“Funny.”

“Too much. I want to know what that force was that could take over our body. I also want to know about that girl...”

“But...I don’t want to...”

“You have me there. But it doesn’t matter! I had a glimpse of what might’ve been my past in the face of that girl! I want to know more...”

“Seraph, we must-”

“No! Not yet at least. I want to learn what I can, then I’ll finish with the entire Angel task...”

“At least for now...”

Seraph noticed that there was a large green tower sticking out of the clouds above the city, it was what had made Lutenia famous over the years, the Main Gate. He flew towards the structure and landed on the large circular green platform, it was still the same as ever, the doors unopened and untouched. Seraph blinked for a moment and shook his head, the spot seemed familiar to him on more then one level.

::I need somewhere to stay...This tower is far from prying eyes, I think I can safely rest here,:: he determined, sitting down and leaning against the large doors. Seraph growled under his breath, he was wracking his brain for more memories but none appeared, they only seemed to come to him if something ‘triggered’ a memory.

::As much as I don’t want too, I’ll just have to leave this be and let it come to me on its own. Besides, this is my first day of being...Alive, I shouldn’t rush things...::

* * *

Sonaris and Ethernial listened for a moment, the sounds of yelling and fighting from the lower floor had finally ceased.

“Finally, some peace and quiet,” Ethernial remarked.

“Agreed, I forgot how long those two could fight with each other, it’s already 11 at night!” Sonaris exclaimed, rubbing his temples.

“Who knew it was possible to argue for over 12 hours straight, it’s not really...Natural...I guess they’re making up for arguments they didn’t have over 10 years,” Ethernial said while looking out the window.

“Man, has it really been 10 years since all of that chaos?” Ethernial asked. Sonaris nodded and opened a bottle of wine, pouring both of them a glass.

“In less then an hour it will be exactly 10 years since Airaxen died, and you two left for that trip,” Sonaris sighed and took a sip from his glass then put it down, staring out the window as well.

“I’ve been alive for countless years, I often wonder where the time passes, I mean living for an entire millennium is nothing to scoff at,” Sonaris suddenly began. Ethernial glanced at his drinking companion and nodded.

“I was stuck in a stupid capsule, half complete for the better part of that time,” Ethernial grumbled. “I could’ve been out and about trying to get a date or something!” He suddenly laughed, gulping down the entire glass of wine.

“We are the closest to being immortal but to be quite honest, I don’t see the attraction to eternal life,” Sonaris stated, taking another sip of his drink. “I’ve seen things that make me wonder, why live forever. I’ve seen pain and turmoil, too much suffering. Sometimes what I’ve seen and done is just...Too much to bare with,” Sonaris sighed again and looked back at Ethernial who shrugged in return.

“I understand what you’re saying. Humans all seem to be after the glory, the glamour, wanting what they can’t have. I guess we all want what isn’t ours...Hey, Sonaris,” Ethernial began. Sonaris looked at Ethernial, red eyes staring at him for a moment.

“Yes?”

“You got any advice on...Actually nevermind, I’ll ask you another time,” Ethernial reconsidered before taking another drink from his glass.

“Hm, alright. But you shouldn’t wait too long to do things, lest they pass you by,” Sonaris warned a bit ominously. Ethernial nodded and raised his glass to take another drink but paused as he heard a strange noise from a room down the hallway. He stood up from the table and stuck his head out to see what caused it, it was Tikai walking out of her room, on her shoulder was the sword Marimatsu.

“Hey, where are you going with that?” Ethernial inquired. Tikai stopped walking and looked at him.

“Out, if you’re wondering about the sword don’t bother asking,” she replied with a final tone in her voice, walking away without another word. Sonaris walked up to Ethernial as he simply blinked, confused.

“Every night on this date Tikai goes to the Main Gate and carves into the tower one line, one for each year,” Sonaris explained. Ethernial nodded, he understood and shrugged.

“Who suddenly feels old and uninformed about things?” He asked of no one in particular.

* * *

Tikai made it up to the top of the Main Gate, landing on the platform with ease. She took the Marimatsu sword off her back and looked at the doors to the inside of the structure. On the doors she had cut 9 thin vertical lines, tonight would be the tenth one. Tikai walked towards the doors but suddenly paused for a moment, her instincts told her something wasn’t entirely right. She held the massive sword at the ready and began to move around the circular tower.

::Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you,:: Tikai thought wearily. However she suddenly felt a presence behind her, the hair on her neck stood on end and she spun around to confront whatever was behind her. Standing before her was Seraph leering at her angrily, his wings spread out and blocking the moonlight behind him.

* * *

“Ah, what brings you here?” Dimitri choked out, Satan had returned to see Dimitri and wasted no time in smashing Dimitri’s head deep into the stone he was chained to, his hand still on his neck.

“I told you I’m getting sick of your games,” Satan replied monotonously.

“What do you mean?” Dimitri asked.

“I don’t need, nor do I want someone to interfere with my plans, and that includes making my minion carry out your meaningless plans of revenge,” Satan nearly growled.

“Well you were fully aware of what I might do!” Dimitri sputtered out.

“And you should’ve been aware I wouldn’t let you do it. I have enough to worry about with those Angels starting to cause me more problems,” Satan said angrily.

“Well, maybe I can help!” Dimitri suggested. Satan loosened his grip around Dimitri’s neck slightly allowing him to speak a bit easier.

“If you want the job done you should have more minions trying to do the task, why not have me take care of the Angels?” Dimitri proposed. Satan chuckled and tightened his grip again.

“You have nothing to offer me for a new body, you’re already in hell!” Satan nearly laughed.

“You want to go to Earth and take care of the Angel problem yourself, right?” Dimitri asked, Satan eyeing him carefully before letting go of his neck entirely.

“Continue,” Satan ordered.

“You can’t go to the Earth and have a body to use, unless someone called you to it. And with your demons trying to keep Hell standing you don’t have the man power to do such a thing on the Earth. I however have control of my own personal minion who could easily make a new body and call both of our spirits from here and into it, thus being able to walk on the Earth and take care of the Angel problem yourself. And afterwards I could keep the body and use it for myself. We all get what we want, and it ensures you can deal with the problem upstairs yourself...” Dimitri suggested. Satan thought for a moment and then snapped his fingers, the flames under Dimitri stopped. The chasm was then filled with stone and became level with the rest of the ground. The chains around his arms then broke apart, Dimitri was freed.

“Do it,” Satan ordered before walking away. Dimitri smirked, the day hadn’t been entirely a loss.

* * *

“Seraph! What are you doing here?!” Tikai demanded, the blade of the Marimatsu pointed at his head. Seraph looked at the sword and then at Tikai who was currently staring him down, or up since she was slightly shorter. He sighed quietly and turned away from her, starting to leave.

“I have things to ask you, but obviously you’re not in the mood to answer,” Seraph murmured at Tikai.

“Wait, you’re not here to attack me...?” Tikai asked confused. Seraph stopped and looked over his shoulder at her.

“No. The only reason I attacked you...You wouldn’t believe me, you have no reason to trust me,” Seraph replied in the same quiet voice, turning around and walking away again.

“Wait,” Tikai suddenly said, Seraph paused and this time turned all the way around to look at Tikai.

“If you just wanted to talk, lets just talk then,” Tikai declared. Seraph walked right up to Tikai and looked her over carefully with his violet eyes.

“Alright,” he finally agreed.

“So you were the one that carved the lines into the door,” Seraph commented. Tikai nodded in return.

The two were now seated at the very top of the entire tower, side by side and staring at the moon and clouds.

“Why do you do it?” Seraph inquired, Tikai looked away for a moment then at the Marimatsu which she dug into the floor next to her.

“Sorry, it seems personal,” Seraph looked away, perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to speak with her?

“It’s ok, Seraph,” Tikai sighed for a moment and decided she could get over it. “10 years ago today...A man had saved the world from an incredible force of Darkness. However to do this he died in the process to save us. I knew him very well...As embarrassing as it is to say to a stranger, I loved him. So when he died I was very sad and well...You can fill in the rest I’d imagine,” Tikai concluded, wiping her eyes quickly. Seraph looked over at Tikai and considered to try and offer his condolences but stopped. A new memory appeared in his mind. It was her, but younger and with much more hair. She was leaning towards him quickly and placed a single kiss on him.

Seraph nearly jumped away from Tikai, shaking the memory from his mind. Tikai looked over at her company and blinked.

“What’s wrong?” She asked. Seraph looked at Tikai briefly then back forward, face red.

“N-nothing,” he lied. Seraph wasn’t about to tell her he had a memory of her kissing him, however this brought up new questions.

::I could just be that man who died 10 years ago...But if that’s true...This is starting to become confusing!:: Seraph shook his head again and then fixed his gaze back onto the horizon.

“Well then, what’s your story, Seraph?” Tikai asked. Seraph glanced at her from the corner of his eye and then looked back at the moon.

“I’m not sure. I woke up in this city and then, well that’s it,” Seraph shrugged as he thought for a moment. “My memories seem to be nonexistent for the most part, some will come to me only if they are triggered by something. To top things off something is trying to take my body for its own. I mean I already have a voice in my head, but there’s another one that pops in to take me over...” Seraph sighed and shook his head, expecting Tikai to look at him as if he were insane, to a degree he thought that he was.

“I take it that’s what happened earlier today?” Tikai asked, Seraph nodded solemnly.

“Please forgive me. I didn’t want to attack all of you,” Seraph apologized, lowering his head slightly, wings furling up.

“It’s ok, Seraph,” Tikai looked at him closer and then laughed quietly. “You remind me of him, however you nicer then he was, more like him before he died.” Seraph chuckled quietly and stood up. He opened his mouth to say something but stopped suddenly, the ringing in his ears had returned at twice the strength as it had during the day. Seraph tumbled off the top of the tower and down to the platform below it, doubled over and clutching his head. Tikai blinked and approached the demon slowly, pulling the Marimatsu out of the floor and gripping it in her right hand.

“Seraph, are you ok...?” Tikai asked slowly, her left hand moving towards his twitching body. Seraph suddenly spun around and shot a death glare at Tikai.

“Get...Away,” Seraph growled through clenched teeth. Tikai hesitated at first but shook her head.

“I’m done with being told what to do, I’m staying,” Tikai declared, leaping back and holding the sword at the ready incase worst came to worst. Seraph began to thrash around violently, even throwing himself into the wall headfirst.

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”

“LEAVE ME ALONE!”

The mental tug of war was finally over, and sadly Seraph didn’t win.

Seraph straightened up and looked at Tikai, eyes glaring at her.

“I don’t have time to waste on you,” Seraph growled, voice deeper and more demonic then it was before. Seraph unfurled his wings and shot straight at Tikai. She raised her sword and slashed at his body, but he had flown at her close to the ground so he could simply push off the ground to avoid the sword attack. Seraph flew right at Tikai, and then for some reason flew right past her without even attacking. However she felt a small prick on her head, she didn’t know what it was and simply stood there confused at what had just happened.

Seraph looked at what he had in his hand and then smirked to himself, it was nothing more then a single strand of blond hair from Tikai’s head.

* * *

Tikai arrived back at the shop at about 1 in the morning, tired and confused. She unlocked the door with her spare key and looked around the inside of the shop, no one was on the first floor, as well the shop was empty, nothing needed to be repaired and ready to give back in the morning. Tikai made her way up the stairs to the living area, no doubt everyone was now asleep.

::Ugh, longest day in my freaking life,:: Tikai growled mentally. However one room still had the light on, the dining room. Tikai approached the room, maybe Sonaris was still up.

“Hey Sonaris, you still up? ‘Cause I could really use someone to-” Tikai stopped when she looked at who was in the room, to her surprise it was the red fox girl Yasosume.

“Just because my hair is tied up like his doesn’t mean I look like the old guy,” she replied, a thin smirk on her face. Tikai growled angrily and spun around, leaving the room.

“I’m not in the mood to deal with you, Yasosume!” Tikai retorted but Yasosume got out of her hair and quickly moved in front of her, blocking the doorway. Tikai growled angrily, fists clenching together, stress was starting to get to her.

“Well you’re going to listen to me Tikai,” Yasosume said lowly. Tikai blinked and unclenched her fists, she had never called her by her actual name unless it was important.

“Alright, I’ll listen,” Tikai submitted, it couldn’t hurt at least. Yasosume shook her head and leaned against the doorway, arms crossed and tail moving back and forth gently.

“I remember where I saw the attack ‘Piercing Lights’ now,” Yasosume stated, Tikai blinked expecting something more from her.

“So?”

“The attack was used against me by Airaxen when we fought,” Yasosume continued, eyeing Tikai for a reaction. The blond didn’t say anything yet, just processing what she was told.

“What are you getting at?” She finally asked.

“The reason monsters have been forming are because of dead souls turning themselves into something, right?” Tikai nodded in return. “Then who says that the same couldn’t happen to Airaxen?”

“Well even if he did, wouldn’t he just end up like some deformed creature?” Tikai asked back.

“I don’t know, but the thing is it could be a possibility. There’s some really messed up stuff happening these days. I talked to Ethernial for awhile and he says that now that he thinks about it he has been seeing more souls of the dead just roaming around. He didn’t pay too much attention to them since people dying is a frequent thing in life. But these days there are more of them, and I mean a lot more. He said there might be something wrong with the way of the world or something like that,” Yasosume shrugged and turned around, however Tikai stopped her before she left.

“Why are you telling me this?” Tikai inquired.

“10 years ago Airaxen had to put it all on the line to save all of us. I think it’s happening again, enough said,” Yasosume shook loose of Tikai’s grip and left for her room down the hall.

* * *

Sonaris blinked a few times as he read over the paper. The headline that was on the papers leapt out at him. Maria looked over at Sonaris and raised an eyebrow.

“What is it?” She asked.

“The Biomechanical Laboratories were attacked late last night by an unknown suspect. Eye witnesses reported that the attacker resembled a demon. This ‘demon’ not only destroyed most of the equipment, but also stole a multitude of Myreison regenerative parts recovered from the sunken capital city. The authorities have been unable to find the attacker as of yet. Citizens of Lutenia have been warned to be careful of suspicious looking people and to report them to the authorities,” Sonaris read out loud. Maria thought for a moment and then looked at Sonaris again.

“Didn’t you mention you fought a ‘demon’ yesterday?” Maria asked. Sonaris folded the paper up and put it to the side.

“Yes. What bothers me is why would he need such components. Their only purpose would be to restore a body to its original state, or to construct a new one...” Sonaris thought for a moment but grumbled to himself.

“Why would he need those?” Maria asked. Sonaris shrugged and shook his head.

“He already has a body, and the only way to ‘install’ such things into your own body is to open yourself up and gut yourself to put it in,” Sonaris explained, Maria cringing slightly at the thought.

Ethernial and Yasosume then joined Sonaris at the table, both of them looking like they could use much more rest.

“Ok, why did the blond wake us up at this hour?!” Yasosume demanded angrily, Sonaris swore he saw a small flame in her palms. Tikai followed the two into the dining room, Yasosume glaring at the blond fiercely.

“Sorry I had to wake all of you up so-WAKE UP ETHERNIAL!” Tikai roared at the redhead, who leapt up from his seat at the table, eyes wide awake.

“I SWEAR I DIDN’T PUT MY HAND THERE!” He shouted absentmindedly. Ethernial then blinked and looked around at where he was, something wasn’t right. “Wait...What just happened...?” The room was filled with stifled laughter and snickering at his expense, Ethernial decided it would be best to sit back down and remain quiet for awhile.

“Ok, now that everyone is awake-” Tikai stopped again because Yasosume had went to the fridge and began looking through it.

“GET BACK OVER HERE!” Tikai shouted again. Yasosume looked over at her and yawned back as a reply.

“What? I can still hear you, I’m just getting something to eat. Hey Ethernial, you want something? There’s some chicken in here!” Tikai growled to herself but decided to just leave it be, there were things she had to discuss to the others.

“Right, if that’s it, I learned a bit about Seraph last night. I didn’t mention it since it was late and everyone was asleep,” Tikai explained, Sonaris looking over at her now.

“Well? What is it?” Ethernial asked.

“I talked to him and he doesn’t seem to have any memories of the past. And there’s something trying to take him over, it’s why he attacked us yesterday. Last night the same thing happened and he ran off,” Tikai shrugged and took a seat at the table, she had said what she wanted too.

“Hm, in the papers today there was a report about a demon attacking the Biomechanical Laboratories, stealing Myreison regenerative parts,” Sonaris added.

“And those are only needed to make a new body...” Tikai pondered for a moment. Ethernial sighed and shook his head.

“I’m not sure what he’s up to but whatever it is, it’s not going to be good for any of us...” Ethernial grumbled. Yasosume rejoined them back at the table, a large plate of random meat foods.

“...Were you listening to a single word I’ve said?!” Tikai demanded, Yasosume shrugged and tore into her food.

“Well, ignorance is bliss, so...” Ethernial began, however Yasosume flicked him off his chair with her tail.

“Shut up,” She mumbled back, food particles coming out of her mouth. Sonaris chuckled quietly to himself then stood up, speaking as he walked to the fridge.

“We should take a page out of Yasosume’s book and go get some food...Wait, when did we get actual food in there?!”

* * *

Seraph glanced around the corner and growled at the number of people that were walking around outside.

“I don’t need to cause any scenes for now, but I need to find a way to draw out those stupid, imbecilic, moronic-” Seraph never finished his slough of insults because of a beam striking him in the back and blasting him forward into the air. The demon tumbled along the ground and landed out in the street, all of the people stopped and looked at him, then scattered running after a second shot was fired on him, this time sending him back about 10 meters. Seraph growled angrily, and put a hand to the wound on his chest, traces of blood on the front and back of his jacket. He got back on his feet and looked at who had shot him.

“Tch, a worthless mecha could do that much damage to me?” Seraph mocked. In front of him was another of E.L.I.T.E’s members, the one who had attacked Seraph stood at the front of the attack force, the third in command of the organization; Madam DeMonte.

She used a agile looking mecha that was colored a coffee brown with blue highlights. Unlike the standard mechas behind her, her mecha was simple in design. A humanoid design with only a lightweight sniper rifle on the right arm, a sword blade on the left. There were no back-mounted weapons, they instead were extra thruster for speed, not like her mecha required it having a set of rockets built into each of the legs to the mecha.

“You were the one that attacked my Biomechanical lab last night, weren’t you?!” A shrill female’s voice shouted at Seraph from the mecha’s intercom system. Seraph flicked some hair out of his eye and chuckled.

“And who is asking?” Seraph inquired.

“I am Madam DeMonte, third in command of the organization E.L.I.T.E!” She replied arrogantly.

“And I am Seraph, destroyer of your lab,” Seraph informed mockingly.

“You stupid freak! You set back all of E.L.I.T.E’s biotech research 6 months! For that you will pay you insolent child!” Madam DeMonte shouted, and continued to shout random insults at Seraph.

“Hmph, when I fire off a string of insults at least I do it with style,” Seraph muttered under his breath. “Are you done with your meaningless rambling yet?” Seraph questioned, instantly shutting up Madam DeMonte and incurring a loud growling from her.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOLTS WAITING FOR?! ATTACK ALREADY!” She finally barked, the mechas behind her jumping slightly and quickly complying. The dozen mechas began to stomp towards Seraph, their weapons arming and preparing to fire.

Seraph growled and considered to fight back, but an idea came to him. He didn’t prepare his weapons and instead leapt into the air, flapping his wings and retreating from the mechas. The pilots sneered, assuming they had scared the demon with their display of firepower and gave chase to him, stomping throughout the city and causing mass chaos in the process.

The citizens of Lutenia ran away screaming from Seraph, and more so after seeing the large black mechas chasing him down. The mecha pilots had little disregard to any other human life, or city property. The mechas breaking off into three groups, each with 4 mechas pursuing Seraph in different ways. One group chased him on the ground, firing high power ballistics at him, which Seraph had no problem in avoiding by speeding up or leaping to either side, child’s play really. By simply racing around the street erratically he also threw off the aim of the missiles and bullets.

Seraph thought to himself for a moment, there were more then 4 mechas pursuing him, what had happened to the other 8? The answer came to him soon enough, a new set of stomping metallic legs entered his head, this time from above. Seraph looked up at the sky, there obviously weren’t mechas stomping above him. Then he realized where it was coming from, the rooftops! The remaining groups of mechas had climbed onto the roofs to chase him from above, surrounding him on either side. Seraph growled, now he wasn’t so sure he could avoid all of the attacks, the way they were surrounding him made avoiding attacks nearly impossible. Moving to either side wouldn’t work with the mechas on both of his sides. He grumbled under his breath and gave his wings another flap, shooting up into the air with an immense burst of speed. The mechas picked up speed to keep up, their footsteps becoming heavier and ripping dents and cracks into the concrete street, and roofs of the buildings.

Mechas on the ground began to fill the sky with their weaponry, Seraph having to execute barrel rolls and dives to avoid them now, he was becoming sorely tempted to fight back but he knew for his plan to work he couldn’t. The mechas on either side of him stopped who were equipped with rapid fire weaponry didn’t target him and instead filled the air with their bullets to make dodging the entire mass of attacks impossible by making any piece of airspace hazardous. Seraph growled in anger and pain, his blood coming out of numerous new wounds.

“This doesn’t matter, I only need this body to last long enough to gather what I need!” Seraph hissed under his breath, another bullet piercing his body.

“If this plan doesn’t work soon this body won’t last! Come on you fools, come out!” He nearly shouted, he was starting to get angry.

* * *

Yasosume leaned against the outer wall of the shop, polishing her laser rifle, the others spread out around the area. Sonaris stood a bit a ways from Yasosume, armor formed and arms folded. Ethernial was crouched down and leaning against the wall next to Yasosume, expression bored.

“You guys ready yet?” Sonaris called out through the shop’s open door.

“Give me a second!” Tikai shouted, the sound of falling mechanical parts hitting the ground along with a female voice shouting out random profanity.

“What is taking you so long?” Yasosume demanded as another explosion appeared on the horizon. “I want to get to the random explosions and mindless destruction!” Finally Tikai emerged from the shop, carrying a large rifle in both hands.

“What’s that for?” Ethernial inquired, standing back up.

“It’s a stun cannon. If Seraph pops up again I’m going to make him spill some answers,” Tikai sneered, arming the weapon.

“Alright, lets go before anymore of this city needs to be repaired!” Sonaris grumbled. However they didn’t need to travel far, the fighting had eventually made its progress to the lakeside. The nearest street to the shop had suddenly been swarmed with E.L.I.T.E’s mechas, leaping off the roofs and joining the rest of their team on the ground, all of them firing up into the air at one bloody and battered demon.

“Hmph, looks like we won’t have to go anywhere to find this fight,” Ethernial remarked, clenching his fists together. The four fighters stood at the ready glaring down, everyone with their own personal weaponry ready. Sonaris had only one of his swords out which was in his left hand, the right hand he had formed his wolf cannon, this time without the machine gun attachment and with a singular cannon barrel. Yasosume’s laser rifle was more then it appeared to be and had broke apart, the lower part attaching to right arm, the upper portion of the weapon now sported a red beam saber that was about a meter long. Tikai had gotten down to one knee, the large weapon she had took was now resting on her right shoulder and ready to be fired against whoever was unfortunate enough to face her. Ethernial sported no visible weapons, he really didn’t need them, he was formidable enough with the dark purple energy flowing off his body.

The Mechas of E.L.I.T.E had lined up side by side, weapons all pointing forward with one unique mecha standing in front of them, of course it was Madam DeMonte’s.

Stuck in the center ground between the two was Seraph, back on the ground and his sides facing each ‘fraction’ of the war. No one spoke for a few seconds, everyone was simply taking in the situation, the scene looked like some sort of western standoff before everyone pulled out their guns and started to shoot at each other.

“Don’t get in the way, we’re not after you!” Madam DeMonte suddenly shouted, much to the surprise of the four fighters. Yasosume stared blankly at the lead mecha and scoffed.

“Wow your mecha looks like it fell into mud,” Yasosume commented, not really paying attention to what she had said. Madam DeMonte began to growl at Yasosume’s remark.

“It also looks like something that needs to go back to the junkyard!” She continued, Madam DeMonte’s patience wearing thin extremely quick.

“HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY MASTERPIECE OF A MECHA! I COULD PUMMEL YOU INTO THE GROUND WITH IT!” Madam DeMonte screeched, her voice breaking slightly. Everyone on the battlefield cringed at hearing her shriek, even the E.L.I.T.E pilots found that their commander was acting less then civilized.

“Christ, no wonder you’re a mecha pilot! A voice like that could only belong to an ugly old lady!” Yasosume grumbled, her ears pressed flat on her head. Sonaris grumbled, he was tempted to simply open fire on E.L.I.T.E or Yasosume for that matter, just to stop the one-sided insulting.

“Alright, since you aren’t here for us, what are you here for?” Sonaris interrupted, much to Yasosume’s displeasure, shooting a glare at him. Madam DeMonte paused for a moment trying to remember what she was there for and noticed Seraph laughing at her expense, no doubt. She pointed straight at the bloodied demon and began to shout once more to everyone’s dismay.

“FOR HIM! HE DESTROYED MY BIOMECHANICAL LAB LAST NIGHT AND WE’RE HERE TO REPAY HIM FOR THE FAVOR!” She screeched again, and again everyone cringed.

Seraph sneered at not only the E.L.I.T.E pilots but at the four fighters as well. He raised a hand up and motioning for both of them to attack him despite his injuries it appeared like they weren’t bothering him in the slightest. The four fighters were hesitant but E.L.I.T.E charged straight at him, rockets, lasers and bullets entering the fray. Seraph avoided the attacks with a burst of speed, heading straight at the other fraction and causing E.L.I.T.E to open fire on them as well. The fighters scattered away from the attacks before they hit, however now a free for all was breaking lose. The mecha pilots either tried to shoot at Seraph, or at the other four fighters, and for the other fraction it was either to shoot at E.L.I.T.E or in Tikai’s case, firing at Seraph.

Seraph continued to do nothing more then avoid the large shells, any bullets that hit him were of no concern, it wasn’t technically his body to use anyway. He moved in between the fighters mostly to force them to shoot at them. The fighters who had scattered themselves were having trouble to make out much in the chaos since they were battling in such a closed space.

Ethernial flew in the air sending a constant barrage of his Psychic Blast attacks since it was all that was needed against the mechas with their projectile weapons. However he didn’t notice that one mecha had targeted Ethernial with a set of four laser cannons that were mounted on its back. With a quiet hum to charge the weapons a set of four red beams streaked through the air at Ethernial, and before he realized what happened the attacks had struck him and knocked him out of the air with powerful force. Ethernial crashed into the ground roughly, struggling to get back up. He looked at the mechas that had approached him and were now rearming their weapons to fire on him again. But before they did so Seraph appeared from out of nowhere, his gauntlets had transformed to possess the same long red scythe blades as when he first fought. He flew at the nearest mecha and quickly sliced it in its center where the pilot was seated, a stream of bloody shooting out along with a flurry of sparks. Ethernial had got back to his feet to see Seraph finish off the first mecha, he didn’t ask questions to why he was doing it and formed a mass of green energy, throwing it into the air where it split into a mass of smaller beams that rained down on the last two mechas, reducing them to scrap metal in seconds. Ethernial looked around to see where Seraph went, however he appeared to have vanished entirely. Suddenly he felt a slight pluck on the back of his head, he spun around and found himself face to face with Seraph, holding a piece of his hair.

Seraph had formed himself new armor for his chest, a large red orb on the center, a simple black covering with two gold highlights going from the corners to the orb. His shoulder pads were replaced with larger ones with a gold tracing on each, a circle facing the front. He also had a set of new shoes, they were simple in design with slight mechanical appearances to them, a gold trim on the bottom. Seraph was no longer touching the ground, his shoes emitting a strange energy that kept Seraph off the ground like he was hovering. Seraph gave Ethernial one more sinister grin and then literally vanished, no doubt with the aid of his new armor to cloak him. Ethernial swiped out in front of him but didn’t hit anything, Seraph left already.

Sonaris put his hands out to the side, a mass of tiny green lights coming out of his body and shooting forward at one very unfortunate mecha. Sonaris looked at the four mechas that remained pursuing him. He raised his cannon up and began to fire blue beams from his stationary position, he felt no need to move. The mechas he fought possessed mostly machine guns and let loose a barrage of bullets at him as they skidded away from his cannon blasts. Sonaris stopped firing and put his sword out, spinning it around rapidly to knock the bullets away from him, any bullet that did strike him had little effect on his armor. Sonaris continued to fire at one mecha at a time, aiming to destroy the quadruped legs and try not to harm the actual pilots. But the pilots didn’t feel the same about Sonaris, now releasing 3 packs of pursuit missiles. The large grey pack flew around Sonaris, stopped and all began to spew countless rockets at Sonaris before he was able to get out of the way or destroy them, now being bombarded by the explosives. The mecha pilots stopped and watched the smoke clear, waiting to see what had happened to Sonaris. To their horror Sonaris charged out of the smoke at one of the mechas, sword out and simply slicing the mecha in half, legs and upper body separated from each other. Having caught the mechas off guard he quickly spun around and shot a beam at the leg of the next mecha causing it to cripple over. He then followed the attack up with a shot to each shoulder disabling the weapons of the mecha, he then followed suit with the mecha he first attacked to disable it.

“Cannon: right, sniper mode,” Sonaris said quickly, the barrel to the cannon elongating and becoming much thinner, the ‘eyes’ on the wolf head cannon glowing a soft red. A visor then formed over Sonaris’s eyes, the glass tinted red.

The other two mechas began to zigzag towards Sonaris with packs of pursuit missiles ready to launch at him again. Sonaris didn’t bother to fire and instead charged at the mecha on his right. The other mecha opened fire regardless, not using the pursuit missiles but with a beam rifle. It shot one red blast of energy at Sonaris from his side. Sonaris didn’t expect the attack and was hit, sent stumbling over to the side, his armor starting to crack slightly. The mechas took their chance and released 2 packs of pursuit missiles that quickly moved in on Sonaris to release their rockets. Sonaris quickly raised his sniper rifle up and targeted the first pack firing a small blue blast of light that destroyed it, however he wasn’t able to stop the second one in time. The rockets shot out of the pack and bombarded Sonaris, a mass of small explosions building up around him.

Sonaris’s armor began to crack more so, even if it was meant for heavy use, a bombardment of countless rockets was more then it was designed for. Sonaris pulled himself out of the dust cloud that formed around him the rockets having stopped attacking him. However he didn’t expect to see that one of the mechas was nothing more then scrap metal, and the other one that he was nearest too was being sliced to shreds by Seraph.

Sonaris paused for a moment then pointed his sniper rifle at Seraph, however he vanished into thin air before Sonaris could open fire. Sonaris looked around trying to see where he went but nothing, he was gone. Sonaris paused and waited for a moment, then leapt forward as Seraph swung his right arm blade him from the side, the attack cutting off a slight bit of his ponytail of black hair. Sonaris spun around and struck Seraph in the side of the head with the barrel to his weapon, knocking the demon away with great force. Seraph went tumbling and turning along the ground, limbs becoming entangled with his many wings.

Sonaris shoved the barrel of his rifle right against Seraph’s head while he was still recovering from the attack. Seraph glanced at the weapon and frowned, he still needed to keep the body intact for just a bit longer.

“Why did you steal those parts from that lab last night?!” Sonaris demanded, however he got no response from Seraph and pressed the weapon further against his head.

“Well?!” Sonaris demanded again, but suddenly a mecha had snuck up from behind Sonaris and fired a rocket at the two. The projectile struck Sonaris in the small of his back and sent him flying forward, and Seraph was safe from Sonaris’s attacks once again. Seraph got back to his feet, luckily he had gotten what he wanted, one black hair. Before the mecha could attack Seraph he had vanished once again, cloaked and no longer seen. Sonaris recovered from the surprise attack as best he could, dazed, dizzy and disoriented as he was Sonaris was still aware he let Seraph get away.

Yasosume threw fireball after fireball at Madam DeMonte, but her mecha simply skated past them, circling Yasosume while getting closer and closer to her.

“I knew a little girl like you would be a pathetic fighter!” Madam DeMonte taunted causing Yasosume to growl loudly, the fur on her tail standing on end. She flicked her wrists and instead of fireballs, now released two massive jets of fire at Madam DeMonte, the attack hitting her mecha and causing its systems to overheat and breakdown. Her mecha’s extra engines all began to explode and break apart, the mecha tumbling to the ground.

“Hmph, I’ve been fighting for my entire life, and I know that mechas don’t like that much heat,” Yasosume sneered, walking towards the downed mecha slowly. Madam DeMonte growled back at Yasosume, her mecha couldn’t cool off fast enough to even operate any of the joints. She was starting to panic inside of the mecha, Yasosume looked more then likely to kill her right there and then. But suddenly Yasosume was attacked by Seraph, slashing at her head. Yasosume swung her beam saber forward, it caused Seraph to spun out of the way to avoid being impaled. Seraph leapt away from Yasosume and cloaked himself once more. She smirked and flicked her wrists again, releasing flames around her, scorching the ground around her and lighting it all on fire to prevent Seraph from sneaking up on her. Yasosume couldn’t locate Seraph, and she doubted that the demon had already left the area.

“Come out demon boy! I just want to talk to you, and for once I’m not lying!” Yasosume called out over the flames. Obviously she got no response from Seraph. Suddenly she heard a faint whistling from above her, looking up it was Seraph nose-diving straight at the fox girl. She leapt up to meet him in the air and stabbed her beam saber at him, the attack cutting a gash in his right arm, however that still didn’t stop him in his task. Yasosume’s eyes widened, she expected the attack to at least repel Seraph. He threw an arm out and grabbed her by the arm, pulled her towards him and took a piece of hair from her head. Seraph sneered and then knocked her away with a powerful hit from the bottom set of wings. Yasosume landed on the ground roughly, annoyed and ready to get some revenge on the demon for striking her.

Yasosume looked up at Seraph and found herself wondering how he was still alive and fighting so fiercely. Body covered in dried blood that stained his dark blue clothing, not to mention fresh blood coming from a gash on his right arm, the blood dripping down his finger and to the ground.

Regardless, Yasosume changed her saber back into a rifle and began to fire up at Seraph. He simply smirked back at her and cloaked himself once more, gone from sight and none of Yasosume’s attacks striking anything, the demon had yet again left. However she wasn’t too worried, Seraph had become sloppy in concealing himself, his newest wound was still dripping blood on the ground leaving a slight trail for Yasosume to follow. The fox girl grinned to herself and then began to give chase, firing blasts of red energy randomly, Seraph was somewhere ahead and she was going to take him down.

Seraph was shocked to see that somehow a last had struck the ground right next to him, how was that girl still chasing him even while he was cloaked? It wouldn’t matter anyway, with the extended use of his ‘armor’ it would run out of energy soon.

Seraph reappeared, his additional armor parts leaving him in a haze of black mist leaving him to flying through the air with his wings. Yasosume smirked and threw her rifle over her back and then created two fireballs in her hands. She kicked off the ground and leapt forward at Seraph slamming one hand into the ground.

“Magma Tower!” She shouted, a pillar of flames gushing out of the ground and charging forward at Seraph. He looked over his shoulder at the attack and growled under his breath, the attack catching up with him quickly. Seraph tilted to the side and avoided the flames, however Yasosume had taken her attack’s diversion as a way to catch up to Seraph to unleash another attack of hers.

“Magma Flow!” She shouted this time, the attack catching Seraph off guard as a wave of flames launched themselves out from the ground and engulfed him before he could escape. Yasosume skidded to a stop, a thin grin on her face as she heard Seraph shout out in pain from the attack. The flames died down shortly, Seraph on his hands and knees, her attack having burnt his body thoroughly.

“Ok demon boy, stop with all of the running and start talking!” Yasosume commanded, Seraph groaned weakly and collapsed onto the ground, seemingly unconscious.

“...Crap I think I killed him...” She murmured, blinking slightly. Yasosume took a step back and eyed Seraph carefully, his body might have been motionless but she didn’t believe that he was harmless.

On the outside he was silent and unmoving, however inside he was still fighting.

“GET OUT!”

“-And it’s going to stay that way!”

Seraph’s mental war was over and he was finally back in control of his own body, at least for the time being. The first thing that greeted him was pain, an incredible amount of pain that set his nerves on fire. It took a great deal of self control to keep from letting out a scream that seemed to be bubbling up in his throat, he knew it would pass, at least he hoped it would. Seraph’s body began to move slowly, his arms twitching first and then shifting on the ground.

“Good, you’re still alive, demon boy,” a female voice suddenly said in a slightly relieved tone. “I don’t need someone yelling at me because I killed demon boy before we got him to talk,” he heard her then mutter. Seraph’s body was still in pain but he needed to at least try and gather where he was. For the time that unknown force had controlled his body he was forced to the deepest of his own mind, unaware of what was going on until that force was weakened by something. Now he had control for now, even if it probably would only last 10 minutes.

Seraph got back to his feet shakily, mouth shut tight to prevent the scream from coming out of his mouth. He looked at the girl in front of him, tall, clad in red and her arms folded, not to mention the fox ears and tail. He looked at her carefully for a moment, she was doing the same, but then Seraph turned away and began to walk away without saying word.

Yasosume blinked and then chased after Seraph.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?!” She demanded of him. Seraph looked over his shoulder at her and shook his head.

“Away. I don’t have very much time before I lose control of my body again...” Seraph explained in a pained tone, voice quiet because he didn’t want to speak louder.

“At least give me some answers!” Yasosume shouted at him. Seraph shook his head and began to leave again.

“Does the name Airaxen mean anything to you?!” She yelled. Seraph paused and thought for a moment, something was faintly coming to him, but then it fell apart like jelly. He shook his head and continued on his way.

“I don’t, the name doesn’t have any importance to me,” Seraph replied. Yasosume sighed and shook her head.

“Guess you really aren’t him,” she mumbled under her breath. Seraph heard the statement but decided to leave anyway, he wanted to ask her some questions, but he needed to do something about his current mental (not to mention physical) condition.

::If anything else, I’ll at least isolate myself so I can’t cause any harm to anyone. At least until I can rectify this problem...:: Seraph gave his wings a strong flap and shot out of sight before anyone else entered the scene. Yasosume watched him leave and shook her head.

“Damnit, what’s wrong with me...?”

* * *

The remaining E.L.I.T.E pilots, and Madam DeMonte had already retreated when the group had gathered. Tikai was disappointed because she was being preoccupied with the mechas to pursue after Seraph. Yasosume filled everyone in on the short sequence of events, they found it strange how he left so quietly compared to how he arrived.

“Well, knowing what we know about Seraph he’s probably back to maniacal bad guy by now,” Tikai said disappointed, throwing her new weapon away.

“If that’s the case,” Sonaris started. “We should find him before something else happens, I rather not have to try and settle mass chaos as well as fighting against that demon,” he muttered exasperatedly. No one argued with Sonaris and all left in different directions to find Seraph.

Ethernial stopped and looked around at his the battleground he stood on. Inactive and abandoned mechas lay scattered on the ground, the limbs and weapons to them lying somewhere nearby. Then he looked to his opposite side where more mechas lay at their final resting place, however these had been destroyed relentlessly and were now barely recognizable as a mecha; Seraph’s work.

Ethernial eyed the wreckages and saw what he was afraid of, the misty blue orbs that represented spirits of the dead, and from the way they were behaving they were angry spirits. Ethernial sighed quietly and turned away from them, he could do nothing for them, only to hope they wouldn’t become a new monster sometime in the future.

He shrugged and went back to what he was supposed to be doing, mainly looking for Seraph. Compared to all of the others he had a very distinct advantage when it came to searching for someone, being able to detect said person’s aura and follow it until he found the person. Ethernial’s eyes glazed over as he began to expand his senses to pick up on Seraph’s aura. Countless auras came to him, all of them belonging to someone, alive or dead, residing in Lutenia, but they weren’t the specific one he was looking for. Ethernial only met Seraph once but he couldn’t forget about it. The aura was familiar, but he didn’t know why since he possessed an incredibly dark aura that was nearly pitch black. Despite that it didn’t give him chills like other dark auras did, his also seemed to provide him a strange light along with the darkness.

Finally Ethernial found what he was searching for, the strange dark aura that could only belong to the demon Seraph. Ethernial blinked and shook his head, his eyes returning to their normal appearance. He then began to dash off towards the aura, however something was still bothering him.

::I’ve felt that aura sometime ago...But where did I feel it? Oh well, probably not too important,:: Ethernial reasoned and didn’t give a second thought to the matter.

* * *

Seraph tumbled about as he made his way down the still deserted streets. It had only been a few minutes since he departed and that strange force had definitely returned to try and reclaim his body as its own. But now that he was fully prepared for its return he was able to start fending it off, in return causing himself to be severely disoriented not to mention have a head splitting headache.

“You’re the intruder in my body! So you get out!”

“You like to hear yourself talk, don’t you?”

Seraph had his hands against his head, eyes shut tightly, he was using most of his energies to repel the voice in his head. He was again resorting to even causing himself physical harm by smashing his own head into a wall with great force, enough so to start breaking the wall itself.

Ethernial swiftly arrived at the scene to find Seraph trying to head butt his way into someone’s home. As if his other varies injuries weren’t bad enough he would probably cut his head apart in the process, something he really didn’t need to have happen considering his right arm was nearly cut off, and he was littered with bullet wounds. Ethernial. approached the demon slowly, unsure of whether to be afraid or start laughing.

“Hey...” Ethernial began, instantly getting Seraph’s attention. The demon spun around and opened his eyes slightly to look at the red head.

“Go away,” Seraph growled out through clenched teeth. Ethernial shook his head and approached him again.

“Look, I know you’re not a bad person, just have a few issues at the moment. I’m a psychic, a damn good one for that matter. I could help you!” Ethernial insisted. Seraph looked at Ethernial for a moment then nodded, he didn’t have anything to lose. Ethernial’s right hand began to glow purple again, he then put it over Seraph’s head, something he was doing to try and look into what was in his head.

Upon gaining insight into Seraph’s mind, Ethernial leapt away from him, a massive dark energy literally lashed out at him.

“That wasn’t cool...” Ethernial groaned, rubbing his head tentatively. Seraph let out an agonizing scream, whatever it was in his head, it had just redoubled its efforts. Ethernial tried again to peer into Seraph’s mind despite the mental attack he just received. This time as Ethernial tried he was able to get into Seraph’s mind.

Every person had a mindscape, a domain that was created from their own minds to represent them at their purest state. Ethernial had been to a few mindscapes in his time, Yasosume’s only once or twice, however he did notice that it wasn’t on fire with screaming masses surrounded by more flames, oddly enough it was rather peaceful and nice to look at, but surrounded in flames; of course, it was Yasosume, she needed fire somewhere. As Ethernial looked around Seraph’s mindscape he found it very intriguing since no one else’s mindscape came close to resembling it.

Seraph’s mind was literally split in half. On one side there was nothing but a clear blue sky, gigantic clouds, and one massive golden temple that radiated a brilliant light. If one were to fall, they would most likely fall for all of eternity in Seraph’s mindscape, there was no bottom to the sky, simply more and more sky in all ways. It looked a stereotypical view of what Heaven would look like, very, very bright. Then in the center where the two territories were divided it suddenly went to a dark night sky, no stars or anything, just black sky. Instead of clouds on this side there were massive stone slabs drifting throughout the sky giving that side of his mind a sort of dark and creepy look.

Ethernial looked at the ‘Heavens’ and there was Seraph, however his wings were angelic and his usual navy blue clothing had been turned to white giving him a much more holy appearance. In the ‘Hell’ there was another Seraph, this one wore all black and had more demonic looking wings, but overall his appearance was generally the same. The two of them were both glaring forward, Ethernial wasn’t sure why and looked in the same direction. He then saw it, an enormous black cloud with two glowing red eyes that was slowly taking over Seraph’s mindscape.

The two Seraphs shot into the air and charged straight at the dark entity. The angel Seraph put his hands together and formed a blue orb in them then flung it at the dark mass. The attack struck it, causing it to close its eyes in pain as it released a deep growl from being hit. However it didn’t hesitate to counterattack, firing out a black arm out to strike that Seraph. The dark entity’s attack struck him with great force, sending him hurtling back in a tumbling mass of wings and limbs. The demon Seraph didn’t take any time to worry about his counterpart and created two orbs of energy in his hands, creating his own black orb. He threw it at the dark creature, this attack split itself apart into masses of black javelins that exploded against the dark creature on contact. Again the attack did nothing more then annoy the creature and provoking it to fire another arm at that Seraph.

Ethernial watched the rather one-sided battle nervously, he had little ability to help in someone else’s mindscape. The dark entity quickly began to cover more and more of Seraph’s mindscape while he was still recovering. What intrigued Ethernial was the fact that Seraph had two separate minds, he would ask more if it wasn’t for the fact that the dark creature was halfway done taking over Seraph’s mindscape.

Ethernial put his hand out and released one of his Psychic Blast attacks at the ’face’ of the creature. The attack struck it head on while it was distracted, causing it to stumble back a degree only enough to stall for a little bit of time. Ethernial flew over to where the demon Seraph had landed, he was fortunate and smashed into a drifting stone instead of being sent hurtling to his doom.

“Hey, you ok?” Ethernial asked, helping him back up to his feet. The demon Seraph thanked Ethernial quickly, his hand on his right shoulder which was fading away rapidly.

“That thing is back to take over my body! We’ve been fighting that as best as we could for two days, but it’s simply too strong!” The demon Seraph explained quickly, the dark creature was already gaining back all of the ground it lost.

“Get out of here, and get away from me! When it regains control your safety will be in danger,” Seraph warned as he eyed the dark creature wearily. Ethernial shook his head but Seraph grabbed him by the shoulder with his intact arm.

“You can’t help me here. Just stop me by all means!” Seraph growled, the creature was now forming itself a new hand from its shapeless mass. Ethernial hesitated but as much as he didn’t want to he had to go, if he didn’t he himself might be attacked and literally lose his mind. Ethernial agreed and in the blink of an eye he faded out of Seraph’s mindscape.

The demon Seraph knew he was beaten, he had lost his ally and now the entity of evil was ready to finish him. The creature shot out its arm at Seraph with blinding speed. Seraph closed his eyes and waited for what was coming. The fist struck the demon and on contact literally shattered him like glass, that was that, the creature could now take over Seraph’s mindscape and his body again.

* * *

Seraph opened his eyes and looked around at where he was. A wall was next to him, it had a massive hole in it, probably something the real Seraph tried to do to help his situation. He lowered his hands from his head, look at them to see the blood all over his clothing. Seraph grinned to himself, the pain he was experiencing was exquisite, reminded him of his time in Hell. He looked around and noticed that the redhead had left and was totally out of sight, not like it mattered...Seraph unfurled his long wings and shot straight into the air, he still had what he needed and that was all that mattered. He waited to be high up over the city and out of sight to avoid any of those four fighters that would keep on annoying him. After he was sure that no one would see him he began to fly towards the lake. It was there where he had hidden himself away from the prying eyes of the world, in the old ruins that were located in the center of Lutenia’s lake. Seraph descended quickly and ran into the ruins, dropping down into the lower chamber where all of the laboratory equipment was kept.

Ever since Ethernial’s existence was discovered and he was repaired to the point of being ‘complete’ no one returned to the ruins, there was nothing left to take. However the laboratory’s equipment was still fully operational and of course its existence had long been forgotten which made Seraph’s life much easier. He had reactivated and repaired the dilapidated machines so they could do what he needed them for; synthesizing. Inside of the single capsule that was in the large circular room was a shapeless mass of tentacles, twitching slightly every once in awhile. Seraph reached into the underside of his right gauntlet and pulled out what he worked so hard to gather; 2 samples of hair, he was unable to get one from the vixen because she put up to much of a fight to do so. He reached to the top of the capsule, a small slot opening up that allowed him to put the genetic material from the samples into the capsule for it to synthesis with the rest of the material.

“This process will take a number of hours until the body is fully synthesized and ready for the final step, but that shall require another trip into that city...”

* * *

“...So you found him, and then ran?” Tikai inquired of Ethernial, who nodded sheepishly.

“Haha...Yeah...I couldn’t take him on my own! Besides...You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?” Ethernial sighed dismally, he wasn’t going to try and make up any excuses. Tikai’s mouth thinned, she appeared to be trying to think of something to shout at him, but to his surprise her face relaxed and she shook her head slowly.

“I guess you have a point. I should’ve looked harder anyway...” Tikai mumbled. They called off the searching when Ethernial returned and reported what had just happened to him. Now they had retired to the shop again, thankfully for the two mechanics it was closed for the day due to ‘special reasons’ so there was nothing that need repairs waiting for them upon their arrival.

“Well don’t worry, I can track Seraph down again with relative ease!” Ethernial reassured of everyone who sat at the table with him.

“Well we didn’t really get anything out of him, even thou that was the plan,” Sonaris pointed out solemnly.

“It wasn’t a total waste however,” Tikai began.

“What do you mean?” Yasosume asked, not exactly paying attention anymore.

“Well, Seraph only visited 3 out of the 4 of us, sorta makes me wonder why he did,” Tikai pointed out.

“I don’t know, but when I first ran into him before he left he had a piece of my hair in his hand...” Ethernial suddenly remembered. Sonaris paused in thought for a moment.

“Now that I think about it, Seraph didn’t seem too interested in attacking me and cut off part of my hair instead...” Sonaris mentioned. Yasosume shrugged putting her feet up on the table and leaning back in her chair.

“He didn’t get any of my hair, I beat him up enough to make him run away!” She gloated with a smug grin.

“Then how did he get away?” Ethernial asked, a death glare was returned by the fox girl. Sonaris mumbled something under his breath.

“Seraph is trying to build a body with the parts he stole and the genetic material he’ll get from the hair he took from us,” Sonaris suddenly stated. Tikai frowned slightly.

“That’s not good...It’s like dealing with Dimitri all over again...” She mumbled.

“And we’re short one member this time,” Yasosume added bitterly. Everyone went silent after that comment. All of the trouble they were having was one thing, but having it all after a day filled with such a bad memory didn’t help.

“Since Seraph is most likely going to create himself a minion,” Sonaris began to break the silence. “We had best stop him before he can complete his little project,” he finished, sitting up from his spot at the table.

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do to find him,” Ethernial stated before his eyes glazed over again. Everyone eyed him as he did so, anxious to find Seraph and get to him before he could finish his supposed master plan. A few minutes later and Ethernial blinked his eyes then shook his head slightly, his expression however was a bit puzzled.

“This is strange, he’s back in the city after I sensed him heading off towards the other side of the island...” Ethernial frowned slightly.

“Think you’re wrong then?” Tikai suggested. Ethernial shook his head at the comment however.

“Everyone has their own unique aura, and I know which one is Seraph’s,” Ethernial affirmed.

“Alright, so where exactly is he?” Sonaris asked.

“In the market district I believe, assuming there weren’t any major changes to Lutenia’s geography,” Ethernial answered.

“No it hasn’t,” Tikai then jumped in. “What do you think he’d be there for? No one is selling anything like weapons or parts.”

“Does it matter? He’s nearby, we had best catch him while we still can,” Yasosume declared.

* * *

Seraph slowly walked down the streets of Lutenia, looking at all of the suddenly closed shops. He also noted that even with his high tolerance to pain all of his wounds were starting to effect him.

“This body is starting to succumb to its wounds, doesn’t matter I only need it for a bit longer...” Seraph growled, while noticing his skin tone was fairly pale from blood loss, not to mention his arm wouldn’t respond anymore.

He was becoming impatient until he saw what he was looking for, not a weapon shop, not a place where he could get some first aid, it was actually a jewelry shop. Seraph clenched his left hand into a fist and then smashed it through the window of the shop, giving himself a few more cuts along his once unharmed limb. From the shop's display Seraph pulled out two simple black earrings that were designed to look like two small black dragons curled together. He pocketed them then turned to leave, but paused when he saw a glimmer of blue light come shooting at him from the side. Seraph kicked forward just barely avoiding the beam, having to fold his wings up.

“What? You couldn’t have thought something more elaborate to steal then two little earrings?” Tikai patronized, only incurring a thin smirk from Seraph. He glanced around the area and just as he expected Yasosume, Sonaris and Ethernial had approached him from different sides to try and trap him.

“Give up peacefully or we’ll have to take your head off,” Yasosume threatened, arming her rifle. Seraph ignored her, or the fact they were all approaching slowly with some sort of weapon pointing at his face. Seraph glanced around at the sky, from the mayhem he caused earlier combined with what happened the previous day he was going to count on something to occur to distract them...Seraph smirked, from the way things were looking he wasn’t worried anymore.

“I think you have more important things to worry about,” Seraph sneered, motioning up to the sky. Sonaris looked up but he saw nothing, neither did Tikai or Yasosume, however Ethernial with his connection to the supernatural saw what Seraph was talking about. Like the other day there was a mass of blue light converging above them, formed out of the spirits of the pilots who had died, and probably countless other lost souls.

“He’s right, we got another problem!” Ethernial shouted, the mass of spirits growing larger and more powerful, starting to manifest a body. Seraph’s plan worked, upon Ethernial’s announcement everyone looked away from Seraph giving him the chance to escape.

Sonaris looked back at where Seraph was standing only to find he was gone, escaped by that simple diversion. As annoyed as he was by the tactic Ethernial was right, there was something else that needed to be taken care of.

The spirits had finished gathering, now they were vulnerable having possess a living body once more. This time the spirits had formed a 10 foot tall purple body that really had no resemblance to anything on the Earth. Its body was broken into two different parts. The top half was shaped like a generic upper body, however it had strange long purple arms with two massive blue hands. Connected right above the shoulders were another set of limbs that were similar to a mantis’s set of claws only with two large blue blades. The bottom portion of its body was mostly just a large blue spike with 4 blades built around it, all pointing downwards. The two halves were held together by a strange round metal plate that nearly looked like a face, probably to make up for the lack of a real head. The beast simply floated there in the air, suspended by some unearthly force.

“This time we don’t have Seraph to do the dirty work...” Tikai muttered annoyed. The monster floated up into the air and shot its central blue spike at Yasosume. The fox girl leapt up into the air, barely avoiding the attack. Ethernial cut in then, releasing one of his psychic attacks to send the monster tumbling away. The monster recovered quickly, up righting itself and spinning around only to have Tikai greet it with two orbs of green energy in her hands. She smashed her hands into the creature’s hide, her attack exploding on contact and firing the monster back as well as ripping apart holes in its body. Finally Sonaris raised both of his arms up, two of his wolf cannons formed set into cannon mode, both weapons now with a large single silver barrel. Sonaris fired two large blasts of blue energy, the attacks striking the beast in both of its arms but they weren’t ripped off by the force of the attack.

The monster up righted itself, now that it was a safe distance away from the team of fighters, it could unleash its attacks which were only meant for long range. It placed its hands out around its body, 8 small purple flames appearing around it in a ring. It waved both of its hands forward, the flames shooting forward in a waving pattern to make them harder to avoid. The monster watched as the four of its opponents scattered away from its flame attack, it simply needed the extra time to launch another attack that required more time. The monster homed in on the nearest target from it, this was the redhead Ethernial.

The monster shot its central blue spike at Ethernial while he was still distracted. The spike split up into a ‘claw’ and grabbed Ethernial around by the torso. Ethernial tried to break free but the beast had a firm grip on him, and then pulled Ethernial back to it. The four large blades around the blue spike of the monster twitched slightly, Ethernial knew what was about to happen next and before he could break free the attack began. The blades sliced apart Ethernial’s suit with ease, flecks of his skin flying off along with small pieces of blue vines that also made up his inner workings as did the other hybrids. Sonaris jumped into action soon after the attack started, striking the beast from behind with two mighty swings of his swords causing the monster to stop its attack and relinquish Ethernial from its grip.

Ethernial hit the ground sliced apart, battered and bruised, not to mention in a trance thanks to the blades having venom on their tips. Tikai growled her anger at the sight and was about to launch her counterattack, but was beaten to it by the fact a red blur shot right past her. Yasosume had ditched her laser rifle and charged head on at the monster, her hands closed into fists and engulfed in large fireballs. She tackled the monster away from the others. Yasosume kicked off the monster, landed on the ground and leapt forward again aiming for the metal head in the center of the body. She raised her left hand into the air and slammed it right into the ‘face’ with a thunderous crash. Yasosume paused for a moment as the monster fell back from the attack, some of its organs coming out of the holes Tikai’s attack had blasted into it. Yasosume then launched into an insane flurry of vicious flaming punches, shredding through its body in the blink of an eye. Yasosume stopped her attack for a moment, the flames around her right fist intensifying before she slammed it into the metallic ‘face’ shattering it into shards. The monster collapsed in on itself, the purple body breaking apart into the spirits that it was made up of.

Yasosume’s fists stopped emitting flames, her anger fading away. She went over and retrieved her laser rifle before going over to Ethernial and picking him up, putting one of his arms around her neck.

“We had better get him to Maria. He was probably poisoned by that monster’s attack,” Tikai suggested.

“The only problem is now Ethernial can’t locate where Seraph went...” Sonaris mumbled, however that simple remark set Yasosume off on another spur of anger.

“IS THAT ALL YOU GIVE A DAMN ABOUT?! FINDING THAT STUPID DEMON BOY AND NOT THE WELL BEING OF ETHERNIAL?!” She roared, Sonaris taking a step back out of sheer shock.

“I-I’m sorry?” Sonaris stuttered out. Yasosume calmed down again and growled away the rest of her frustration.

“I’m going to find the hospital or something, see if someone there can do anything about this,” Yasosume muttered back before leaving quickly.

“Since we’re short one psychic how are we going to find Seraph?” Tikai questioned, Sonaris only offering a shrug in return.

“We know what Seraph is most likely going to do, even if the earrings are strange. So I suppose we should go back to old fashioned science,” Sonaris stated, folding his arms together and turning to head back to the shop.

“Again I wonder why life just suddenly decides to get stressful...” Tikai grumbled before running after Sonaris.

* * *

“Alright, it’s been 5 hours, we’ve visited countless warehouses and old labs, and Seraph wasn’t in ANY of them!” Tikai nearly growled, her fatigue showing.

“I know, I’m starting to get annoyed myself. But at least we know one thing, and that’s Seraph isn’t anywhere in Lutenia,” Sonaris pointed out grudgingly, his usual optimizing was worn out by then.

Night had fallen and not only was Yasosume and Ethernial still out of commission, but they still wouldn’t have anywhere to go having not found Seraph.

“Unless Seraph has built himself a lab deep underground in less then an hour, or have it flying over the clouds this whole time, we’re out of ideas,” Tikai concluded. The two stopped walking, stopping at the lakeside, watching the moon’s reflection off of the water’s surface. Sonaris eyed the lake carefully then a thought occurred to him.

“Tikai,” Sonaris began. “Do you remember when we first went out on this lake?” He suddenly inquired. Tikai blinked and thought for a moment.

“Yeah, it was to visit the ruins on the lake. In there we found...A lab...” Tikai realized.

“Those ruins used to be Dimitri’s old lab, and if Ethernial survived, then I bet all of the equipment did too,” Sonaris leapt off the ground and went straight for the ruins on the lake, never able to forget its location because of the memories it brought back.

“Hey, Sonaris...” Tikai asked, Sonaris giving her a sideways glance.

“What is it?”

“Yasosume talked to me last night, she mentioned that Seraph used an attack that Airaxen once used when he was still alive. And with all of those lost souls just making bodies for themselves...” Tikai trailed off, unsure of where she was going with that particular thought.

“Just don’t let those kinds of thoughts distract you from what we might have to do,” Sonaris declared flatly.

“Ok, ok...” Tikai muttered back, trying her best to put those thoughts off to the back of her mind, but it didn’t work so well.

::Airaxen...Could it really be you...?::

* * *

Seraph was shakily carving a small set of intricate runic markings into the second of the two earrings, setting the stage up for a summoning. It was a good thing he was at the very final stage, the body he had stolen was nearing its limit.

::Hmph, such a weak little body...How pathetic...:: Seraph/Dimitri mused silently. After finishing the final stroke to the runic word he was carving into the small black earring he grinned sinisterly.

The synthesized body was complete, using genetic material belonging to Tikai, Sonaris, Ethernial and of course himself since he couldn’t get a piece of hair from the female girl, Yasosume. The body was barely complete, the body’s basic structure was there, but the skin was colored a sickly grey, the skin was peeling off in most places. The face was the most disturbing feature however, having the proportions of a male’s face, the eye’s of a female’s and the hair was simply a dull colored rainbow. It wasn’t an aesthetically pleasing body, but it was all that was needed, after all the new ‘inhabitants’ were going to have more then enough inherit abilities to turn it into a killing machine.

However the body had no ‘soul’ to it, it was an empty shell, Seraph mused. The earrings he had stolen from the marketplace were part of a ritual to remedy that problem. The ritual was simple, to summon the spirits to the earrings and bind their souls to them, then attach the simple piece of jewelry to the body where the souls will have control over it. By carving the name of the spirit into each earring the spirit would be ‘called’ to it, and with only the task of attaching the earrings to the new body, there was nothing left to stop the plan from completing itself.

Seraph decided to make haste, lest some twist of fate come upon him before he could finish, and he wasn’t going to let that happen. But at that instant he heard loud footsteps of what was undoubtedly the ‘heroes’. He quickly jammed the earrings to both of the ears of the mutant body, the runic carvings on each glowing red. With Dimitri’s soul being called to the body from the depths of Hell, along with Satan it was time to pull all of himself together, not like Seraph was needed anymore.

The sight that greeted the duo confused them greatly. Seraph had attached something to the head of the strange mutated body that lay on a table. Right after doing so Seraph collapsed to his knees and now a small red light was being emitted from the body, the only source of light in the entire room. Before Sonaris could say anything he stopped when seeing something strange quickly shoot through the room. He barely caught the movement, but he saw something shoot out from under the ground, actually two some things.

“Did you just see that, Tikai?” Sonaris asked, pulling out both of his katana swords. She nodded quickly, her fists clenching together.

“Two blue lights, like souls, but from the ground?” Tikai questioned, but then noticed something else, another ‘soul’ had came out from Seraph’s body. It was much smaller then normal souls, but she couldn’t study its appearance for very long since it shot into the clammy grey-blue body on the table.

Seraph’s body twitched slightly. His head felt light but unburdened, the severe ringing in his ears had left, and most importantly he was himself again and that other voice had finally left. But without the voice in his mind it only brought back the sheer amount of pain he was experiencing from all of his injuries. But despite that he was glad for the simple reason that after having spent his entire day ‘banished’ from his mind he could simply enjoy the fact of being himself, at least until another more urgent matter came.

Seraph stood up shakily trying his best to recollect himself. When his vision cleared up he found himself standing right next to a barely complete body, and across the room from him was a man in dark blue armor, and next to him was that girl, Tikai. She quickly went over to Seraph and pulled him away from the table as it began to show signs of movement.

“Tikai, what are you doing?!” Sonaris demanded as he raced over to move in-between the two, leaving Seraph to hold himself up on his own.

“Just trust me, besides I think we all should be far away from whatever that thing on the table is...” Tikai pointed out.

The pale hands began to twitch and after a few seconds the hands were helping the rest of the body sit up on the table. The mutant stood up on both of its two grotesque legs, and moved its right hand out to the side, looking it over closely and inspecting it. The mutant’s hair had also taken a strange new change, on each side of the head a portion of the hair lifted up and looked nearly like horns.

“Well,” the mutant began in a smooth icy voice that made Seraph’s look warm and friendly. “This body is not a work of art, but it doesn’t matter, I’m finally back on the Earth with a living body!” Seraph got back onto his two feet, the movement catching the attention of the mutant. His hair dropped back down for some reason and began to speak again:

“And all of that is thanks to my favorite ignorant puppet!” This time the mutant spoke in a deep and dark voice that brought back countless bad memories for Sonaris.

“It couldn’t be...Dimitri?!” Sonaris exclaimed, face struck with horror. The mutant laughed deeply, it was a laugh that hadn’t entered Sonaris’s ears for so long, he never thought he’d have to hear it again but he was then, the same evil laughter that meant so much pain for all that heard it was back.

“Dimitri?! But you’re dead!” Tikai shouted angrily, fists trembling and the armor on her hands starting to get damaged from being squeezed so tightly.

“Yes, I was! Just about as dead as Airaxen is, no I’m sorry, I mean Seraph,” Dimitri finished off with a chuckle or two. The mutant’s hair then turned back into a set of horns, and once again the ‘person’ they were talking with changed and the smooth icy voice began again.

“That would be my doing. Allow me to introduce myself, I’m the one you know as Satan, the one from down in Hell,” he said with a thin smile, with his ever so casual greetings.

“S-Satan?! But that’s...” Tikai stuttered before shooting her glance at Seraph who was still pulling himself together mentally.

“I’m having some problems with angels and with my domain in danger I needed to do something about it. I found Airaxen and offered him a deal, a new body that he could keep if he could rid me of those angels, I only took his memories to give him that body...” He explained. “However with the problem of Dimitri trying to use my minion Seraph, I was going to throw him into an eternal damnation much worse then anything imaginable. But with the promise of being able to take care of the job myself...Well, a new body, a second chance for the damned, and I can rid myself of those angels now. But first...” Satan (Dimitri?)’s hair went back down, now it was Dimitri's turn to talk.

“I have to get rid of a few pests,” Dimitri sneered. Tikai and Sonaris stood at the ready, Seraph behind them and still in a daze. Dimitri didn’t move immediately, but then brought his right hand up with one simple and quick motion, and shockingly knocking one of the two earrings right off; Dimitri had just ‘ejected’ Satan from the body! Dimitri laughed quietly and stepped on the earring, crushing it into dust.

“Without the earring attached to the body, poor old Satan was forced out and stuck going back to Hell,” Dimitri explained, still the one to enjoy hearing himself talk.

“Still with all of your planning and scheming?!” Sonaris growled. Dimitri laughed again and shrugged casually.

“Does it matter? I have what I wanted, a body for my own use, even if I had to sever the link I had with Airaxen it was worth the sacrifice,” Dimitri chuckled again, and put his hands out to the side.

“As much as I love to talk, I think I should get down to business! My revenge on all of you who played a hand in sending me to my premature burial!” Dimitri laughed while putting his hands out to the side, masses of dark matter began to fly in through the walls, Dimitri was calling upon his ‘old friend’.

Just like the time a decade ago, Dimitri was ascending to his ultimate form and this time his opponent was different.

“After the battle with Airaxen in Destiny’s Gate the warriors of Darkness and Destiny having being defeated you would assume that it would be gone. But the Darkness that exists in all of humanity can never be destroyed! And I’m still tied to all Darkness. So now I have all the power of evil, greed, hatred at my beck and call!” Dimitri gloated, his body becoming covered by dark matter leaving only his eyes which were once again red like blood. Over his chest opened a single large eye that was creeping Tikai out.

“It took everything and more for Airaxen to have beaten me, and right now Seraph is barely able to stand let alone fight! What hope do you have to kill me?!” Dimitri laughed at the misfortune of the three fighters in front of him. From his back a countless number of black tentacles shot out and right through the roof of the runic lab, destroying its ceiling and creating a hole to the surface. The tentacles merged together into the shape of the upper body to a woman, except 3 times larger then any normal person could be. The Darkness’s body was covered by nothing but strange black metallic plates that gave it a strange mechanical appearance. On her shoulders she had an eyeball that would blink occasionally, but mostly just stared up at the sky. Her face was the most disturbing part of her however. Her eyes were closed shut, but on her forehead she had an eye that was going vertically and staring forward eerily. And finally in her mouth was yet another eyeball that was only visible if she opened her mouth for some strange reason.

“Look upon me. See what I am now, a creature that God never let exist, something that wasn’t meant to draw breath, look upon the face of the apocalypse for I am the Neverborn!” Dimitri proclaimed, his voice echoing throughout the entire lake.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever! I’m going to send you straight back to Hell!” Tikai shouted, two masses of green energy forming in her hands. Dimitri lifted off the ground, out of the ruins and back to the surface of the lake so he would have more room for a battlefield. Sonaris combined his two swords together, the weapon becoming a large red hilt that had in it a 10 foot long blade of white energy.

Tikai didn’t throw the orbs of energy at Dimitri, instead she fired off two thin green beams straight at Dimitri, Sonaris brought the blade straight up into the air and then right back down to fire the blade straight up at Dimitri. He responded to the attack by raising his left hand up, a clear wall of energy forming that wrapped around the attacks and combined them together into one large orb of energy that traveled up to the right fist of the Darkness.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen...” Tikai murmured under her breath, taking to the air. Sonaris’s weapon broke apart back into his two swords, he shot a glance to Seraph who was leaning against the wall, barely able to stand and possibly not even fully aware of what was going on.

::If that’s you in there, Airaxen...I hope you decide to help out...:: Sonaris thought before he also shot into the air. Seraph’s mind had been dulled by the pain, but he was now once again lost in his own mind, his head overrun by confusing thoughts.

::I’m...Airaxen...? The one Tikai had told me about...? Is that all I am? Memories of the dead? I thought I would be set free when I learned my past, but now I only feel like I’ve become limited...So then...Who am I?:: Seraph straightened up, he was getting used to the injuries he had. He then looked up through the roof of the ruins, there he watched as Dimitri’s Neverborn form combated against Tikai and Sonaris, and they were losing, badly. Dimitri himself could stand back and whip his black tentacle like arms around to give the duo a serious case of whiplash. The Darkness above him gave support with a barrage of missiles from her eyeless sockets, or unleash a devastating physical assault on those who got to close to Dimitri.

::Airaxen or not...I’m still have to fight against that thing. I helped create it, I must destroy it!:: Seraph unfolded his 6 wings and shot up into the air, his body having had the time to regenerate slightly.

Tikai’s armor had sustained heavy damage, the metal plates starting to break off, not to mention she was starting to get worn down quickly. Sonaris on the other hand was in slightly better shape since his armor was meant to withstand such abuse, on both of his arms he had a cannon at the ready, trying to at least make a dent in the Neverborn.

“You two are nothing compared to me! Give up and I’ll kill you painlessly!” Dimitri taunted once again.

“Do you ever shut up?!” Tikai hissed, however that only incurred a dark laugh from Dimitri.

“Only when I want to enjoy your anguished screams,” Dimitri explained casually.

“I feel sorry for Airaxen, he had to listen to you constantly!” Sonaris cut in as he literally cut right in with his swords, striking at the Darkness instead of Dimitri. She didn’t see the attack soon enough and as Sonaris had hoped, he had cut two gashes right across her head, each one going across one of her closed eyes. Dimitri narrowed his eyes, a blast of red energy firing out of the eye on his chest, the attack clipping Sonaris in his left arm, shattering the part of armor on contact. He spun around in the air, now Tikai and himself were on either side of the Neverborn, it was something they hoped that would get them an advantage if anything else.

“Just give up!” Dimitri laughed again, now he was just being plain arrogant. Before Dimitri attacked however, Seraph had joined the battle, quietly lifting up into the air to be face to face with Dimitri’s Neverborn form.

“Still alive, Airaxen?” Dimitri mused quietly, now totally ignoring the other two combatants. Seraph growled under his breath, he put his right hand out to the side, a black flame firing out of it and turning into a pole. Seraph raised his hand up with the new weapon formed in it. Instead of the swords Seraph used a double bladed lance that was as long as he was tall. The pole was colored black, on the top end was a long hooked blade that was short and curved to backwards slightly with 3 gold spikes pointing out of it. The blade had a cold trim running along the back of it, two green gems embedded on it. The blade attached to the bottom was much longer and more like a sword’s blade. Being like the blade to the Marimatsu but only silver and with a strange golden flame design on either side with a green gem on the base.

Seraph twirled the blade around and pointed the hooked blade at Dimitri.

“My name is SERAPH!” He roared, shooting forward at him with the same incredible speed as he demonstrated in the past.

Tikai pulled back and put her hands together, along her right shoulder the grid schematic of a massive cannon forming slowly.

“Sonaris, give me some cover here. I have a new weapon that needs some time to charge, until then try and keep Dimitri away if he decides he wants to kill us again,” Tikai instructed, Sonaris drifting in front of her with both of his cannons ready. However he wasn’t too worried, knowing Dimitri he’d go after Seraph (Airaxen?) until he had killed him.

The Darkness attacked Seraph first, unleashing an insane flurry of punches at him with supernatural speed that she could call upon for one attack. Seraph spun out of the way, the punches hitting nothing but thin air leaving Dimitri vulnerable, or so he thought. Dimitri whipped his tentacle like arm straight at Seraph and smashed him across the face. Seraph tumbled through the air for a second or two, but simply straightened his wings out to catch himself before he was too disoriented.

“I’m amazed you even withstood that attack considering your condition, Air-Seraph,” Dimitri mocked. Seraph spat out some blood that accumulated in his mouth and stared back at Dimitri blankly.

“When you used my body you could never gain its full power because you don’t have unison of light and dark in your soul, just the dark. I however do, and that leaves me able to use all of the power I could possibly possess! So let me show you the light!” Seraph spun his lance around and pointed the sword blade at Dimitri.

“Dark-Light!” Seraph shouted, a beam of white energy shooting out at the Neverborn, the beam having an aura of black flames surrounding it. Dimitri moved off to the side to avoid the beam, but this gave Seraph his window of opportunity to attack. He got close enough to Dimitri to be within striking range and then thrust the blade straight forward, slicing a gash in the eye on Dimitri’s chest. The attack caused Dimitri to reel back in pain, but Seraph wasn’t done yet. He then spun the blade around and slashed Dimitri’s right arm causing it to nearly become severed. Seraph then pulled back and spun the lance around again and began to let loose a flurry of stabs from his weapon that were slicing Dimitri’s body apart some more. He looked to the side and noticed that the Darkness was in pain, but she wasn’t going to stand by idly and was moving to attack from behind. Seraph spun around his weapon again, the hooked blade now on top again.

“Dark-Light!” Seraph shouted again, a ball of white energy forming at the tip and suddenly pulsating. As doing so waves of white energy with black trails on them shot out, acting like sword blades. And at such close range Dimitri and the Darkness were going to be cut apart, no questions asked. The waves shot out constantly, each one dividing the two entities of Darkness into pieces until a total of 5 waves were emitted. Dimitri’s Neverborn form had been sliced into so many pieces he wondered if he was still alive, but knowing Dimitri it would take more then cutting him up to kill him. Seraph flapped his wings and shot away before he ‘pulled himself together’. All of the pieces of Dimitri’s Neverborn form easily reconnected, Dimitri doing nothing more then laughing even if he was minced.

“You’re strong, but-” Dimitri stopped mid-sentence, Seraph had suddenly shot out of the way and from behind him a 5 foot wide beam of blue energy caught him off guard and ripped right through the head of the Darkness, causing it to splatter into thousands of tiny black specs.

“You still talk too much, Dimitri,” Tikai shouted at him, lowering her weapon and getting an approving grin from Sonaris.

“You’re not as powerful as you think you are, Dimitri!” Sonaris shouted. “We’ve been fighting all these years and only got stronger. But it looks like you let yourself go!” Sonaris’s taunting had worn away Dimitri's last nerve. He was playing with them before, now he was about to start taking things seriously.

The decapitated entity quickly grew back its head, however now she looked somewhat angry instead of being blank, that couldn’t mean anything good for the fighters. She tilted her head back and then opened her mouth, a hideous screeching coming out of it. The clouds filling the night sky began to part, opening up to allow tremendous blasts of white light through, ripping through the waters below and targeting Tikai and Sonaris.

They both scattered away from the attacks, the Darkness lunging forward at them like some sort of beast. Dimitri on the other hand went after Seraph from his stationary position. Dimitri shot both of his hands down into the surface of the water, then two tentacles shot up from under Seraph, grabbing him by both legs. The tentacles spun him around in the air and then held him for a moment. Dimitri eyed the sky carefully, waiting for another beam to rain down from the sky and then flung Seraph straight into it. This all happened so quickly the demon was only aware of what was happening after he hit the beam and was caught in its blast.

The Darkness kept trying to grab either Tikai or Sonaris but to no avail. Tikai was to fast to catch and Sonaris could slice her hand up before it got to close. The Darkness stopped her singing and chasing the two for that matter, retreating back to rest in the air above Dimitri. Dimitri narrowed his eyes at Tikai and Sonaris, then his face contorted into a smirk.

“Well, it looks like that pathetic Airaxen, oh I’m sorry, Seraph overestimated his strength,” Dimitri mused, he was back in his over talkative mood again.

“...Look out behind you,” Tikai suddenly said, pointing behind him. Dimitri stared at her blankly, unsure if she was mocking him or serious about it.

“Do you expect me to believe such a desperate-” Dimitri was cut off when a massive blast of white lights struck him from behind. He was hit with such force that he was knocked right out of the air and into the water with a mighty splash.

“That’s nearly comical...” Sonaris commented, a thin smirk on his face. Tikai nodded her agreement and looked at the attacker expecting it to be a worn and battered Seraph, but it wasn’t...?

The new attacker hovered in the air before them, a look of tranquility on his rather intriguing face. The man had on a large red cape that flowed freely in the air. Next to them he had two massive white feathered wings that were flapping back and forth gently. The man had on a elegant suit of gold armor with silver highlights, nothing elaborate in design to the armor, it was simply meant to serve a purpose. But the most noticeable feature of the man was his face.

His face was that of an older male, about late 20s and early 30s. He had very long silver hair that went down his face on either side, but not before they would ‘peak’ up into points on each side. But more strange was he had eyes like Airaxen’s, the right eye was a bright sapphire blue, the left was a deep crimson red.

“Vile demon, I will bestow God’s judgment upon you,” the man spoke in a low misty voice, just like someone Tikai and Sonaris knew from before...The ‘angel’ flapped his wings and soared towards Dimitri, face stoic and peaceful while his hands were up with white flames covering them in a most unmerciful manner. However he suddenly stopped when he got a closer look at Dimitri, and instantly lowered his arms, wings relaxing and simply drifting down to him.

“It...Is you...Our new messiah...” The man uttered in awe. Dimitri stood down his weapons and looked the angel over carefully.

“Oh? Is that so...” Dimitri mused, a thin smirk forming on a nonexistent mouth.

“Please come with me, and don’t resist. I will still defend myself, messiah or not...” The man finished and then flapped his wings, shooting into the air.