::Where am I...?:: A very dazed Seraph wondered curiously. He only last remembered being hurtled into a blaze of light and experiencing a horribly powerful pain coursing through his body before passing out. But now he was lying on a bed, in a room that was littered with articles of clothing and mechanical parts spread out, a rather messy room.

Seraph woke up a few minutes ago, finding that all of his injuries were bandaged up, but now he found his body to be sore. So he simply lay there, staring up at the rather plain looking ceiling. But he didn’t need to wait too long, the doorknob was beginning to be turned, someone was checking up on him. Little to his surprise it was the girl Tikai who came through the door, he assumed it was her room as well, he seemed to have the tendency to run into that girl very often.

She noticed that Seraph’s eyes were open and he was awake, a broad smile appearing on her face.

“I was starting to wonder when you’d wake up, Airaxen. Or should I call you Seraph now?” Tikai said cheerfully, perhaps a bit too cheery for Seraph to stomach. He simply lay there, watching the ceiling as Tikai began to hurry and start picking up all of the things around the room to try and tidy it up for her guest.

“I was starting to get worried, you were unconscious for such a long time now,” Tikai explained in a hurried tone, shoving all of the things she picked up into a closet, closing it quickly before anything could fall out. She chuckled nervously and then turned to look at Seraph who seemed uninterested by all of it.

“So how are you feeling, Airaxen?” Tikai asked, the mentioning of that name however caused Seraph to flinch slightly.

“I’m sore, but I’ll be fine. Without needing to waste my energy on keeping my body in my possession it can be put back into healing my injuries,” Seraph responded blankly. Tikai nodded and walked over to the bed, looking down at Seraph who raised an eyebrow at her peculiar behavior. She smiled back and straightened up, leaving him puzzled more so.

“Why are you acting so strangely?” Seraph suddenly asked. Tikai paused and looked at him for a moment then shrugged.

“I’m so happy to see you! I mean, I always hoped you’d come back somehow one day, I held to that dream for so long and you’re back, Airaxen!” Tikai expressed, overjoyed and still ecstatic from the recent events despite Dimitri’s return to the living realm.

“And I’m positive it’s you! According to Ethernial it would be the only logical explanation for how you were under mind control since you were tied to Dimitri, so I know you’re finally back, Airaxen! Even if you don’t remember everything that’s ok,” Tikai paused and went back over to the bedside, sitting down on it, looking down at Seraph affectionately. Seraph on the other hand didn’t return her happy expression.

“While you’re getting healed we can catch up! It’s been a decade since then and a lot has changed! Oh I’ve missed talking to you so badly!” Tikai smiled again and then began to lean in towards him. Seraph’s face went red as he realized what she had in mind and quickly turned his head to the side, the two now just hitting heads.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like some peace and quiet. I’ve had a hectic few days...” Seraph mumbled. Tikai blinked and nodded. She stood up and then turned to leave.

“If you need anything don’t mind asking, everyone here will be more then happy to help you get oriented again,” Tikai informed before leaving Seraph to his thoughts.

“Well?”

“No.”

“I-We’re not going back to them.”

“I know the past, but I don’t have to live it.”

* * *

Sonaris had just finished up working on someone’s artificial arm, it seemed to have stopped responding for some reason. The man thanked him, grateful to have both his arms working again and then paid Sonaris for his services before leaving. Sonaris looked around the floor of the shop, he had to work all morning to clear it all out, there was a mass of customers with damaged good from the previous days of having parts of the city attacked. Tikai then walked down the stairs to join him on the ground floor, a far away look on her face.

“I take it Seraph woke up?” Sonaris inquired while rubbing his hands clean with a dirtied old cloth.

“Uh, yeah!” She replied quickly, snapping out of the daze.

“So how is he?” Sonaris asked, throwing the cloth away since it couldn’t be used anymore.

“Quiet, brooding, shy, generally unhappy with everything,” Tikai began listing, pausing just to make sure she got everything.

“So in other words,” Sonaris interrupted. “He’s perfectly fine.”

“Yup,” Tikai agreed. “It’s so great to have him back! I don’t know if this is all a dream or not, just don’t wake me up if it is,” she said airily. Sonaris went over and shoved her onto the ground, Tikai leaping back up and glaring at him.

“Looks like you’re not dreaming,” Sonaris said before she could yell at him. Tikai blinked and laughed quietly.

“Ok, I’ll let that one slide,” Tikai mumbled back at him. She looked around and then leaned against the closest wall.

“Didn’t leave any work for me? How am I supposed to get paid?” Tikai teased. Sonaris snorted and shook his head.

“Simple, you don’t,” Sonaris replied before heading upstairs, only to meet Seraph who was slowly walking down them.

“You should be resting,” Sonaris blandly said. Seraph brushed past him without saying word, however was stopped by Tikai at the bottom of the stairs.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Tikai asked in a low voice.

“For a walk,” Seraph growled back. Tikai stared at his face, like always it was stoic, however now she could make her face have the exact same scowl.

“You need to let your body rest and heal, not going out for a walk,” Tikai said, with more authority.

“I said I’m going for a-” Seraph was cut off by Tikai who had shoved him up against the wall.

“And I said you’re going to rest, before I give you a reason to be resting!” Tikai growled, Seraph blinked and stared at her blankly, he was stunned, even...scared?

“Hell hath no fury, like a woman’s scorn,” Sonaris suddenly jumped in, Seraph looking at the man from the corner of his eye. Then directed his gaze back at the blond who currently had her hand on his shoulder, holding him up to the wall. Seraph looked back at Sonaris and raised an eyebrow.

“I do think she is serious,” Sonaris replied to the silent question. Seraph grunted his annoyance and looked back at Tikai, she was still giving him the death glare.

“Fine! I’ll stay in that bed,” Seraph finally hissed at her. Tikai smirked and loosened her grip on his shoulder.

“I knew you’d see it my way, now get to bed!”

* * *

Seraph growled under his breath angrily. He was being put under house arrest! And it wasn’t even his house! Worse yet was she was guarding the door to make sure he couldn’t escape.

::This is an outrage! I’m not staying here! I need a way out! But how...:: Seraph contemplated then took note of the window across the room from him.

::Yes of course, that’s so simple it couldn’t fail!::

* * *

“Are you alright, Ethernial?” Yasosume asked, helping the other redhead maintain his balance.

“Yeah, just dizzy, that’s all,” Ethernial replied in a shaky tone. He paused for a moment then looked over at Yasosume. She was looking back, for one of the few times he could remember she was showing some signs of worry.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine! All of the poison is out of my system, just need some time to recover from the shock!” Ethernial reassured, Yasosume sighed and then walked ahead of him. “Are you still worried? About what happened last year?” Ethernial suddenly asked, the fox girl ceasing all movements instantly.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to...” Ethernial quickly began, waving his hands around. Yasosume turned back around, for the second time he could remember, she looked sad, truly sad.

“Everyone around me dies...” Yasosume muttered under her breath. She looked at Ethernial and turned away, shoving her hands into her pockets. Ethernial frowned and walked over to her.

“It’s not your fault, it-” Yasosume put her hand up to show she didn’t want to listen to anymore.

“First my parents, then it was the albino, and then it was Grant...You better get away, you’re going to be next, Ethernial,” she laughed half heartedly. Ethernial shook his head and shrugged.

“I’m not going to die, trust me, I know it’ll take a lot to get rid of me!” Ethernial cheered, Yasosume turned back around and put her hands on his shoulders firmly.

“You better not! You’re the only person I have left in the world, and if you die on me I swear I’ll kill myself! I don’t want to be alone again...” She trailed off and then let go of Ethernial, turning back around and starting to walk ahead.

“Is that why you couldn’t go after Seraph? Because you knew it was Airaxen?” Ethernial asked, the fox girl paused and nodded her head.

“It was a reminder of everything I lost,” Yasosume whispered.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m still around!” Ethernial reassured, jogging up to her. “Besides, if you can’t move on from the bad memories of the past then you can never enjoy the future. Well, that’s just my advice at least,” Ethernial suggested, offering her a weak smile. Yasosume sighed and kept on walking along. Silence followed the conversation for awhile, they were heading back to Sonaris’s shop after leaving the hospital early in the morning.

“What the...?” Ethernial stopped and pointed at the side of the shop.

“Oh this is priceless...” Yasosume murmured, her demeanor suddenly improving. Seraph was slowly and cautiously climbing out of a second story window, and he wasn’t enjoying it one bit. Ethernial looked over at Yasosume who was grinning her trademark sinister smirk.

“SO!” Yasosume shouted, startling the seraphic demon. “WHY ARE YOU CLIMBING OUT OF THE WINDOW, SERAPH?” She shouted louder, Seraph looked around franticly and decided to leap out of the window regardless of whatever noise he’d make. Seraph shot at the two and slapped his hand over Yasosume’s mouth, shooting a glance over his shoulder.

“Are you insane?!” Seraph growled at the fox girl who smiled at him and then bit down on his hand. Seraph withdrew it quickly, glaring at Yasosume now.

“Ah don’t take it so personally, Seraph,” Ethernial intervened. “It’s just how she shows she likes you! Or something like that,” Ethernial explained with a nod of his head. Seraph grumbled under his breath, a sudden memory that had came back to him suggested that.

“Something tells me you’re right. I can recall this woman attacking me, and later on I seem to have ended up in her embrace somehow,” Seraph muttered, Yasosume tensing up severely and letting out a strangled squeak.

“So why were you climbing out of the window, Seraph?” Ethernial quickly said to change the subject.

“That damnable woman Tikai was keeping me in bed until I was fully healed, which I am now! Besides,” Seraph trailed off and shook his head. “I’m not staying for that matter.”

“What? Why not?” Yasosume suddenly asked after finding her voice again. Seraph eyed the two over and then shook his head.

“I have reasons,” was his response. However Yasosume wasn’t the type to have her questions left unanswered.

“Oh yeah? I have a loud voice,” she threatened. Seraph’s right eye twitched slightly, the cold features of his face were starting to thaw out and be tempted into turning into a scowl. However he decided there was no point to it and sighed in defeat.

“I’m going for a walk, you two can come along,” Seraph replied, turning around and walking away, his ‘trench coat’ flapping silently behind him.

“So why do you want to leave?” Ethernial inquired of the demon who was walking in front of them. He paused, his wings twitching slightly. But before Seraph could speak someone much louder and more commanding beat him to it, and to their surprise it wasn’t Tikai shouting angrily at them, it was the ‘angel’ from the previous night.

“All of you humans, heed my call,” he called out solemnly, his voice booming out around the entire city. The citizens of Lutenia stopped and looked up to the sky, the angel simply staying in the air with his massive wings spread out for all to see.

“I am the angel Gabriel, I have descended from the Heavens to guide all of you poor lost souls,” Gabriel explained. Seraph narrowed his eyes at the angel, his wings unfurling and hands tensing up.

“It looks like we have a job to attend to...”

By then a crowd had gathered around the streets, Seraph, Ethernial and Yasosume all concealed in by the mass of faces.

“I know of all of your pain and sorrow, and I have come to unite all of you. My gospel has spread throughout your world, and now it is time for your ears to hear it, to learn it, to live by it,” Gabriel’s speech was creating an loud buzz around the city, everyone whispering among themselves. Tikai and Sonaris also pushed their way through the crowd, having spotted the others in the mass.

“How did I know you wouldn’t be resting, Airaxen?” Tikai teased, however Seraph didn’t respond or look at her for that matter.

“But to bring about unity of your people I have enlisted a great savior to serve. When I came from the Heavens I sought for his body, but I could not find it, however I found a portion of it from which countless spirits created this body in his image which I now inhabit. So now I present to you your messiah, Airaxen,” Gabriel finally finished, waving his hand to signal for the ‘messiah’ to appear.

“What?!” Sonaris nearly shouted, but was able to stop himself. The four fighters, and a certain demon knew this angel was full of hot air! However he wasn’t just some insane hybrid with delusions of divine powers, because someone-something emerged from the sky, it’s giant shape blocking out the sun; Dimitri.

The masses let out a collective gasp, Dimitri’s sinister shape descending, still as a black shadow with the massive entity of Darkness resting in the air above him, her eyes staring down at them.

“Do not be frightened by his appearance. This is your savior Airaxen! His soul came from a terrible source of evil, however when he died and returned to it, he purified it. And now here it is, here he is, here is your messiah! With his help all of your sorrows and grief will be remedied! With him leading us he shall unite us all, bringing the world into a new era, turning it into a utopia!” Gabriel concluded, Lutenia’s citizens cheering for the angel and his ‘messiah’. No one seemed to doubt them, it was strange to say the least.

“Why is everyone just taking all of this in? No one is even thinking of all this to be fake!” Tikai whispered to the others lowly.

“Because in these times when things have become bleak and many are dying, even false hope is enough for the masses,” Sonaris explained quietly.

“I have much to attend to, but I shall return to you soon! Until then remember what I have said, I expect that my gospel has hopefully brought your city together,” Gabriel turned to leave but then Dimitri raised his hand to speak.

“I warn you,” he suddenly began. “That there is a demon walking among all of you, sent by Satan to stop Gabriel and myself,” Dimitri cautioned before leaving with Gabriel. All the eyes of Lutenia suddenly turned to look towards one person; Seraph. A buzz of angry whispers running through the crowds.

“You’re the demon that they were talking about!” A woman shouted at him.

“Don’t stand in the way of getting to our utopia!” A man growled at the demon.

“Kill him! Kill the demon!” Shouted another man, a massive uproar coming from the crowd. Sonaris, Ethernial, Tikai and Yasosume all cluttered together with Seraph in the center.

“Don’t listen to him! He was lying! This-” Tikai pleaded, but Seraph put a hand over her mouth before she could finish.

“I don’t care if you all want to kill me, but I won’t hesitate to kill any of you,” he replied coolly, silencing the crowd with his voice. “Now leave here before I need to take heads off,” Seraph threatened, the crowd quickly dispersing.

“Now that’s class,” Yasosume commented, Seraph didn’t respond and leapt over them and landed on the ground in front of the four.

“As I was saying, I’m leaving,” Seraph stated in a finalizing tone.

“But why...? You just got back and everything!” Tikai asked.

“What is my name?” Seraph replied, puzzling all of them.

“Well, you introduced yourself as Seraph, but that’s only because you didn’t know of your past, which Dimitri filled in for us! So your name is Airaxen,” Tikai concluded. Seraph flinched at the mention of the name and then glared at all of them.

“That is why I’m leaving!” He nearly yelled.

“I’m lost here, why is that a problem? We can learn to call you Seraph if you really wanted...” Ethernial offered. Seraph shook his head and turned his back to them.

“To all of you I’m just nothing but your memories! I’ve been limited by them! I thought that if I had learned my past I would be relinquished from my worries, but I was wrong. This future I got a hold of is a conflict between my dignity and freedom! I am not Airaxen, I am not your holy warrior, and my name is Seraph,” the demon growling his name at them. Seraph unfurled his wings and lifted off into the air.

“Wait! Where are you going?!” Tikai cried out, Seraph spun around in the air.

“Don’t follow me. If you get in my way from here on in, I will not hesitate to kill any of you, regardless of who you might be to Airaxen,” Seraph vowed, shooting away through the air leaving them all dumbfounded.

* * *

About 10 minutes after Seraph had denounced his past everyone had gathered around the dining room on the second floor of the shop.

“Man, we’ve been back for only 2 or 3 days and look at all of this! It’s insane!” Ethernial complained, leaning back in his chair with hands behind his head.

“Yeah...Angels, Demons and everything else for that matter,” Sonaris commented in a weary tone. He looked over at Tikai who looked distant, distracted, and distressed.

“For now all of our problematic people have left, we might as well just stop worrying for now and think of what to do when they all return,” Sonaris suggested. Everyone agreed, it sounded like the best plan anyway.

“I’m going to head to my room and go take a nap or something, tell me if anything comes in to be repaired, Sonaris,” Tikai murmured before leaving the room quickly.

After having gotten out of earshot of everyone else she let out a quiet sigh, followed up by a swear under her breath.

::Why is all of this happening now...? Things were hard enough already, and then...:: Tikai sighed again and entered her messy room, locking up behind her. She lay down on her bed, staring up at the bland white ceiling, not a single thought in her head.

::Airaxen...Why are you playing with me like this? Toying with my emotions, even worse then before! I guess I haven’t changed that much, I’m still overly emotional as I always was. Where are you now? Why have you abandoned us? Why did you abandon me...?::

* * *

Seraph had taken refuge deep in the forest that was off to the south of Lutenia. There he found a small clearing that he could stay in. It was fairly close to the edge of the island as well making for an easy escape if needed. He was currently just sitting down under the shade of a tree, leaning against it and thinking to himself.

“Don’t start with me. I’m fully aware of what I did back there.”

“I would do that if I was strong enough to beat him. Currently I’m unsure, despite the other abilities that are at our disposal we probably couldn’t destroy a celestial being.”

“So how do we get it?”

::Now that is an idea...Well then lets get to work!:: Seraph mused. He stood up from under the tree, dusted himself off and headed back into the city for a few supplies.

It was night time in Lutenia, hours had passed since all of the strange occurrences of the afternoon. For the most part things had calmed down, people were no longer afraid to walk the streets, besides having the city randomly attacked from out of nowhere was sort of a normal event. However despite all of the disturbances throughout Lutenia’s history there was always one place in the entire city that everyone knew they could go to for some relaxation; the Black Lagoon.

“Joey! You’re still alive!” Yasosume cheered, greeting the gruff looking bartender who cracked a smile at her.

“O’ course I’m alive! Why wouldn’ I be?” Joey replied, he was still the same as ever, a beard and a the eye patch on his left eye. But now he showed the signs of old age, grey hair and a bald spot was starting to form.

“It’s been a ‘ong time since I last lay eyes on you,” Joey said, passing a beer down the counter.

“Well I’ve been traveling for a long time!” She pointed out, taking a seat on one of the stools. Ethernial had tagged along, mostly because he was getting bored of watching Sonaris fix things, it wasn’t like with Yasosume when she repaired things, nothing blew up for Sonaris.

He took a seat next to the fox girl and looked around the bar, it really hadn’t changed, just a bit messier then he last remembered. At the current moment Ethernial had decided to go out without his white jumpsuit (much to the surprise of Yasosume who thought it was permanently stuck to him) and threw on a pair of jeans and a white shirt.

Joey looked over at Ethernial and grinned, he simply looked back confused.

“I didn’ know you two-” Joey began but Ethernial quickly cut him off.

“It’s not what you think. That aside, mind if I got a bottle of champagne?” Ethernial asked quickly. Joey shrugged and handed him a bottle and a glass. Yasosume blinked and shrugged, it wasn’t that important compared to the fact she was going to get drunk for the first time in years, Ethernial had tried to keep her from getting drunk for the sake of her ‘health’. She was able to sneak away from him earlier on to the bar, but Ethernial easily found her. Lucky for her she was able to talk Ethernial into letting her have a few drinks that night.

She quickly grabbed a bottle of rum away from Joey before he could hand it to her and broke it open, downing it in one go. Ethernial watched the spectacle and then muttered something under his breath about ‘alcoholics’. Yasosume stuck her tongue out at him and then got a new bottle from Joey, this time taking her time to enjoy it.

“Hey, Ethernial,” Yasosume suddenly began. Ethernial looked over at her quizzically, an eyebrow raised. “You’ve changed, notice that?”

“And why would you say that? I’ve always been the same!” Ethernial protested, Yasosume only scoffing at the response.

“Then why haven’t you tried to grab my butt in the last year? Or hit on me, or for that matter, hit on those 2 girls across the bar that are looking at you for that matter,” Yasosume’s argument caused Ethernial to blink and think hard for a moment.

“Not interested in them, one is a gold digger, the other is a prep,” Ethernial declared, obviously showing off with some of his abilities. “Besides, not my type anyway,” Ethernial muttered and took a drink from his glass. Yasosume smirked and decided to have some fun with the redhead.

“Oh? Then what is your type? Other guys then?!” She teased, Ethernial suddenly choking on his drink.

“That’s not what I meant!” Ethernial sputtered, the fox girl laughing at him.

“Well it would explain why you haven’t been chasing after every pretty face you see!” Yasosume added on, Ethernial’s face now nearly as red as his hair was.

“Ah leave me alone! Not like you’re having any luck with your personal life!” Ethernial retorted, silencing Yasosume. She eyed him dangerously, Ethernial realizing he probably said the wrong thing.

“I-uh, ah crap I’m going to get sent flying through the wall aren’t I?” Ethernial muttered, but oddly enough Yasosume ignored the comment entirely.

“Not this time, I’ll just get you later for that,” she responded casually. Ethernial smiled weakly and took another drink.

“It’s funny,” Ethernial began. “We have the angel we’ve been looking for in Lutenia, Dimitri’s back from the dead and Air-Seraph is now up to his own little plans. But among all of this we’re all relaxed and happy, I find it kind of ironic,” Ethernial pointed out. Yasosume took a long drink from her bottle then shifted her glance to Ethernial.

“We all know about all of that, but we don’t want too. So we then just try and ignore it all, drown all of our worries away with denial. If you don’t then you’re stuck feeling sad and sorry for yourself which is something no one wants to be stuck in,” the vixen explained in a melancholy tone.

“That’s true. Human nature to try and avoid the problems and all of the bad things I guess,” Ethernial added then finished up what was left in his glass.

“The world is such a horrible place, we’ve seen it all throughout our travels. And then even back here we have that entire thing with Tikai and E.L.I.T.E, I mean come on! And don’t forget those monsters that are roaming about, imagine what kind of destruction they’re causing around the world!” Yasosume grumbled and shook her head before resting it on the counter top.

“I sometimes wish we didn’t come back. Lutenia always seems to bring back bad memories...” She continued, her voice muffled now.

“Can’t keep running away. Besides, it’s more fun here!” Ethernial chuckled. Yasosume shot a glare at him and then sat up straight.

“Damnit, you’ve made me lose my taste for alcohol for the night. Whatever, I feel like a walk suddenly anyway,” Yasosume paid her tab and then left, Ethernial following suit shortly afterwards.

The evening air was crisp and cool, there was no wind or anything that night. It was a cloudless night allowing for the moon to shine through in the night as radiate as the sun could be during the day. It was scenery so beautiful that Ethernial was positive that it would be ruined by something happening. But before that he wanted to just enjoy his company and the peace of the night. Yasosume looked over at Ethernial who looked like he was off in a daze of thoughts.

“What’s on your mind, eh?” Yasosume inquired. Ethernial snapped himself out of his thoughts and shot a glance over to the fox girl.

“Ah, it’s nothing. And don’t bother asking, it would hurt your brain,” Ethernial laughed and then ran off before Yasosume could smack him.

* * *

Sonaris had finally closed the shop down for the night, it had slowed down considerably and with all of the business recently he wasn’t worried about a lack of profits. However he was somewhat concerned with the mental state of his other mechanic. He left for the second story and decided to see if he would be able to remedy the situation. Sonaris knocked on her room door which was closed for most of the day. He waited for a moment and finally her voice called out, allowing him entry. Sonaris entered the room half expecting it to be the stereotypical kind of disaster area, covered in used tissues and with Tikai weeping somewhere, but to his relief no such sight greeted him. Tikai was still on her bed, she didn’t move from that spot for hours most likely.

“Came here to try and give out some advice or whatever, right?” She asked monotonously. Sonaris shrugged and took a seat against the wall next to the bed.

“Probably. I can’t have my mechanic stuck here all day, I’d become pressed for workers with all of the things coming in recently,” Sonaris pointed out.

“Sorry, I probably should be working, my bad,” Tikai replied in the same tone.

“You’re starting to sound like Airaxen,” Sonaris said, which was probably a poor thing to say at the moment. “And I’m aware of what I just said, Tikai. I said it because we all have to move on eventually. But maybe I’m wrong. I’m just going to offer you my opinion, not advice this time. So then, I hope you feel better soon, you need to start being more vibrate again,” Sonaris finished. He looked over at Tikai who was still staring straight up at the ceiling. She looked over at Sonaris and sighed quietly then sat up.

“I know you’re right, you’re always freaking right. But right now I guess I just want some closure. I want to know why, but then again, maybe I’m just overly emotional now,” Tikai sighed then got off of the bed.

“I’m going to head out, there’s nothing to fix up and I might as well enjoy some fresh air,” She decided, throwing on her jacket and leaving, Sonaris behind her and with a smug grin.

::Oh yes, I still have it,:: he thought to himself and left the room as well.

* * *

Tikai paced throughout Lutenia’s streets, no where to go in particular. For once in a long few days she was able to relax, and put the worries of when Dimitri might decide to come back, or Seraph for that matter to the back of her mind.

::Come on you stupid blue haired demon! Show up! I need to yell at you or something...:: Tikai growled mentally, half angry, half mentally exasperated. She stopped walking and then turned around, she was standing in a large open area of Lutenia, no buildings around for quite awhile. The reason she stopped moving around the city was because the sound of a descending mecha entered her ears.

::Hello misplaced aggression...:: Tikai mused sinisterly.

The mecha that approached her was that of much wilder design compared to the normal mechas that E.L.I.T.E used. It was a massively large grey mechanical dragon with minimal red armor on its major joints. The dragon mecha was covered in vents from top to bottom, it was carrying something, and a lot of it. The head of the dragon had a very noticeable feature, it had a large red beam cannon for a head instead of a normal dragon one.

“Another one of you E.L.I.T.E pilots trying to take my head off?” Tikai mumbled exasperatedly, cracking her knuckles.

“I’m not here for you,” a gruff male voice replied plainly. Tikai raised an eyebrow and lowered her fists. “The E.L.I.T.E organization is no longer interested in you, or your accomplices. However we have now decided to target the demon Seraph. We know you have some connections with him. I peacefully ask you to tell me where he is now or else I will have to implore drastic action,” he explained very military-like.

“Do you now? And who from your little organization do I have the pleasure to talk to?” Tikai inquired.

“My name is Sirius Orbit, I am the second in command of the E.L.I.T.E organization, and I ask you again. Where is Seraph?” Sirius demanded, his trigger finger starting to become itchy inside of the cockpit of his mecha.

“I don’t know, and even if I did I wouldn’t tell you,” Tikai growled in response.

“If you are protecting him then I will have to use force to obtain what I need,” Sirius’s mecha reared up, opening its mouth and letting out a thunderous roar. Tikai leapt back and formed her suit of armor, taking to the air quickly. The mecha’s numerous vents opened up, a total of 10 of them covering its body. From each vent a large black circular mecha with four sharp pointed blades on each.

The bit robots gave chase to Tikai, flying at her quickly, circling around her like flies. She tried to knock them out of the air with her fists but they all moved out of the way easily, avoiding her attacks as if she were moving in slow motion. It was then the bit robot’s turn to attack, each one firing a single burst of purple energy. The attacks weren’t powerful but numerous, each one striking Tikai from a different angle and knocking her out of the sky. Tikai hit the ground roughly, small fragments of her armor breaking off. Sirius’s mecha had thrown its mechanical tail out and dug it into the ground as support as he began to charge up the main barrel grafted to its head.

Tikai quickly got back up, the bit robots were closing in again. She formed two green orbs in her hands and launched them into the ground an explosion covering her up and blocking her from view. The bit robots stopped their advance and circled around the settling dust cloud. Tikai leapt out of it, now she had two long blue translucent crescent beams on them, attached to two handles being held in her hands. She let go of the handles, the weapons connected to the underside of her gauntlets by two blue chains of energy. Tikai then began to spin the two weapons around quickly, letting them go out further and further with each rotation until they could cut into the ground. Tikai then tilted her hands at angles and spun them around now forming an X around her and charged at the bit robots. They all scattered accordingly, but she simply lashed out with the blades and struck one of them, slicing it clean in half. The other 9 suddenly shot away from Tikai and escaped from her for some strange reason. However she understood when Sirius let out a whistle from his mecha, getting her to look straight at the blue energy collected at the barrel of the cannon.

Sirius didn’t waste time to attack and quickly launched a quick blast of blue energy at the blond. Tikai kicked off the ground, her thin red wings flaring to life and letting out a burst of energy that shot her up and away from the attack, however regardless of that the beam still struck her in the leg, blasting the armor apart and with the force sending her into a flip. Tikai hit the ground roughly, looking down at her right leg which was no damaged and most likely unable to walk with. She reactivated her flight systems and charged low and fast at the dragon mecha. She re-released her hand blades and then threw them both at the mecha’s legs. The dragon mecha ripped its tail free from the concrete and swung it around at Tikai. the attack struck her hard, but her hand blades had already wrapped around the mecha’s legs and the force of the attack simply sent her spinning around the mecha, tying it up with her weapon.

“That wasn’t pleasant...But it works!” Tikai muttered in a daze. She was now behind the mecha’s head, knowing that its tail would whip back around and deliver another blow she decided it would be best to move away from it quickly. So she began to fly away from the dragon mecha and pulling her hand blades out of the mecha causing the weapons to unravel around the mecha in tight circles and slicing up the armor to the mecha numerous times. After Tikai finally pulled away from the mecha it was now damaged profoundly and brought to its knees. But it wasn’t to big of a concern, the bit robots had finally got sight of Tikai again and charged in at her, firing blasts of energy. She was hit by a small number of them but it wasn’t to big of a deal, the damage this time was minimal. She put her hand blades away in the underside of her gauntlets then pointed her hands forward again. The top parts of her gauntlets slid opened up, inside of them a compartment of very small guns, about 3 on each of her hands, each of the guns only about 1 cm in diameter. Tikai pointed the weapons in the general direction of the bit robots and let loose a machine gun like attack of small blue orbs of energy. The bit robots spread out to avoid the attacks, but with Tikai constantly swinging her arms back and forth as she fired, creating a wave of the balls of energy. Because of the maneuver it didn’t take long for the bit robots to be destroyed and reduced to flaming pieces of shrapnel.

The dragon mecha had recovered by then and launched a blast of blue energy back at Tikai who activated her skates and floated right out of the way of the energy attack, leaving the mecha vulnerable having suffered severe blowback without having its tail grounding it down. Tikai didn’t charge forward and instead created her own massive beam weapon, the same that she used against Dimitri’s Neverborn form. She held the weapon on her right shoulder and moved her left hand to the weapon, pulling some levers on the device. Sirius's dragon mecha standing back up in time to see Tikai launch a multitude of blue streams of energy at him. He threw his mecha off to the side, only the left part of the dragon mecha getting hit and being blasted apart.

The side of the mecha was damaged heavily, the leg and most of the head still remained intact however. now the cockpit was partially visible and Tikai could get a glimpse of the pilot, Sirius Orbit.

He had raven black hair that was very clean and tidy, wearing an equally as tidy black uniform that was unmarked and looked similar to Seraph’s jacket. He looked out through the side of the destroyed part of the mecha with a blank expression, eyeing the blond carefully for a moment.

“Well, you want some more?!” Tikai shouted at him, lowering the massive weapon. Sirius scoffed and forced what remained of the door to the cockpit off and stood there.

“That’s enough for today,” Sirius declared, but it wasn’t like Tikai was going to let him decide when the battle was over.

“I’m the one with the giant bazooka, and I’m deciding when we’re done!” Tikai growled, raising the weapon back up. Sirius paused for a moment then shook his head. He quickly reached up to the cannon on the dragon mecha’s head and grabbed onto a handle that was on the side of its head.

“It doesn’t matter what weapons you have. This isn’t the last you’ve heard of E.L.I.T.E,” Sirius warned, pressing a button on the handle that caused the red portion of the barrel to fire up into the air like a rocket, carrying Sirius off with it. Tikai threw her massive cannon away and gave chase to Sirius. Sirius looked over his shoulder and then stopped flying away, spun the rocket around and pointed it at Tikai, opening fire with a small burst of stored energy in the barrel. The attack clipped Tikai in the wing and took out some of her speed and threw her into a spin, giving Sirius enough time to make his getaway. Tikai crashed back into the ground, unable to regain her balance, a loud ‘thump’ coming from where she landed. Tikai’s armor dematerialized and then rolled onto her back, watching the sky.

“God damnit, this isn’t my week.”

* * *

It took about an hour for Tikai to make it back to the shop, lacking easy means of getting back she was stuck to using the skates of her armor to keep her upright and what was left of her wings to move her along.

::I need to get some more armor on this stupid thing...:: Tikai grumbled mentally. She finally reached the shop, a few lights in the second story of the building were still on, somebody was still up at that hour. Tikai entered the dark work floor of the shop and made her way up the stairs and decided to look for whoever it was that was still up. At the dining room table sat Maria, worn down and slowly chewing on some food she had brought back with her. Tikai blinked, not used to seeing her housemate up and about in the house, Maria normally left early in the morning before they were awake, and got back before anyone was home. They both paused and looked at each other for a moment and then asked one single question:

“What happened to you?” Tikai went over to a chair and then sat down in it, armor leaving her body once more.

“Went out for a walk, then E.L.I.T.E attacked me, and then I came back here,” Tikai explained grudgingly.

“I had to spend another 14 hour shift at the hospital. With all these attacks E.L.I.T.E has been performing along with the occasional monster sighting the hospital has been flooded with injured people, and I’ve been working overtime to help out,” Maria grumbled, despite the extra pay it was really getting tiresome.

“So what happened to Sonaris? He’s normally around,” Tikai inquired, Maria shrugged in response.

“He went to sleep early, said he was tired or something,” Maria explained with a slight tone of annoyance. Tikai nodded, reaching around for a toolbox, in the ‘household’ there was a toolbox in every room just incase something went wrong.

“Yasosume and Ethernial are still out?” Tikai asked, Maria nodded. “These last 4 days have been the longest of my entire freaking life.”

“Things weren’t this bad since Yasosume was still attacking the city,” Maria muttered, finishing up the takeout she had ordered.

“I heard about Seraph running off earlier today,” Maria began, Tikai looking away from her repair work and glanced over at Maria.

“Yeah, it was one of those things that made my day stressful,” Tikai replied.

“Where do you think he ran off to?” Tikai shrugged in response, she had no idea to be honest.

“First Air-Seraph appears, then we have Dimitri coming back from the dead and then we have that degenerate Airaxen clone that calls himself Gabriel running around with delusions of godhood!” Tikai nearly shouted out with frustration. Maria nodded and then yawned.

“Well, the day is almost done, it’s time to sleep or something,” Maria suggested.

“I’m not tired, sides I’d rather be able to walk in the morning,” Tikai grumbled some more, rejoining some of the broken vines in her leg. They like Airaxen’s were blue and in a same sort of design.

::I can already tell, tomorrow is going to be another day in hell,:: Tikai thought wearily.

* * *

“Well, Gabriel, why have you taken me out here? To this dead sea?” Dimitri inquired of the angel. Gabriel looked over his shoulder at Dimitri and smiled back at him.

“Do you not recognize where we are? This was where the Myreison capital city sunk a decade ago,” he explained. Dimitri looked around at the sky which was still pitch-black even without the cloak generator active anymore. The water below them was just as dark, where the city sank was the darkest, almost like a dead zone.

“I know exactly where we are, I couldn’t forget it. But why am I here?” Dimitri asked gruffly. Gabriel turned around to face Dimitri and then pointed down at the water.

“Down there, your real body is there,” Gabriel explained. Dimitri looked at him and raised an eyebrow at the statement.

“As much as I enjoy the fame and glory I’m being lavished with, I can’t stand you, or anyone else calling me by that filthy name, Airaxen,” Dimitri growled. Gabriel’s smile didn’t waver however and he continued on.

“This is something I know. However, because of how you created him with some of your own essence, you are the source of him. And I sensed his essence, back in your body, thus meaning you would be Airaxen,” Gabriel explained. Dimitri growled in thought, he was technically right in that sense.

“So what’s that make Seraph, hm?” Dimitri asked once more.

“An agent sent by Satan,” Gabriel wrote off quickly.

“Hmph, are you worried about something, there?” Dimitri pried, this however got Gabriel to glare at him, silencing Dimitri.

“Alright, alright. Now why exactly am I your messiah, and why are you so eager to show me to this site?” Dimitri asked lastly. Gabriel’s expression instantly softened and returned to his normal pleasant demeanor and then he spoke.

“To see their savior live again would empower the masses with faith in my-the divinely will. You would be able to become a ruler of all of these mortals. Then you could help me accomplish what I need to have done, as well as you being able to rule this small world,” Gabriel proposed, this catching Dimitri’s interest.

“Hmph, revenge was my original plan, but total power over the planet might make up for it for now...” Dimitri sneered.

“The body still remains down there at the bottom of the sea, it is an empty vessel now, waiting for a soul to inhabit it. However it is impossible for me to get at it, since the body itself has developed some sort of barrier, which didn’t allow me to use it, however you can...” Gabriel murmured.

“And what makes you think I won’t use that body and destroy you?” Dimitri inquired curiously.

“Because despite needing it for some other purposes then the ones I mentioned, I won’t hesitate to rip your soul from any body,” Gabriel warned.

“Really now?” Dimitri threatened subtly, the giant entity of Darkness looking down at Gabriel with its vertical eye. Gabriel’s eyes narrowed, he looked at Dimitri angrily, getting fed up with all of the backtalk. He threw his arm out and waved his hand up, a backlash of white energy emerged from behind Dimitri and engulfed him and the Darkness. After the wave had passed the Darkness had been reduced to shreds of black matter, Dimitri now wounded.

“Do not tempt me,” Gabriel warned more forcefully. Dimitri had trouble in not striking back, but he wasn’t exactly in the position to do so.

“And why do you need me to help if you’re so powerful?” Dimitri asked through strained restraint.

“Not all tasks can be done with brute force alone. Now be silent, it is time we got some work done.”

* * *

Ethernial looked at the sky, the sun was starting to come up, he and Yasosume were out for the entire night, exploring the city to see what had changed over the years. Not that much really, certain parts of the city were now repaired and some were more dilapidated then before.

The two of them soon found themselves at the bottom of the tall set of stairs to the gigantic building which was actually Lutenia’s only library. The building was all white and looked like an ancient Greek building, with the numerous pillars and triangle roof.

“Of course the library isn’t blown into a million pieces,” Yasosume said while rolling her eyes. Ethernial chuckled, it was true oddly enough.

“Yup, if an all out war occurred then the only things left standing would be all the libraries and sc-” Ethernial stopped short because he suddenly caught a glimpse of tall blue-haired man in a white cloak walking up the stairs to the entrance of the library.

“What is it? Or are you still the same Ethernial and saw some chick with a big chest?” Yasosume teased. Ethernial shot her an irritated look from the corner of his eye.

“Look at tall and pointy eared over there,” Ethernial directed, pointing at him. Yasosume glanced over and saw it, the man had a hood up but there were still 4 little points at the back of the hood, and they knew of one person that could have such a strange deformity.

“Now why would he be going to a library?” Yasosume questioned of no one in particular.

“Lets just follow him then, if we confronted him directly he’d make a run for it, so we could just follow him and see what he’s going to do until we attack him,” Ethernial suggested, Yasosume’s ears flattened against her head, a frown on her face.

“I never get to blow anything up...” Yasosume complained woefully. Ethernial rolled his eyes and grabbed her arm, dragging her along with him as Seraph opened the door to the building.

Seraph glanced around the library, shelves and shelves of books around the walls and at the edges. The inside of the library was covered in marble, large windows at the roof, the building was nearly like a church in stature.

Even if it was the early morning there were still people in the building browsing the books. Seraph snickered slightly, amused by the ‘bookworms’.

::I need to do a bit more research before I can pursue after it, I suppose this is a good place to start,:: Seraph mused. He looked around at the headers of the shelves, finding them to be generic titles like fiction, or non-fiction, he was looking for something a bit more...Classy.

Ethernial and Yasosume kept their distance from Seraph, and having split up to be a bit less conspicuous. The two both exchanged the same curious glance as Seraph walked into the older part of the library, from the header it appeared that the books in that section were much, much older, ancient history actually.

Seraph looked around the room, this one was considerably smaller, but there were many more books then the first area. However the room was most likely visited very rarely, dust everywhere and with barely working lights, no one really bothered to maintain it over the years. Seraph continued walking along, carefully examining the titles of the books as he passed, but then he suddenly stopped for a moment and looked around, he had a strange feeling that someone was watching him...

::I must be losing it again, no one is following me...:: He concluded, trying to put his mind at ease. Seraph then went back to looking through the books, but finding that he was having a hard time to find what he needed.

Yasosume had scaled to the top of a bookshelf at the corner of the room, watching Seraph from there.

::Come on, what are you up too...?:: Yasosume wondered, eyes narrowing slightly.

Seraph finally let out a quiet ‘ah-ha’ and then pulled a large dusty book out from the shelf, it was exactly what he was hoping to find; Norse Mythology. He moved towards a large table that he could sit at, and then placed the heavy book on it, a loud ‘thump’ coming from it as well as a large dust cloud. Seraph took his white cloak off and tossed it to the side, his figure revealed again, dark blue clothing, wings and pointy ears.

Ethernial, who had hidden behind the bookshelf that was behind Seraph was now peeking out from between the books to see what the demon was up to. Now all he could try and do was to make out the title of the book Seraph had pulled, but to no avail.

::What could he want with anything from here?:: Ethernial pondered, trying to figure it all out.

Seraph flipped open the book and began to flip through its pages quickly, and eventually stopped abruptly, a thin smile forming on his face.

“Lets see then...The legend of the creature Fenris...” Seraph paused for a moment and then continued on reading the legend aloud.

Ethernial’s eyes widened as Seraph finished with his telling of the legend. He knew all about Fenris, and wondering why Seraph would be researching into a terrible beast like Fenris. Ethernial decided it would be a good idea to get Yasosume and move out before Seraph noticed him. He moved back from the shelf and then stealthily began to wave his arms wildly to Yasosume to motion for her to leave as well. Yasosume looked at Ethernial curiously for awhile, he was looking like quite the idiot with his arms flaying around everywhere. With all of Ethernial’s radical movements his hand accidentally hit one of the shelves, knocking a few books free. The heavy books slammed into the floor and emitted a very loud and notifying noise.

Seraph spun around quickly, forming his lance in his right hand and approaching the bookshelf.

“Don’t bother running! You won’t escape, so show yourself!” Seraph demanded. Ethernial poked his head out from behind the bookshelf, a sheepish grin plastered on his face.

“So I was being watched...” Seraph mused, lowering his weapon slightly. “Why did you follow me?” Seraph inquired, his voice lowering.

“That’s not important, why are you reading up on Fenris?!” Ethernial demanded, this caused Seraph to tighten his grip on his weapon. Yasosume also joined in, leaping off the bookshelf and landing behind Seraph.

“What’s wrong with you?! Looking into things that can end the world?! You’re almost as bad as Dimitri!” She accused, Seraph narrowing his eyes.

“My motives aren’t of your concern, now are we going to do this peacefully, or will I have to strike you two down?” Seraph growled.

“How about you peacefully come with us?” Yasosume suggested, fists clenching together.

“Yes, I thought you’d say that,” Seraph replied, leaping to the side and turning around to face both of the redheads.

“We don’t have to do this, Airaxen!” Ethernial called out, only invoking a growl from Seraph.

“I’m not Airaxen anymore, now get out of my way!” Seraph roared, shooting forward, the wind from his wings sending books flying everywhere. Seraph touched down when he entered the main room of the library, all of the people looking at the demon and having one unanimous reaction; panic. The people ran out of the library, knocking over bookshelves in their haste, books and paper flying everywhere, a perfect diversion for Seraph to escape in before those two could catch him.

When Yasosume and Ethernial reentered the first room they were greeted with flying papers, falling bookshelves and of course people yelling for no apparent reason.

“Bloody humans...” Yasosume grumbled, ears folding back down again because of all the noise.

“Come on! We have to find Seraph!” Ethernial ordered, running in between the chaos and chasing Seraph who was nearly at the exit. They gave chase to the demon, but he noticed it and swung his lance at a bookshelf that was still standing, and toppled it over to land on the two. They both leapt out of the way, the time taken to avoid the falling wooden appliance was enough for Seraph to speed out of the library.

Seraph grinned to himself, that was easy enough, and the mass chaos that ensued was convenient to watch and use to his advantage. But then he stopped in his tracks, he was now staring down two very large mechas, belonging to two members of E.L.I.T.E, third in command Madam DeMonte and second in command Sirius Orbit. The dark brown mecha loomed over Seraph, along with a newly repaired dragon mecha for Sirius to use.

“Well, well, well, we meet again demon boy,” Madam DeMonte said, an air of arrogance in her voice. Seraph looked from side to side, but found that he had become surrounded with the small bit robots of Sirius’s dragon mecha.

“You are coming with us,” Sirius declared. Seraph growled, his lance out and ready to battle. Finally his other two problems joined the scene, Yasosume and Ethernial growling at the E.L.I.T.E members.

“This isn’t how I wanted to start my day,” Seraph growled angrily. He found himself now the center of attraction, everyone wanted to get him, and now it was about to get violent.

“It looks like we can get rid of two birds with one stone, so to speak,” Sirius mused. Yasosume smirked, her hands encasing themselves in flames.

“Get out of my way you idiots!” She shouted, two jets of fire flying past Seraph and striking the two mechas. After a quick burn she stopped the attack, assuming that the attack would cause the mechas to overheat and succumb again, but this time she was wrong. Madam DeMonte’s mecha raised its arm and fired off a single round from her sniper rifle, Ethernial having to come in to create a mirror wall to deflect the energy attack.

“What?! My flames should’ve caused your mecha to overheat and collapse!” Yasosume exclaimed, occurring a shrill laugh from Madam DeMonte.

“You didn’t think we would’ve improved our mechas?! The armor plating is now heat resistant, not to mention the radiator in our mechas are improved to handle even the hottest of temperatures! Your attacks are as useless as you are now!” She explained tauntingly. Yasosume growled, without bringing her laser rifle, or still using her old throwing knives she was stuck to using her inherit abilities.

“Stand down if you wish to live, we’re only interested in Seraph now,” Sirius ordered in his calm voice. Ethernial snorted at Sirius’s orders and raised his hand up, a flare of dark purple energy firing out from it and smashing the bit robots around them to pieces.

“No way, now you get out of here! We’re the ones that who’ll be taking Seraph! And who ARE you anyway?!” Ethernial demanded.

“Second in command of E.L.I.T.E, Sirius Orbit. Now be silent!” Sirius snapped back. By then Seraph’s patience had worn out, he wasn’t having a good day, not by far.

“You know what? You’re all working over my last nerve, so I’m just going to rip all of your heads off,” Seraph shouted, raising his lance up to the sky, the hook blade pointing up.

“DARK-LIGHT!” He roared, massive white and black rings of deadly energy firing out from the tip of the blade. Three blades of energy shot out, the four other combatants running around furiously to avoid being cut into ribbons. After the attack ceased Seraph lowered his lance, the other blade striking the ground with a quiet ‘ting’, the library behind him falling apart into giant slabs of stone.

“That’s more like it, Seraph! It’s just like old times, and this time I’m going to kick your ass so badly!” Yasosume sneered, cracking her knuckles and then moving into a fighting stance.

“I don’t want to do this but we’ll take you back with force if we have to!” Ethernial shouted, left forearm turning into a purple blade.

“E.L.I.T.E won’t accept this, you will all come with us!” Sirius raising his voice for the first time, his dragon mecha digging into the ground and charging its central cannon.

“This time we’ll kill all of you!” Madam DeMonte shouted angrily, arming the sniper rifle.

Seraph flapped his wings and launched himself straight into the air, his lance vanishing in a mass of black flames, he needed to set the battle up properly before he could unleash some of his ‘hidden’ moves.

Madam DeMonte moved her mecha in front of Sirius’s dragon mecha, opening fire on the two fighters on the ground instead of targeting the aerial Seraph. Ethernial leapt to the side, knowing that it was just a diversion and charged straight at the E.L.I.T.E pilots. Yasosume went to dashing around the other side, launching fireball after fireball at Madam DeMonte’s mecha, in an attempt to at least distract her. The ploy didn’t work, she just ignored the fox girl and from a private command from Sirius she had now begun attacking Seraph, filling the sky with blasts of energy. Seraph had already taken to charging his own attack in his left hand was a large white orb.

“Piercing Lights!” Seraph shouted, from his open hand a barrage of white beams rained down on the battlefield, everyone halting their prior actions and scatter to avoid the beams, all except for Sirius.

Sirius stood his ground and let Seraph’s attacks strike his mecha, he took the brief moment Seraph had to stop and attack to strike the demon himself with a large blast of blue energy pointed up at the sky. Seraph’s eyes widened as he saw the light approach him, he instantly ceased his attack and having ran out of time to avoid the attack, throw his arms in a cross over his chest. The attack hit him dead on, the energy from the beam curving around him, Seraph doing his best to increase his resistance to the energy blast.

Ethernial took that as his chance to strike someone, and he charged straight at Sirius, reason being was his mecha probably had the most power out of all of them. He charged at the dragon mecha after it fired its shot and lunged at it, stabbing forward at where the pilot’s seat was. But Sirius wasn’t going to let Ethernial stab him with his energy blade and threw a devastating punch at him with the metal arms of the dragon mecha. Ethernial was knocked back a fair distance, now being pursued by Madam DeMonte and the sword blade on her mecha’s left arm. Yasosume emerged from behind Sirius with a massive fireball in her left hand, smashing it into the ground.

“Magma Flow!” She hissed, a tidal wave of lava firing out of the ground and come crashing down on his dragon mecha. The wave past, and now his ferocious dragon mecha had crumbled and fallen forward, its grey armor plating starting to melt off, Yasosume fairly confident that the pilot didn’t survive.

“Hmph, don’t mess with me,” she growled and then looked up at the sky to see what had happened to Seraph.

Ethernial crashed into the ground roughly, but he recovered quickly enough, only to find that Madam DeMonte was bringing her sword arm down on him. He formed another blade on his right arm, then crisscrossed the two blades together to form a cross that caught the blade in the center of it.

“I’m going to subdivide you!” Madam DeMonte shouted angrily. Ethernial tried to force the mecha off but it wasn’t possible with something that was so much heavier and powered with servos. Seraph decided to rejoin the fight, not even harmed severely from the attack he endured. Now his right hand was glowing, this time it was a very dark purple aura, the only way to tell it wasn’t black was to look closely at it.

“All of you stupid robots will be reduced to scrap metal!” Seraph bellowed, swinging his arm at the mecha like a blade, a powerful karate chop delivered to the head of the automation, causing it to stumble back and crash to the ground. Seraph didn’t stop his attack there and then wound up with his right fist, the aura growing and spreading to cover his entire body. Seraph suddenly paused all movement for a brief moment, confusing Madam DeMonte, until he struck with a lightning fast kick from his left leg, spinning around with the momentum and delivering a mighty back kick with his right leg. He then spun back around and clenched his hands into fists, the air around them firing a force of gravity outwards at the mecha, sending her tumbling and turning back, smashing all the way throughout the ground. The glow around Seraph faded quickly, his hands lowering as well as his wings folding up slightly, the E.L.I.T.E pilots had been thoroughly been beaten.

“You stupid mecha pilots should just leave before someone decides to stop you two from coming back! Or should I say one?” Yasosume sneered, Sirius’s dragon mecha still hadn’t moved after being hit by the lava wave. Madam DeMonte looked over at her fallen comrade, a furious growl coming from her mecha.

“Don’t worry, I’m still alive and well, that includes my mecha!” Sirius suddenly shouted from his mecha which was getting back up slowly.

“What?! How could you be alive?! I hit you with a wave of LAVA!” Yasosume exclaimed, but Sirius’s mecha was getting back onto its feet, fully operational still.

“Now that just isn’t right...” Ethernial murmured, but both of the mecha pilots were back on their feet, and still very able to fight. Seraph watched the two E.L.I.T.E mechas carefully, his instinct told him something was off, but he wasn’t sure of what it exactly was.

The two pilots glanced at the other and then nodded, it was time to initiate their next battle plan.

Sirius’s dragon mecha began to release a set of strange grinding noises, and then his mecha began to start transforming. The red cannon that was its head suddenly broke off and moved down to connect to where the right arm was, encasing the limb and acting as a new arm. At the very end of the cannon 4 sharp pointed ends like a claw. The lower jaw of the mecha now folded down to connect to the chest of the mecha, his dragon mecha now without a head. The chest area began to disconnect from itself, shifting and expanding to form a large opening in the back of his mecha for something to go into. The legs to his mecha also straightened out to stand taller then before, but the tail was still hindering it from standing perfectly straight.

Next it was Madam DeMonte’s mecha that was about to transform. The sword blade on her mecha’s left arm suddenly broke off and reattached itself to the end of her sniper rifle, splitting in half to form a new weapon. She let go of the rifle, on its back were a small set of rockets which flared to life and flew over to Sirius’s dragon mecha, affixing itself to the left shoulder of the mecha. After that the two arms to her mecha detached from the torso, also propelled with small rockets they flew to the left arm of Sirius’s mecha and attached on the top and bottom of the left arm, giving it a bit more of a sturdy appearance. The tail to Sirius’s dragon mecha suddenly ‘ejected’ itself from the rest of the body, and shot up into the air where it landed on top of the left arm, connecting to it like some sort of weapon. Now without the tail his mecha straightened up fully, standing much taller then it could before with its jointed legs.

What remained of Madam DeMonte’s mecha then took off into the air, doing a large arc through the air. The legs to her mecha folded up against the back of the torso during the aerial maneuver to rest next to the sets of thrusters. Finally to complete the union her mecha landed in the space that Sirius’s mecha had in its back, a new head now in place along with many new ‘modifications’ had created a single mecha out of two. The transformation was completed, the new mecha now piloted by the two commanders of E.L.I.T.E, and was ready to demolish the opposition.

“We won’t hold back!” Sirius shouted, taking a step forward with the new hybrid mecha and raising its tail blade up.

“It’s still 3 on 1! You guys don’t stand a chance!” Yasosume shouted back. Seraph looked at the vixen and let out a quiet ‘hm’.

The mecha charged forward, raising the weapon on its left arm and whipping it back down to the ground, trying to smash them all into the ground. Yasosume and Ethernial dove to the side, Seraph leapt back and took to the air to watch the fight again.

The shoulder mounted cannon then moved on its own during the first attack, targeting Yasosume and firing a blast of energy from the weapon, striking her in the front and knocking the fox girl back.

“With two pilots one of us can control half the mecha, the other can control the other half! Like this we can attack multiple targets at once!” Madam DeMonte gloated, laughing arrogantly right afterwards. Ethernial let out a whistle from the other side of the mecha, throwing a large green ball of energy up into the air. The mecha spun around and pointed its other arm at it, firing a blast of blue energy from the cannon port, the claws on it opening quickly. Ethernial was hit by the counterattack and knocked back as well, however he was fairly sure that his attack would hit its mark, but he was wrong. The thrusters that were on its back flared to life and shot the mecha into the air to avoid the barrage of beams that emerged from the green orb.

The mecha spun around in the air and pelted the ground with quickly charged blue blasts of energy from its right arm cannon, a large dust cloud forming from the attacks. After the smoke cleared Ethernial and Yasosume were both knocked about, both of them damaged and showing parts of their inner workings, with some sparks flying about.

“Don’t bother with them, we have to go after the primary target now,” Sirius ordered, looking up at Seraph who was simply hovering over them all.

“Come on, Seraph! Lets see if you can do anything other then run away!” Madam DeMonte taunted. Seraph smirked at them, descending down back to the ground.

“All of your fighting was amusing me, that and I decided it would be easier to let all of you beat each other up and then I could finish off the rest,” Seraph explained coolly. “Last time I wasn’t able to fight to my fullest because of that Dimitri character having taken over my body. But this time I’ll show you what I’m made of!” Seraph unfurled his wings to their maximum, a green glow coming from his body. The silver shoulder pads suddenly changed shape to become a full suit of silver armor that covered his upper body. The armor he wore resembled that of Airaxen’s, being large and covering most of his body, able to provide a lot of protection. In the very center was a emerald green jewel that gleamed in the light of the sun. On his back a large white disk had replaced his 3 pairs of wings. The disk was large and had a blue streak on its edge, a smaller green circle around that one. On his forelegs two massive armor plates formed and covered his legs. On the sides of each piece of armor a set of 7 rockets formed, 4 smaller ones on the sides with 3 larger ones over them. Seraph’s gauntlets also started to transform to cover his hands with massive weapons now. On the right hand was a sleek black heavy machine gun, on the left was an equally massive double barrel cannon that was also black.

Rockets on the soles of his newly armored boots flared to life, lifting him off the ground to hover over the ground.

“You think your combined automation has heavy artillery?!” Seraph mocked. “I’ll show you REAL firepower!” The dual piloted mecha charged at Seraph, its left blade arm was raised and ready to strike the demon. Seraph’s new form proved to be much heavier then what he was used to and with barely any ability to move quickly his options were limited.

::My Heavy Armor is the most energy consuming of my three armor styles, I had better just hit them hard while I still can do so,:: Seraph concluded mentally, raising his arms up to point at the mecha.

“Final Artillery!” Seraph growled, he wasn’t going to hesitate to unleash his most powerful attack. The large white disk on his back suddenly broke apart from each other, only leaving a small rectangle to connect the apparatus to his back, only mechanical limbs connecting the 4 parts to the rectangle. The top portions of the disk went over his shoulders and folded down, the side of the disk pointing forward. The lower portion of the disk shifted up and connected on either side of the rectangle. The parts on his shoulder began to charge with blue energy. The vents on the top of the lower portions of the disk shifted out of the way to reveal inside of the rear mounted weapon contained countless vertical launching missiles. The missiles on his legs began to let off a clicking sound as they armed, along with all of the ones on his back, and the cannons he had on each arm. Even the green gem on his chest was starting to charge up for some sort of attack.

The mecha suddenly halted its attack, with all of the energy converging at Seraph the ground around him was starting to become damaged. The massive amounts of energy he was gathering would occasionally lash out and cause something to be destroyed or at least cracked. Seraph’s attack was ready and he was going to unleash an arsenal that would make any army feel ashamed. A gigantic blast of jade green energy shot out of his chest, with two smaller beams of blue energy firing out of the weaponry on his shoulder. From the machine gun on his right arm a barrage of golden energy fired out at an unmatchable speed, from the twin cannon on the left arm massive blasts of energy launched themselves from the barrels. To add a finishing touch to his artillery fire the 14 missiles on his legs fired and arced at the robot from each side, alongside them the countless vertical launching missiles on his back fired up and came crashing down from the sky at the mechanical menace. A set of two terrified screams came from it and then it was engulfed by the incredible power of the attack, instantly silencing them. Seraph’s assault could only last for a brief 10 seconds before all of his high tech armor returned to his normal ensemble of silver shoulder pads, gauntlets and all of his wings. All of the bombardment had created a massive explosion where the mecha stood. After the dust settled and Seraph could see what had happened he was pleased. The mecha was missing its right arm, had no left leg, nothing was left on the back and it was decapitated to boot. The automation crumbled into a heap of metal on the ground, a few more explosions occurring followed up by a stronger one that reduced it all to scrap metal; there was no doubt in his mind that E.L.I.T.E was now short a couple of commanders.

Seraph was fairly drained from his attack however, he had to use a good amount of energy for that attack, but it was worth it to put those pilots in their place.

Yasosume and Ethernial had recovered with the ample time to gather their bearings. Ethernial was the first to get back to his feet, the first thing he saw was the cause of all the noise and chaos he heard, Seraph and a very, very dead mecha. Yasosume got up next, letting out a low whistle, impressed by Seraph’s firepower.

“Well, well, well, you’re tougher then you look demon boy!” Yasosume laughed, only getting a sideways glance from him.

“Stay out of my way, what I do isn’t your concern!” Seraph barked, flapping his wings and shooting into the air like a rocket.

“For fuck’s sake, I knew going to the library would be a bad idea!” Yasosume growled, smacking Ethernial in the arm.

“Yeah, yeah. Lets just go back to the shop, something tells me that we need to inform the others. If anything else the news of Seraph getting rid of some of E.L.I.T.E’s higher up members might be able to make someone’s day,” Ethernial grumbled, rubbing his arm slightly.

* * *

“...I really didn’t need to wake up and hear this first thing in the morning...” Sonaris murmured exasperatedly.

He was still in bed when Ethernial and Yasosume barged in. When they did he sat bolt upright, staring at them angrily.

10 minutes later and Sonaris had dressed and grudgingly dragged himself into the dining room, to find Tikai had also been waken up and was angrily holding her wrench while at the same time trying to stay awake. When everyone had gathered in the room and the two redheads told them about the encounter with Seraph it stopped some of the growling from a sleep deprived Tikai.

“What is this Fenris anyway?” Tikai inquired.

“Depends where you read it. In books they say Fenris was the son of the god Loki and he was tied up with a magic chain to prevent him from running around. Seraph read it from a book that probably copied the legend straight from a scroll so it sounds different then what we have now, probably due to translation errors. But for the most part you don’t want Fenris to ever roam freely. Because no matter where you read it, when the restraints on the beast are broken the era of Ragnarok begins. And if you’re going to ask me about that it’s the end of the world. It goes by a lot of names, Armageddon, the Apocalypse, in Norse it’s called the Ragnarok. It’s marked with Fenris breaking free, the sun and moon being swallowed up, the Earth sent into darkness and a battle between all people and gods will occur. What happens afterwards I’m not sure about, it’s always different depending where you read it from,” Ethernial explained getting a blank stare from the others in the room.

“What? I had a lot of time to read during that trip Yasosume and I took!” He replied quickly.

“Since Seraph is looking into Fenris we can assume that his intentions mean nothing good for us,” Sonaris grumbled. Tikai looked somewhat unsettled at what Ethernial had told her, it made no sense, and took a stab at everything she thought she knew.

::Why? Why are you causing so much chaos, Airaxen?! Do I have to kill you one day now...? Why are you doing these stupid things?!:: Tikai thought desperately, but put her thoughts aside for the moment, there was still more to be told apparently.

“Well we do have some good news!” Yasosume suddenly jumped in. “We had a run in with E.L.I.T.E while we were chasing Seraph. Their second and third in command greeted us and Seraph took them out of the picture permanently. But then again considering the kind of power Seraph is really packing I don’t know if it’s a good thing...” Yasosume trailed off, looking up in thought.

“Perhaps Dimitri still has some control over him?” Sonaris suggested, but Ethernial shook his head.

“Doubt it, Seraph’s aura has changed, it’s not as dark after Dimitri got resurrected,” Ethernial dismissed.

“Does it matter? If he wants to bring about the end of the world then we have to beat him senseless regardless!” Yasosume grumbled, oversimplifying the situation.

“Well if anything else we probably should confront him on the situation,” Sonaris pointed out while stifling a yawn.

“Do we have to do it first thing in the morning?” Tikai asked sleepily, head now on the table.

“I thought you’d want to see Seraph again!” Yasosume laughed, however this only provoked Tikai into throwing her wrench at her, which hit with great force. The fox girl leapt out of her chair and lunged at Tikai, but Ethernial grabbed her by the tail and pulled her back into her seat, only getting an angry grumbling and quiet curses from her.

“Give me a moment, I need to stick my head in some cold water to wake up,” Sonaris mumbled and left the table. Tikai didn’t move from her spot, staying there and just staring blankly, Ethernial doing his best to make sure no one started fighting with each other. Yasosume folded her arms and glared at Ethernial angrily.

“Only for your sake I won’t fight,” She hissed at him, getting a weak smile in return. From the kitchen the sound of splashing water could be heard and a minute later Sonaris emerged, damp and shivering slightly.

“Alright! Lets go!”

* * *

“I guess it’s time we started this summoning.”

“It’s a good thing I was able to learn a little something from when Dimitri was in control of our body.”

“...We have a job to do, and it’s to stop Heaven from destroying Hell, no matter what the cost it shouldn’t matter, as long as we complete the task.”

“...Does it matter? I can kill them.”

“Stop patronizing me. Weren’t you the one that wanted to get out job done as soon as possible?”

Seraph had taken refuge in the forest that bordered Lutenia, the ruins at the lake were under investigation, and using the main tower as his summoning point would attract to much attention. The demon carved a large intricate runic design in a clearing on the forest floor, it took him nearly an hour but it was necessary to call on something from a different dimension. He put his hands at the edge of the circle causing it release a dark red light into the air. Clouds began to form in the clear sky above and block out the sun all over Lutenia, rather fitting for what he was doing. Seraph stood away from his circle, he only had to put some energy into activating the circle, now it was just a matter of time to see if the wolf was listening for its name.

Seraph glanced around from side to side then formed his lance.

“Don’t bother sneaking up on me, I can already sense all of you around me,” Seraph announced. From his four sides all of his old acquaintances appeared, surrounding him and the circle he created.

“Why are you summoning Fenris?!” Tikai demanded, ball of green energy forming in her right hand.

“Why does it matter? I’m only doing what I wish to do!” Seraph growled back.

“We thought you were one of us! One of the good guys!” Ethernial protested. Seraph scoffed at the comment, twirling his lance around.

“You are naive, more so then your Airaxen was. Well, I’m not going to waste my breath with the likes of you!” Seraph hissed, moving into a fighting stance. “If you’ve come to stop me, then I dare you to try!” Seraph flew down the gauntlet with that, Sonaris forming a sniper rifle on his right arm, the visor forming over his right eye. Sonaris began to pelt Seraph with blasts of blue lasers. The demon did his best to deflect the attacks away knowing if he left the circle that one of the others would interrupt its calling.

::If I could I’d use my Heavy Armor again, but there’s no more energy left to run it today! Doesn’t matter, Stealth should be sufficient...:: Seraph held his lance in his right hand, the left beginning to glow white. Yasosume prepared a fireball and smashed it into the ground, a surge of magma erupting to engulf the glowing circle. Seraph spun around and targeted the base of the wave and released a barrage of white beams, that blasted it apart and collapsed before striking the circle. But this action let Tikai come in from behind and smash her fist in the small of his back as well as sending a burst of green energy at him at point blank range, Seraph being sent hurtling forward with a haze of blood. Ethernial approached the circle and changed his hands into two purple beams, he only needed to just break one of the runes on the circle to stop the summoning, not a hard task.

“Wait, where did Seraph go?!” Yasosume suddenly pointed out to the others, he had vanished into thin air! Ethernial didn’t bother listening and jabbed his arms down, only to find that something deflected the blow away. Seraph reappeared, this time wearing the black armor from the previous time with E.L.I.T.E, the scythe blades on both of his arms again.

“I won’t let you stop my work!” Seraph growled, slashing at Ethernial with his other arm, knocking him back with another gash to add to the injuries he acquired earlier. Seraph vanished once more with the abilities of his armor, the other remaining fighters all trying to tell where he was. The next victim was Sonaris, Seraph believed him with the most keen abilities and appeared behind him, an arm around his neck and his other arm behind him, its blade pressed against the back of his neck.

“Get away or I’ll kill him,” Seraph growled, Tikai and Yasosume exchanging glances. Without many options left the two backed off, Seraph using Sonaris as a shield, however he didn’t look to worried. Sonaris weighed his options and even he didn’t think he could pull off a fancy maneuver to escape from Seraph. When Ethernial came around he to moved back, eyeing the demon carefully. They were at a standoff, Seraph was in control of the situation and if anyone dared to interfere with his summoning circle then someone’s head was going to roll.

At that moment the runic circle began to pulsate waves of red energy, it looked like someone did hear its name. Crimson red mist poured out of the circle, overflowing out of the ground and covering the forest floor. Sonaris then took his chance and slammed his fist into Seraph’s face while he was distracted by the events and broke free from his grip. Sonaris formed a katana in his right hand and charged straight at the circle to try and destroy it before it was totally complete. But Seraph had launched one of his arm blades at Sonaris, striking him in the back and returning like a boomerang. However the other three also attacked the circle, Yasosume with jet of flames, Ethernial trying to slice it apart and Tikai hurling a green orb at the circle. All three attacks struck their target and destroyed the ruin, but it was to late. All of the mist that had poured out of the circle began to gather itself into a single mass above where the circle used to be.

Seraph’s armor turned back to normal, he needed to use the diversion to prepare for the second part of his plan.

::Damnit, I didn’t have the time to finish everything before they arrived! I’ll just have to do this now!:: Seraph declared, putting his right forefinger into his mouth and biting down hard on it, wincing slightly. He took his finger out and looked at it, his fangs had pierced a hole on the tip of his finger, the injury leaking blood. He did the same to the other hand as well then rolled his sleeves up and began to draw sets of runic circles on his wrists.

The red mist had all condensed together and now was starting to take shape. Limbs erupted from the bottom of the mass forming into a set of wolf legs, each with lethal blade-like claws. The body began to contour into the shape of a canine, a tail sprouting from one end while a head began to appear on the other. The head of the wolf formed quickly, two narrow black slits for eyes. To add a finishing touch a massive metal chain formed around the neck of Fenris, this must’ve been the restraint that Ethernial and the legend had mentioned. The wolf of destruction paused, looking at the four fighters while emitting a low growling.

Tikai’s gauntlets opened up and she pointed her arms at the head of Fenris and was about to open fire until Ethernial shouted at her.

“WAIT! If you attack Fenris and destroy its chain then you’ll doom us all! And if Fenris has any chance to free itself from that chain it will take advantage of it!” Ethernial warned, Tikai and everyone else lowering their weapons very quickly.

“So what are we going to do?!” Yasosume asked angry she couldn’t simply blow the wolf beast away.

“We’ll have to send it back quickly, I don’t think having an entity made entirely out of energy derived from hatred and destruction is good to keep around,” Sonaris said while moving back as Fenris moved forward.

Suddenly Seraph brushed past all of them, with his wings and arms he flung all of the others back with surprisingly great force. Seraph had taken off his shirt and shoulder pads leaving his upper body bare and exposed, the reason for doing so was so he could draw a large runic circle on his chest, along with two smaller ones on each of his wrists.

“Stay out of this!” Seraph shouted angrily, with the blood coming from his right hand he placed it on his forehead and began to draw one more runic circle. He finished drawing it quickly enough, the second he did all of the circles on his body began to emit brilliant red lights.

“You might be made out of the hatred and evil of the humans, but all of that makes great energy, energy I can use!” Seraph sneered. The body of Fenris began to break down and collapse in on itself back to form the red mass of energy. All of the crimson energy began to flow through the air and go right into the four runes on the demon’s body, he never planned to start the end of the world, he wanted to increase his own power with Fenris!

Fenris soon vanished into Seraph’s body, he had accomplished what even he didn’t know could work. The runes on his body had stopped emitting the light and instead was pulsating slightly. Suddenly a large metal chain formed around his neck with the remaining amount of excess chain wrapping itself around his torso. Seraph looked at the rune on his left hand and then over at the others that had ‘joined’ him for his summoning.<