multiple layers of protection looming above.

By the edge of the crater drops down the three allies, who stumble on the rocky floor as the golden tentacles retract into Dana’s back, she of whom stands in the center.

As Kokei and Ekitai regain their balance, all three of them look up to find the gargantuan white humanoid colossuses looming over the crater amongst the fleet of turrets all of which hover off the ground with seemingly no forced base, and without a fixed pivot point they thus have free aim.

In utter shock all three of them stare at the mayhem that had so quickly unfolded, none of them even able to compose an explanation for what was happening before their eyes. Kokei and Ekitai just aimlessly gaze up at the colossuses with hanging jaws and utter astonishment, but it is Dana who begins to sprint forwards, pulling both of her friends’ attention as they chase after her with Ekitai shouting, “Wait, where are you going?!”

Towards the crater’s edge the three run up to, the crater now nearly reaching the entrance of the central tower from how wide it spread. They run in between two of the huge turrets neither of which seem to notice them nor do the towering colossuses that kneel with hands placed on the ground.

They come to a stop at the very edge, facing down at the surprisingly deep crater before them, which had been dug tens of feet down into the ground, jagged rocks among the debris composing the crater’s bowl.

Over the edge Dana peers, finding that all the way down in the very center of the crater stands the pursuer whose cape waves in the breeze, facing down on Exitium who lays on the ground helplessly, trying to reach for the boot sitting on his throat.

The cool breeze from all the destruction brushes Dana’s bangs as well as Kokei, who also glances over at the center of the crater, the same as Ekitai.

All three staring at the center with peering eyes on completely bemused faces, each of them gaze at the otherworldly sight in silence, trying to conceal their presences.

Intrigue begins to broil in Kokei’s mind as she opens her mouth and whispers with uncertainty, “Wait…why does that kind of look like…-,”

As the pursuer stands over the Devil, ready to conclude the long battle with a glare behind the white mask, it hears the sudden cry of a faintly familiar female voice call out: “MEDIT??”

Instantly the pursuer’s unwavering fixation on the enemy is out of balance, and he raises his head up without second thought.

He then pivots around slowly towards the source of the sound that comes from behind him at the top of the crater, specifically from a European woman with short amber bangs who’s accompanied by an elderly bald Japanese man and a young woman with long pink hair also Japanese.

In his examination of the voice, he observes the bald man turning to the amber haired woman before criticizing in a raspy old voice, “Huh, what the hell do you mean? Whoever he is, that’s not him, we just saw him bite the wind! And he looks nothing the same!”

Although in retort, the young woman shakes her head before corroborating back in a soft voice somewhat high pitched, “I…don’t understand it either…but that’s what he looks like…’looked like….’”

But while the two bicker, the woman in the center stands up and throws herself over the crater, revealing herself to be dressed in a formal black suit with black leggings and a blazer over a white tank top, that blazer having green buttons along the lapel. Immediately following the chase, the two companions get up with petrified gazes before they leap in with her without a thought, the old man dressed in a long brown overcoat open to reveal a black jumpsuit underneath stained dark purple, and the young woman in an oversized hoodie with a pink abdomen that has sharp lining below a white top with colorful decals.

Instinctually the man raises his head and projects an azure flame straight towards the incoming intruders, the flame blazing right at them before stopping short a few feet away and spreading out to materialize a transparent wall that the two freeze in front of, terrified not knowing what it would be.

Yet instantly the European woman slams both of her hands on the long wall that spreads tens of feet in both directions to close them off, made of a material that reverates the slam all the way to the edges as she calls, “Wait Medit, it’s me!!”

Now further puzzled by the strangers’ behaviors, the pursuer instead returns his gaze down to his primary target, who’s still helpless at his feet.

Yet now that the tension has had time to settle, the pursuer tilts his head in curiosity upon being able to get a better examination of the one he had just roared the name of when launching a merciless assault. The lenses glare for a moment as he stares with the hood draped over the mask, the human face concealed.

Right underneath the boot sits the latino man, his face telling of an age around middle forties although still very much athletic regardless. He has flowing long black hair and a bruised face, although much of those are fresh. He glares up with crimson red eyes, although not only in anger at his beaten state, but also with a hint of bewilderment as though he was staring straight at a ghost.

While the actual facial expression cannot be made out, there’s a clear sense of mystification from the man in blue, tilting his head and in a voice still distorted but with a clear tone of hesitancy he asks simply: “Wait…Exitium…why do you…look different….”

“Medit…,” softly speaks the same European voice whom the man turns to, that being the woman still behind the wall, both of her fists closed and resting against the surface as the others just stare in utter shock.

Staring straight back at the transparent wall, the man just tilts his head as he mutters in bewilderment, “I don’t…I don’t know who you…wait….”

Apprehensive at first but in a state almost unable to process clearly, the man grabs the back of his chainmail hood and pulls it over, causing the white mask to crack rapidly with blue light shining between the ravines until the cracks consume the whole plate and cause it to evaporate into light that then twinkles away.

As the light dissipates, it reveals the face underneath to be that of a Latino man with healthy skin and long flourishing black hair reaching down to the shoulders which sway a bit to each side. The man has a striking resemblance to Exitium, just not as slender but with a slightly sharper chin, and naturally vibrant azure eyes below bangs. He has the looks of an athletic man in his mid forties, not much more nor less.

His lips are slightly parted as he stares right at the wall, and with a human voice much more familiar albeit notably a bit deepened, he pieces together: “...Dana…?”

In that brief moment of disorientation, Exitium hastily reaches for his right forearm with his left hand, an act caught too late by the man whose expression instantly becomes one of fury as he reaches to stop him, only for Exitium to grab his own gauntlet and suddenly ignite in a flash of blue light that causes the man’s feet to drop down to the rocks, the target no longer present as he has successfully made his escape seemingly with a similar instantaneous transportation system.

Filled with rage at the loss of the enemy, the man grits his teeth before raising his head, his decision in focus already made without words.

From behind the transparent wall the three allies don’t have a moment to respond before the man abruptly launches straight up in the air like a rocket propelled by a blue burst. They all raise their heads, and Dana is first to turn around and begin running up the crater while huffing loudly, hastily to reach the top as the wall behind them bursts into azure flames before dissipating away.

Close behind Ekitai and Kokei follow, all of them pushing themselves to reach the top of the crater just as all of the turrets around them are set in blue flames before being relinquished, turning all of their attentions to the two enormous colossuses only to find them just figures of flames that then immediately spread out and lose shape, dissipating in the air.

But as the two titans vanish, they reveal that far in the distance is a blue comet, one racing straight off into the black void, in the direction of the nearby Earth amongst the white stars and purple nebulas. Gone as fast as he came, the man has vanished, leaving Dana with a completely awestruck face, her jaw dropped as words fail to manifest in her mind.

She ambles a few steps forward as though trying to follow the comet, but it has moved so far away that even if she could hijack another pod it’s already well too late. So instead a few steps forward, she drops to her knees, so terribly exhausted that she could barely move any more.

By her side Kokei and Ekitai also watch the comet, both of them in the same complete disorientation, their arms by their side as they can do nothing but watch from afar. They can only watch as they stand before the massive crater, as they stand behind the flaming parking lot in ruin, as they stand surrounded by the towering white spikes of the facility that had been made their prison if it weren’t for the leader who had saved them and given his life for their safety, only for them to find an anomaly that couldn’t be explained.

And without the ability to explain, all they can do is stare, onward past the ring walls of the campus that neighbors the colossal telescope pointed at the megalithic supersun that breathes cyan light from behind, the one that had somehow birthed this anomaly.

Yet again they find themselves alone, stuck on the floating rock without the one to bring them home, without the one to unite them as a force that could protect themselves from a cruel universe swarming with monsters. But that heart of the group was gone, gone in blazing glory with them left at a crossroads of questions and nobody to answer.

As the three gaze up into the infinite cosmic sky, they could only find themselves in that same void that their leader had been trapped in for all those years, lost without direction, unsure of where their purpose lies now. All they knew was that they had some purpose, a purpose that was worth his sacrifice.

That was all they knew, and all they’d be told, for as expansive as the Superverse was, very little guidance was ever given.

But guidance could not be given, it had to be sought for, fought for, as the warriors they were, it was to them to find their path, to find their meaning in a dark universe that seemed almost senseless. That was the burden of pioneers, of those who carve their own paths when theirs seem so apparently meaningless.

Yet with the power to choose their destinies, they could take on ones greater than they were ever built for, not limited by what they were but who they could become.

That was the philosophy that drove their great leader, who freed them from the chains of the devil, but furthermore faced him head on and came out with his mission accomplished: saving those who would continue on with their own lives, able to carry a remnant of him on their own journey they’d share together, stronger than any force can repel against.

As warriors, they would continue to fight.

That is who they are.

The Bellators.