Tikai skated along slowly with both arms raised, turning around slowly so as to make it harder for something to sneak up on her. As if on cue the walls became distorted and faces appeared like in the previous ruins an army of the undead emerged to attack her. Tikai sighed and began firing numerous blue beams and small green lasers at the zombies. The corridor was being filled with the sounds of pained moans and groans as the zombies fell to the ground lifeless.

“Airaxen makes this look so much harder then it really is,” Tikai said with a smug grin as she blasted the head off another zombie. She was able to hold the attackers off but the problem was she could make no progress forward anymore. Tikai thought for a moment then activated her flight systems and did a quick burn shooting herself into the air while she did a set of spins in the air releasing more attacks down onto the undead to clean an opening for her to land in. Once she landed Tikai spun around firing a flurry of small green lasers at the surrounding undead warriors.

<Can’t move forward like this gets too risky incase one of them gets me, might as well stay in one spot and keep holding them off until there aren’t anymore souls left to make into zombies,> Tikai thought to herself. As the minutes passed zombie after zombie fell victim to blue beams of light piercing through their bodies. About 10 minutes later the hordes of zombies ceased, no more souls were left for the ruins to use as part of it’s undead army. Tikai took a seat on the floor and wiped her forehead of sweat. After a short break she stood up and skated through the rest of the corridor arriving in a large room, the same in design as the room Yasosume was in. Tikai sighed knowing she would most likely run into more trouble but continued to the computer console that faced her. After a few minutes she had found an executable in the computer and decided to see what would happen if she executed it. Words began typing themselves onto the screen stating:

“Second lock opened, final lock remains to be opened to gain access to lower level. Final defenses activating.” Tikai sighed and skated around the room waiting for something to happen, it was so cliche that something had to happen anyway. From the ceiling another snake mecha came crashing down and smashed into the ground just as expected. Tikai pointed all her weapons at it before it recollected itself, 4 thin blue beams blasted at the chest of the mecha along with dozens of small lasers. The beams made their way past the shield and collided against the mecha’s armor, but it was able to raise it’s shield in time to block out the smaller lasers. Tikai stopped firing and hovered back her gauntlets raised in case of a counterattack. The snake-like mecha slithered at Tikai, it’s shield still in the way and it’s sword raised. Tikai shot up into the air and over the mecha doing a set of flips in the air firing down onto the back of the mecha and blasting apart the armor on it’s back. The mecha fell to the ground and onto it’s face. Tikai stayed in the air and retargeted the mecha raining down lasers and beams onto it, blasting apart the armor and some of it’s inner workings. After a few minutes she stopped attacking fairly confident the mecha was incapacitated now. It’s upper body armor was mostly gone and firing out sparks and jolts of electricity. The mecha’s tail suddenly twitched and then shot up at Tikai, knocking her out of the sky and into a wall. She slid down it and landed on the ground with an audible thump.

“Maybe it isn’t as easy as Airaxen makes it looks after all,” Tikai groaned. She looked at the mecha which was getting back up. It was fairly damaged and had difficulty in moving it’s arms properly but it was still functional. Tikai gritted her teeth together and pointed her weapons at the section where the mecha’s body connected to the tail and opened fire on it. The mecha didn’t bother raising it’s shield to block, instead it slowly slithered towards Tikai as her powerful attacks began shredding through the armor, then the body itself. The mecha continued to advance on her, slowly raising it’s sword arm. Beam after beam exploded but it still wasn’t enough to halt it’s progress. Tikai began growing desperate and fired off beams from her chest plate which still weren’t enough to stop the mecha. It was now in arms reach of her, the sword raised and about to strike. She activated her flight systems and with one final attempt she tackled the upper body of the mecha. The stress was enough to snap the mecha in half, from all of the damage she had done to it the mecha could stand no more and fell to the ground with a thunderous crash. Tikai skidded along the ground to a stop and spun around to look at the mecha, her gauntlets pointed at the downed mecha. It was still twitching a slight bit but the mecha collapsed and sparked weakly.

“I don’t like mechas, I really don’t,” Tikai grumbled as she skated back to the main room.

* * *

Airaxen walked through the corridor gripping the Marimatsu in his left hand with the Alpha Blaster formed on his right. When he reached the end of the corridor what was there to greet him was a platform that led to the upper floor. Airaxen walked onto it and let it carry him up to the floor and he found himself over the main room. He glanced down and saw Yasosume emerging from her door, Tikai skating out of hers shortly after. Airaxen the noticed something strange about the floor, it appeared that something was emerging from the glass, fighting to get out. He didn’t hang around to see what it was and dashed to the other side of the room and through the door. The room he entered was the same in design as the ones the others had entered, large, covered in vines, and an old computer console on the opposite wall. Airaxen walked up to the console and looked it over then dematerialized his blaster and formed his wrist device in it’s place. He pulled a cord out of it and inserted it into a small hole next to the monitor. As before the monitor began to write something out onto the screen:

“Final lock opened main door opening. Warning, final defense systems activated, to avoid confrontation deactivate all locks.” Airaxen mumbled something under his breath, he was getting fairly weary of all the fighting. He plugged out of the computer and reformed his blaster and left the room, untroubled by any sort of mecha unlike his friends. However when he reentered the glass room he found that the bridge was no more, a small meter wide platform for him to stand on was all that remained. Airaxen looked at the room now, the walls and ceiling were now covered in clear crystal spikes , the glass floor below him was also altered. In the center was a strange looking beast, it was a tall mass of glass that was propped up with 2 large glass eyes and a helmet like head, the rest of it’s body was attached to the floor as it swayed from side to side gently. It suddenly began to sink into the wall and vanished into it altogether. The glass floor then was covered in spikes while the ceiling’s spikes all vanished. The strange entity reemerged from the ceiling a large glass tentacle shot out and whipped forward at Airaxen. He raised the Marimatsu and blocked the tentacle as it shattered into glass shards. The spikes from the other walls began to fire out forward, Airaxen firing a barrage of lasers to the sides and shattering the crystals from below and in front. Eventually he missed one and was struck in the side, the spike stabbing into his side. Airaxen became distracted by the injury and lost concentration and hit in the other side then taken by two more spikes in the chest and knocked back up against the wall. The glass monster sank back up into the ceiling the ceiling’s spikes being replaced along with all of the spikes fired by the other walls. Airaxen pulled the spikes out of his body, his injuries sparking slightly. He put away the Marimatsu as the wall to his left as the spikes disappeared and the glass attacker reemerged from the wall. Airaxen formed a white orb in his freed hand-

“Dark-light bomb!” And threw it at the creature, the orb enlarging to massive size and smashing into the creature in a massive blue and white explosion. Shards of glass were sent flying from the attack, after the dust and smoke cleared half of the creature was destroyed, but it simply sank back into the wall. This time the creature reformed on the floor fully repaired, the changing of spikes taking place at the same time. Airaxen retargeted the glass attacker with his Alpha Blaster and opened fire, however a set of spikes shot up in front of it and took the hit for it. The spikes hanging over Airaxen glowed red for a second, Airaxen noticed this and leapt forward gliding through the air and onto the other platform right as a set of red beams shot down on the platform. He pointed his weapon at the creature then paused and lowered it slightly pointing at the base of the creature and then opened fire. As the lasers collided with the beast it let out a pained cry, each new laser blasting apart more of it. 2 tentacles shot out of the floor and lashed out at Airaxen. He wasn’t prepared to counter attack and was smacked in the right shoulder with the first tentacle and knocked to the side while the second tentacle knocked him back to the other side throwing him off balance and onto the platform. The glass beast retreated into the glass once more, this time reappearing on the opposite wall from Airaxen. He formed a new white orb in his left hand.

“Dark-light!” The ball of energy shot out and smashed into the glass beast and shattered it’s head sending shards in all directions. Airaxen opened fire on it before the creature could retreat into the glass again, ripping apart the creature and destroying it once and for all. The spikes around the room loosened and then fell to the ground, Airaxen firing up at the spikes overhead to avoid being impaled once more. After the room returned to normal he sighed and shook his head, turned around and walked through the door to join up with the others back in the main room. Tikai and Yasosume were seated on opposite sides of the raised platform, apparently they couldn’t hear what occurred above them.

“Took you long enough Airaxen,” Yasosume said to him.

“Yeah well if you looked up then you might have noticed I ran into a few complications,” Airaxen responded wearily. Tikai looked over at him and took note of the damage to his armor and the occasional sparks that would fire out of his injuries.

“Are you ok?” She asked worriedly. Airaxen chuckled and gave her a thumbs up.

“Perfectly fine,” he said. “Now lets get going and get that key fragment,” Airaxen declared. The two got back up to their feet and jumped onto the platform, Airaxen mumbled something and jumped onto the platform as well. He looked at the center of the platform, the area where the eye was drawn has gone and replaced with a hole in the platform leading to a lower level. Airaxen leapt down it first, then Tikai and finally Yasosume. Their decent was short, they landed in a massive room with a latched door in the center of the floor. The room was empty except for the usual pattern that had was ongoing in the ruins, vines, rune marked walls, the usual. The three looked around the room, then at each other. With some reluctance Airaxen once more took the initiative and walked forward slowly. The ground began to rumble violently as he had expected, he formed two orbs of light in his hands and assumed a fighting stance. In the air in front of the three something began to materialize slowly. The shape was big and bulky like a cylinder, the bottom with spikes on the top two massive triangles that resembled wings. Two smaller sets of triangular wings were below them lavished in mechanical parts under them. At the rear was a massive spiked tail that arced around in the air. This part finished forming soon, for the most part it was black the wings and what little armor plating it had was a brightly polished silver. Forming underneath the lower wings two long silver plated tubes shot out, then another two from beside the wings, another two next to those and a final black one shot out of the center. Suddenly a head appeared on the end of each tube, a dragon-like head with a large red gem for an eye. The formation was complete, their opponent was a large 9 headed hydra mecha. All 9 heads let out a thunderous roar that rang out through the ruins, then reared up and shot out 3 of them at each of the heroes. Airaxen leapt up and did a flip over the heads as they smashed into the ground.

“Dark-light slash!” He slammed the orbs of light together and spun around in mid-air as a thin and long beam of light shot out and slashed apart the three heads, the heads smashing into the ground and exploding. Yasosume flicked her wrists and shot out two jets of fire at the heads, blasting them back as they let out a pained shriek. The stumps of the three heads fell to the ground, the ends smoldering and twitching. Tikai pointed her gauntlets forward and let loose a barrage of light that shot holes into the heads of the mecha, the attack falling short the heads dropping to the ground emitting a weak whining sound.

“Stay on your guard, mechas that have such weak armor normally have some sort of regenerative system,” Airaxen warned. Sure enough the heads rose back up, new heads forming and the damage being repaired quickly. Tikai flicked out the handle to one of her wrist blades and activated it the blue crescent beam shot to life. She spun around and released the weapon at one of the hydra’s heads, the beam connecting her weapons together wrapping around the neck of the head. Tikai pulled on her gauntlet the beams tightening around the neck, the blade of the weapon cutting into it. With another tug she sliced through the head and recalled her weapon. They hydra had enough and didn’t let the other two have a chance to attack and opened the jaws of the other 8 heads, shooting down white beams of light at Airaxen since he was identified as most dangerous. Airaxen raised his arms to defend, the attack blasting him back and destroying his gauntlets. He skidded back and formed the Epsilon Cannon on his left arm and targeted the center head, firing off a single plasma bolt. One of the heads moved in front of the attack and was blasted into shrapnel instead of the intended target. The hydra shot forward at Airaxen, the jaws opened and ready to engulf him. Airaxen leapt back firing plasma bolts at the heads trying to stop them, but one bypassed his attacks and chomped onto his right arm. He let out a howl of pain, the hydra head lifting him up and swinging Airaxen around violently trying to rip his arm off. Airaxen growled and tried to target the base of the neck but the violent movements made it difficult. He simply just fired a plasma bolt down, it smashed into the side of the neck and freed himself from the hydra. Airaxen landed on the ground roughly, the reagents of the head still affixed to his arm. Yasosume and Tikai both stepped in front of Airaxen, weapons pointed at the hydra. Tikai opened fire, lasers and beams blasting apart the hydra as its heads convulsed. Yasosume launched a multitude of fireballs at the mecha igniting the remaining 8 heads in flames, the mecha falling back with a loud crash. She stopped her attack and turned around, crouched down and ripped the hydra head off of Airaxen’s arm.

“Are you ok?” Yasosume inquired. Airaxen sat up, his right arm limb by his side and crackling with electricity.

“Yeah I’m fine, my arm is just out of commission for awhile,” he responded. Tikai looked back at them and frowned, the feeling of discouragement returning. The hydra finished repairing itself, one of the heads shot out at Tikai. She looked at the hydra as it let out a roar, caught off guard by the attack. Airaxen’s instincts kicked in and he leapt off the ground and in the way of the hydra, the head clamped onto his torso diagonally, the upper jaw digging into his shoulder while the lower jaw bit into his side. Sparks fired out of his new wounds and increasing in intensity, Airaxen with his left arm trying to force the head off of his body before it ripped him in half. Yasosume came intervened two fireballs in her hands. She leapt up and let loose a stream of flames that sliced right through the neck of the mecha.

“You have to stop getting yourself in these situations Airaxen, I might just leave you in one sooner or later,” Yasosume commented with a smirk. Airaxen chuckled weakly and pulled the decapitated head off his body. He turned around and looked at Tikai who was looking away from his gaze.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve been paying attention...” She mumbled.

“It’s alright, we’ll talk about this in a moment, I’m getting tired of this hydra,” Airaxen said a bit weakly. Yasosume decided to content with the mecha leaping back and forth avoiding the heads of the mecha as they came crashing down at her trying to rip her apart. Airaxen regarded the hydra mecha and thought on how to stop it from regenerating. Yasosume was getting desperate for what to do to counterattack against the mecha but it was almost impossible without one of the hydra heads grabbing her.

“Airaxen! Go demon on this thing’s butt! I can’t find an opening to attack!” Yasosume shouted. Airaxen drew back as if he was hit and shook his head.

“N-no!” Airaxen stuttered. “Don’t worry! We can beat this thing without having to do that!” He affirmed. Airaxen thought quickly for something, in desperation he formed his sword and charged forward, grabbing the Marimatsu and swinging it at the necks of the hydra heads. The hydra saw Airaxen and swung around, one of the heads head butting him away and into a wall. Airaxen’s body dented the wall and he rebounded off it and onto the ground. He groaned weakly and got back to his feet, looking over at his two companions as they both were trying to escape from the heads of the hydra. Tikai darted through the air backwards to avoid the snapping jaws of the hydra, opening fire on the automation. The remainder of the heads were targeted on Yasosume as she leapt away from it in leaps and bounds. Airaxen raised his weapon and swung it, a white crescent of energy emerging from the blade and flying at the mecha’s body. It suddenly stopped and all 9 of it’s heads moved in the way of Airaxen’s attack and were willingly decapitated to negate the energy slash. The mecha had left itself vulnerable and now 4 beams smashed into the side of it along with 3 throwing knives, blasting apart the wings and spraying mechanical parts all over the ground. The heads regenerated again except some of the armor plating on 3 of them was missing. The hydra opened it’s mouths and shot 3 white beams at it’s opponents. Tikai dropped back down onto the ground to avoid the beams, Yasosume kicked off a wall as the beams blasted it apart. Airaxen stood his ground and slashed apart the beams with the Marimatsu. Tikai reactivated her flight systems and took to the air again, forming her hand blades and shooting over the top of the mecha while throwing the weapons into the hydra’s back. The blades dug into the armor easily and were pulled right across one side of it’s back before Tikai recalled them. The attack sent the hydra reeling to the side, Yasosume coming in with her right hand engulfed in flames. She kicked off the ground at the mecha, her right hand flat and then spun around using her hand like a blade and slicing through the already weakened side of the mecha. It let out a pained roar and came crashing to the ground. Airaxen charged in once more as the hydra was weakened. He kicked off the ground and lunged forward holding the Marimatsu out in front of himself, spinning around like a drill. Airaxen easily sliced through the hydra and right through it, landing on the ground behind the mecha gracefully. However the hydra still had some fight in it, trying to get back up and lifting it’s heads up into the air once more. Airaxen put away his sword and formed the Epsilon Cannon, Yasosume flicked her wrists to prepare for an attack, Tikai in the air pointed all her weapons down at the hydra. Before it could recover it was bombarded on all sides by attacks, a blast of translucent white energy from Airaxen, two massive jets of fire from Yasosume and countless numbers of lasers and beams being rained down onto it from Tikai. The mecha convulsed violently from the attacks, it’s armor and machine parts were being blasted apart or melted away. The attacks stopped shortly, the hydra falling limp. The three regrouped now confident their attacker was incapacitated. Airaxen dematerialized his weapon and let out a sigh of relief.

“Well that wasn’t too bad,” he commented. But they were too soon in their celebrations, the main head of the hydra began to rise along with the other 8. Airaxen narrowed his eyes and looked back at the mecha, in a split second he reformed the Marimatsu, dashed forward and slashed right through the body of the mecha the two halves being jettisoned apart by the force of the attack. Not even the hydra could function after that attack, the two halves fell to the ground and then exploded in a blaze of flames and shrapnel.

“Now it’s dead,” Airaxen mumbled.

“Where’s that Crystal Key piece that’s in here?” Tikai asked. Yasosume looked around the room at the rubble of the hydra mecha then noticed something among the parts. She walked over and from it pulled out a large oval-like gem, orange in color and was large enough that it needed her to hold it in both hands.

“I got it,” she said simply. The other two looked at her and blinked. Yasosume held up the gem and then tossed it towards Airaxen.

“You keep it Albino. Now lets get out of here,” she announced. Airaxen caught the gem and looked it over then nodded.

“Right lets get out of here,” Airaxen agreed.

* * *

An hour later the trio were back aboard the Starblade lazily flying through the air unsure of where their next destination would be. It was late at night now, about 11:41 PM. Airaxen was lazing around on the top of the ship once more, he put the piece of the key they found in the storage room for the time being.

Tikai was lying on her bed staring up at the ceiling, the room dark except for the moonlight coming through a window and trying to get asleep but was unable too; something was bothering her.

<Airaxen likes Yasosume I bet...And after all I told him, all the things we’ve been through, why? I know...It’s because I’m human and not like some hybrid like her...I’ll get old and ugly and he’d never want to be with me then! But...I still can’t believe that he’d be so...Cold, but then again he’s done it so many times before, he even promised he wouldn’t! But...I guess I’m not enough for him anymore...> She reasoned solemnly. Tikai rolled over onto her side and sighed quietly.

<Today I nearly got killed, Airaxen had to save me again, he probably thinks I’m useless! Always having to be saved, can’t even take care of myself...After all the things I tried...Nothing!> She muttered a curse and rolled onto her stomach, face in her pillow. Tikai lay there motionless, consumed with depression.

Yasosume paced back and forth in her room, contemplating to herself.

<It’s so hard to be nice to that...HUMAN! GAH! But...It means that Airaxen doesn’t get mad at me so I guess it’s not too bad...> Yasosume sighed and sat on her bed, looking out the window at the moon.

<Why do I feel like this? He’s...Got me wrapped around his little finger or something!> She thought confusedly. She sighed and shook her head and lay back on the bed.

<Just another thing I’ll be doing on a whim...Heh...Oh well...I feel that it’s what I gotta do for some reason,> she reflected. Yasosume shook her head and let out a yawn. She gave it no more thought and decided it would be best to go to sleep for the night.

* * *

It was early the next morning when Airaxen woke up and sat up, the wind in his face not bothering him anymore. He stretched his arms out and stood up slowly. Taking in a deep breath of the morning air, looking at the rising sun.

<Right then, time to do some researching into the next piece of the crystal key,> Airaxen concluded shortly. He headed back into the ship slowly, stifling a yawn. Airaxen wandered around the cockpit checking the status of the vital signs of the ship, engine output, atmospheric controls. He was just about to leave when some beeping from one of the control panels stopped him. Airaxen’s curiosity overcame him and he walked over to the console, looked it over blankly, closed his eyes, and pressed a random button. The beeping stopped a holographic screen appearing along with a communications link opening. On the screen was Ethernial smiling broadly and giving Airaxen the peace sign, behind him was the same old hotel room, Sonaris occasionally walking across the background.

“Ethernial?” Airaxen asked surprised.

“What’s up bro?” He greeted in a cheery tone.

“...Bro...?” Airaxen speculated. Sonaris walked over to the monitor feeling that he had to explain the situation.

“Ethernial has been learning the basics of human life, he felt that he needed to have a family and since Dimitri created the three of us with the same genetic code he says we’re all related and such,” he explained a tad embarrassed.

“So yeah! Sonaris is the oldest, I’m second and your the youngest Airaxen cause you’re still not a 1000 yet,” Ethernial said. Sonaris shrugged and let out a quiet laugh then went back to whatever he was doing.

“...What is it you wanted to contact me about again?” Airaxen asked blankly.

“Right, Sonaris and I have been sending messages to all the nearby islands and asked them to forward our message which was to get the citizens of the islands to let you all into ruins with the Crystal Key pieces,” Ethernial explained. Airaxen nodded and then thought of something.

“How did you two know of the Crystal Key in the first place?” He inquired.

“We found out a day after you guys left. Knowing how you’d react we decided to try and think of some way of helping you find the pieces.”

“Am I that predictable?”

“Yup.”

“I see.” Ethernial paused suddenly and looked up in thought, then redirected his attention towards Airaxen.

“On a lighter note how are you and the girls?” Ethernial asked. Airaxen didn’t expect the question and was unable to answer for awhile, finally:

“We’re all fine.”

“I mean how are you guys getting along?”

“Hm...I guess things are getting along nicely, why do you ask?”

“Well you do know both of them want to be with you right?”

“What do you mean?”

“...Oh man you are dense!” Ethernial exclaimed with a laugh. Airaxen blinked, the situation didn’t make much sense to him.

“Well you’ll get it sooner or later, it’s a...Human thing,” Ethernial laughed. Airaxen blinked again, his face blank.

“Where’s the next Crystal Key piece anyway?” Airaxen asked.

“Oh right, it’s in a small city in the Eastern Ocean. The city itself is floating over the water since the ruins stick out of the water and was basically a massive tower, so that’s how the city was formed. Now if the rumor is correct you have to get moving, Dimitri knows about these ruins and has Omega attacking the city frequently to get to the key.”

“This time I’m not going to let Omega walk away,” Airaxen hissed. Ethernial thought for a moment, closing his eyes.

“I believe that Tikai is awake right now, Yasosume is still asleep and you’re still worried about something in the back of your mind,” Ethernial concluded. Airaxen chuckled and shook his head.

“Don’t go into my head,” Airaxen said quietly.

“Hey I had a vibe. Now then, what’s bothering you?”

“I’m reminded of when we went to save Yasosume. Omega pushed me over the edge and nearly caused me to lose total control, it was from my anger my new Demon form was created. It’s more powerful then even my Imperfect form, but when I used it I was almost engulfed in it’s malevolent power. If I use that form again I might not be able to keep in my normal state of mind,” Airaxen stated in the same quiet voice.

“Didn’t Tikai tell you not to be afraid of the darkness?” Ethernial reminded. The door to the cockpit suddenly opened up, Tikai walking into the room, dressed in her normal garments of a black spandex top, blue vest and blue jeans, blue was a very dominating color in Tikai.

“Are you still hung up about that entire darkness thing Air?” She asked sleepily. Airaxen looked over at her, his mouth open but no words coming out. He closed his mouth and nodded. Tikai walked over and shook her head before responding.

“Airaxen don’t worry! You are so pure you can’t be tainted! You were almost engulfed in darkness because of all that hate and anger you had. If you can’t remember that darkness isn’t evil then at least remember that you can use your Demon form, just remember what you’re fighting for, you hear me? Got that through your dense head?” Tikai sighed and put a hand on Airaxen’s shoulder.

“Listen to her man, she’s smart about this sorta of thing,” Ethernial reassured. Airaxen looked from Tikai and the screen and nodded slowly.

“I just hope that you’re both right,” Airaxen said a bit less then confident. He shook his head and then looked back at the screen.

“Right what’s this city named anyway?”

“Oh right, the city is called Ravenhourde, and like I said make haste Omega is probably there!” Ethernial said then finally closed the link. Tikai leapt into the pilot’s seat, strapped in and began engaging the engines. Airaxen blinked and looked around to find something to hold onto. The loud hum of energy converging at the back of the ship instilled panic into Airaxen, his searching getting more frantic. Finally he decided to cling onto the Tikai’s chair, wrapping his arms around it and her. Tikai blinked and smiled slightly, then the ship rocketed forward, Airaxen letting out a cry of protest, most likely Yasosume did as well having being woken up in such a rude manner.

* * *

It didn’t take that long to be in sight of Ravenhourde, just about 2 hours at maximum burn. Finally the Starblade slowed down, letting Airaxen stand rather then cling onto a chair. Immediately after the ship returned to it’s normal speed Yasosume burst through the door, her hair all over her face, making her look much more menacing then normal, that and the look of anger on her face contributed to the appearance.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” She roared, rattling everything in the room. Tikai casually got out of her chair, stood up and turned to face her.

“Nothing, why do you ask?” She responded coolly.

“THAT’S IT!” Yasosume lunged at Tikai, however Airaxen stood in the way and was tackled to the ground instead. She was about to set Airaxen’s head on fire until she noticed that it was him and not Tikai, at which point she lowered her arm.

“Airaxen...I’m sorry, I uh...Didn’t mean to lose control like that,” she mumbled then looked away from him and then got off him.

“It’s ok, you just got up I guess it’s natural if to be cranky if you were woken up like that,” Airaxen said back.

“Well, where are we now?” Yasosume asked.

“Ravenhourde, it’s a city built over the water,” Tikai answered. Yasosume winced, her left eye twitching severely, a look of petrifaction spreading over her face and body.

“W-water?” She stuttered. Airaxen got back up then, but the instant he did Yasosume leapt onto him from the side, arms latched tightly around his neck and legs wrapped around his waist.

“I don’t want to go here! Can’t we go somewhere else?! Please?!” She shouted desperately. Airaxen had trouble in maintaining upright as Yasosume began shouting randomly, her tail waving around frantically.

“Ack! We-oof have to go here! For the Crystal Key piece!” Airaxen protested. Yasosume shouted back her protest, her immense fear of water fueled her ranting and raving. Airaxen put a finger over Yasosume’s mouth finally silencing her, Yasosume began to blush somewhat as well.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you don’t fall in and drown, and even if you did fall in I’d dive in right after you!” Airaxen reassured. She looked away from him her tail relaxing.

“I...Uh...But...Do you promise?” She asked finally.

“I promise,” he reassured yet again. Tikai looked away from the scene, a hand over her chest.

“No...” She whispered sadly. Airaxen looked over at Tikai.

“Did you say something?” He inquired, she looked at him quickly and shook her head.

“You two get ready to go, I’m going to find a place to park the ship,” Tikai said quietly. They left the room leaving her alone in her thoughts.

<Do you no longer care for me because I’m just human...? Do you like Yasosume because she’s like you and can actually fight without all my clunky armor? Is it because I’ll age and get ugly then die? Why did you abandon me Airaxen...?> She pondered sadly. Tikai walked to her controls slowly and sped the ship up to the city. The city of Ravenhourde was built into the top of a massive tower that stuck out of the water, the city was large it’s walls were dull in color. On closer inspection the walls were damaged and covered in scorch marks. Their were a set of docks on the side of the city, she carefully maneuvered the ship into one of the docks where a crew of men threw set of chains around the ship to keep it in place as a walkway was attached to the door. Airaxen walked back into the cockpit after retrieving all the pieces to his armor, Yasosume still clinging onto him her eyes shut and letting out a quiet whining noise.

“She’s still terrified...” Airaxen said somewhat annoyed. Tikai didn’t look over and let out a grunt.

“Aren’t you going to come with us?” Airaxen asked.

“No,” Tikai said quickly. Airaxen blinked and approached the chair trying to get a view of her but she got angry with him.

“I SAID NO!” She shouted. Airaxen drew back confused and then nodded slowly.

“Ok...” He accepted then walked out of the room, a moment later the sound of the main door of the ship slamming shut entered her ears. Tikai’s head was lowered her eyes shut and flowing with tears.

* * *

“Yasosume.”

“NO!”

“Yasosume.”

“NO! NO! NO!”

“YASOSUME!”

“YOU CAN’T MAKE ME DO THAT!”

“I can and I will!”

“NEVER!”

“You’d be amazed!”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“I said let go of the mailbox!” Airaxen yelled while pulling at her waist trying to get her free from a mailbox she had clung onto when entering the city.

“I thought we talked about this already!” Airaxen shouted.

“But Air!” Yasosume protested.

“No buts! Let go of the mailbox!”

“NO!”

“YES!” With a burst of strength from Airaxen he was able to yank Yasosume off the mailbox, but she simply spun around and latched herself onto something else, this time it was Airaxen’s head.

“...Yasosume.”

“What?” She asked while shivering slightly.

“Let go of my head.”

“NO!” She shouted desperately.

“Yasosume!” He shouted and then grabbed onto her trying to push her off. Yasosume didn’t put up too much of a fight and let go then did a flip around in the air and grabbed onto his leg tightly.

“...Alright I give up, at least I can still walk,” Airaxen submitted. He looked around at his surroundings, he stood on a sidewalk in front of some sort of office building. All around him were more buildings and walkways hanging overhead. Airaxen looked around, nothing very special about the city the buildings were dark and dull in color, but the problem was that the buildings were all damaged and burnt, Omega had been attacking the city rather fiercely.

<This time I’ll take you out,> Airaxen swore silently. He stopped one of the bystanders and asked where he could go to get into the ruins, the man looked him over carefully and then pointed down the street to a large formal looking building that was generally white except for a series of massive scorch marks on the sides. Airaxen thanked the man and began half walking, half dragging Yasosume along.

“Yasosume you have to let go,” he stated grudgingly. Yasosume shook her head, eyes shut tightly.

“I don’t want too!” She mumbled into his leg armor.

“You have to get over your fears, that’s the only way to move on in life and grow,” Airaxen explained quietly.

“But...”

“No buts Yasosume. Dig deep into yourself and find some courage to take a step forward.”

“This is scary...You sound like you know what you’re talking about for once Albino,” Yasosume commented with a slight quiver to her voice.

“I have my moments every now and then,” Airaxen commented with a slight slyness in his voice. In a few minutes they got to the city hall building and walked into a large marble tiled room with a desk and a secretary behind it. Airaxen walked over and before he could say a word the secretary pointed to a door to the side. He said his thanks and walked to the door (the secretary stared oddly noticing Yasosume clinging to his leg) and knocked on the door, a gruff sounding man told them to come in. He opened the door entering a rather messy office, books and papers lying everywhere one of the bookshelves had fallen over as well. The man was behind his desk trying to sort some papers. He looked up at Airaxen then back down at his papers before standing up. The man had thin build and wore a slightly worn black business suit, Airaxen assumed this man was the mayor of Ravenhourde.

“I take it you’re Airaxen?” He asked curtly.

“Yes.”

“Right, you want into the ruins?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“What?”

“I said no.”

“Why not?”

“Omega is always trying to get to them, can’t risk opening them up until he’s gone,” the man explained shortly.

“So if I can get rid of Omega you can open the ruins?”

“Yes...You’re just like what the papers say you’re like, headstrong.” Airaxen chuckled weakly at the comment and rubbed his neck gingerly. Suddenly a loud explosion could be heard coming from outside. Airaxen’s eyes narrowed and lifted the leg with Yasosume up so the man could see her as she clung onto him.

“Watch her,” Airaxen said blandly and with a fierce and sudden kick knocked her loose from his leg to which she decided to cling onto the chandelier overhead instead. He dashed out of the building and back into the city looking in all directions frantically.

<Where are you?> He thought to himself. Suddenly a building off to the right exploded into flames. Airaxen looked up and in the sky was Omega his left arm a large cannon the barrel still letting out trails of smoke. He turned to look at Airaxen then descended onto the ground in front of the ruins, chuckling slightly in his metallic voice.

“We meet again it would seem. I take it you too are after the Crystal Key piece in this city’s ruins?” Omega mused quietly. Airaxen didn’t respond and instead formed two orbs of white energy in his clenched fists.

“No witty banter this time? Fine then be that way,” he mocked.

“Last time I took too long in trying to kill you, this time I won’t make the same mistake,” Airaxen growled.

“Last time we met I made no true effort in fighting you! I simply needed to copy your data once more. I originally planned on copying that attack you call the Destinyblade but what I obtained is just as good...” Silver oozed out of his central gem and down his arms and back. On his back the silver liquid solidified and formed into a second set of smaller wings. The ooze on his arms began to cluster together and shortly his forearms lengthened into cylinders then with a few final things setting into place his arms were done transforming, on the right arm was a silver copy of Airaxen’s Alpha Blaster and on the other was a copy of the Epsilon Cannon. Finally from the barrels of each weapon 5 long gold beams shot out and bent downward like oversized claws. Omega laughed quietly to himself at the look of intense hate on Airaxen’s face.

“Ready?” Omega asked arrogantly. Airaxen let out a battle cry and charged forward.

“Dark-light!” He cried out and shot out a wave of white energy at Omega. He raised his left arm and fired a black plasma bolt at the beam, the two attacks canceling each other out in a massive explosion that sent Airaxen hurtling back. Omega dashed forward his right hand raised and firing a mass of lasers at Airaxen, each one blasting him back and cracking apart his armor. Airaxen raised his left arm forming the Epsilon Cannon and fired a green plasma bolt at Omega’s arm. Omega chuckled and with his left claw he slashed apart the plasma bolt before it got to him. Airaxen fired more plasma bolts at Omega who effortlessly slashed them apart with his claws.

“Is that all you got Airaxen?” Omega mocked while adding a yawn to his comment. Airaxen pulled out the Marimatsu and swung it a white crescent beam firing out of the blade. Omega raised his claw and brought it down on the crescent beam but it was too powerful for Omega and sliced through his right arm and cut off one of his wings.

“That answer your question?” Airaxen replied with a smirk. Omega growled and regenerated the damage in an instant pointing his arms out and released a barrage of lasers and plasma bolts. Airaxen backed away quickly swinging the sword and firing more crescent beams to negate Omega’s attack. Explosions ripped apart the city streets, Airaxen and Omega each barely able to keep upright from the blasts of the explosions between their attacks. Airaxen lunged forward once seeing an opening in the flurry of explosions and right up to Omega and stabbed at his central gem, Omega spun to the side just narrowly avoiding the blade. Airaxen quickly hovered off the ground and spun around gashing right into Omega and knocking him back. Airaxen leapt away, Omega’s wound sparking with lost electricity. Omega pointed his left arm at Airaxen and fired another plasma bolt, this one catching him off guard and blasting apart his armor. Before Airaxen could get back to his feet Omega flew at him grabbing him around the torso with his claws, burning through his armor and skin slowly. He tossed Airaxen into the air like a rag doll, he charged the weapon on his right arm and fired a set of 5 black beams up at him ripping apart whatever armor and skin covering he had over his chest. Small pieces of his armor rained down around the area. Airaxen landed on the ground roughly armor only on his forearms and lower body, the pulsating blue vines showing now. Airaxen tried to get back to his feet but Omega came in quickly and with a swift kick knocking Airaxen back, rolling along the ground and into the side of a building. Omega stopped for a moment to gloat but Airaxen still had plenty of fight left and pointed his Epsilon Cannon at Omega then launched a sneaky green plasma bolt at Omega. He didn’t react fast enough and his swing fell short the attack bypassing him and then blasted apart his chest silver ooze splattering everywhere. After the smoke cleared Omega stood there his body regenerating the damage rapidly.

“Now I’m getting angry,” Omega growled. He shot at Airaxen lifting him up again and then swung around slamming him into another building then flung him into the air. Omega targeted Airaxen and fired another silo of lasers that pummeled him in the air blasting him out of the air where he landed in front of the city hall building roughly, smashing apart the stairs and denting the ground. Airaxen strained his joints to move and stand back up but his body simply wouldn’t do the task. Omega laughed loudly then charged at him, kicking him out of the ground then smashing his large claws into him smashing him back and destroying more of his body, blue vines flying everywhere, Airaxen’s vital tissue was being hacked apart rapidly. His body was numb leaving Airaxen defenseless to Omega’s ferocious assaults. Finally Omega got bored of Airaxen and with a powerful roundhouse kick sent him hurtling into the wall of the building smashing a hole into it. Airaxen’s strength escaped him as he lay in the rubble and stone.

<No more strength. Omega is too strong for me, he only gets stronger each time I face off with him. I don’t have enough control to gain access to my Imperfect form but...I have enough knowledge to transform into my Demon form...No! I can’t...What if...> Airaxen dismissed the thought despite the grim situation he was facing. Omega was thoroughly enjoying the situation of Airaxen, gloating silently.

<And Dimitri said that this thing supposed to pose the only true threat to us? Hah! I’ll finish this once and for all, and this time Airaxen will stay dead!> Omega declared, charging up his weapons again. Suddenly a small rock fell from the ceiling landing next to Airaxen’s head with a quiet sound. He slowly turned his head to the side then saw Yasosume standing off to the side. Her legs were bent at the knees still a bit shaky with her hand on the wall.

“What are you waiting for Airaxen?! Stand back up and fight! I know it’s hard to get over your fears but you have no choice! So don’t be afraid to use your Demon form and fight! You’ll be able to win, now get your butt in gear before I get mad at you!” She shouted at him. Airaxen chuckled weakly then nodded.

<If Yasosume got over her fear of water then I can get over my fear of being consumed by the power of my Demon form...I won’t be tainted by the evil!> The crystals formed over the cavity in Airaxen’s body and began to pulsate, growing darker in color. The skies were covered by dark clouds, Omega looked at them then at Airaxen, a feeling of panic spreading in his body. Before he could attack Airaxen he became engulfed in black flames that lashed out at Omega each time he tried to attack, the flames melting apart Omega’s weapons as he tried to fire. The flames shot apart, Airaxen’s body was repaired and in new black armor and garments. Yasosume smirked glancing over him, large red wings, spiked tail, gold markings on his face and red eyes this time they were normal pupils rather then slits.

“Alright I’m ready for round 2 Omega,” Airaxen said in his new demonic voice. Omega scoffed at him and charged forward. Airaxen leapt back putting his hands out.

“Howl of the Dead,” he whispered. Large black rings shot out of his hands and soared through the air at Omega. He spun to the side avoiding one of the rings but the other 3 struck him, slicing off his left arm and his left wings causing him to crash into the ground roughly. Airaxen’s tail suddenly shot out at Omega’s head, but he rolled out of the way as his tail sliced into the ground. Omega leapt up at Airaxen his right claw reaching for his head. Airaxen flapped his mighty wings pushing him back and freeing his tail he put one of his arms in front of himself.

“Hellfire!” He shouted a mass of purple and black flames firing out at Omega, blasting him back and melting away at his body. Omega stumbled across the ground smoldering. He got back to his feet slowly, Airaxen came in with a long energy blade sticking out of his right bracer and swung upwards not only gashing apart Omega’s chest but knocking him into the air. Airaxen leapt into the air spinning around with his wings furled and pressed against his back. With one final spin he stuck his leg out and smashed it into Omega knocking him straight back down into the ground. Airaxen flew back and prepared himself for what could happen next. Omega lay on the ground motionless, not even his injuries were repairing. Airaxen waited, still nothing. Suddenly the silver demon leapt up at Airaxen catching him off guard, his remaining arm fully charged and released 5 large black beams at point blank range and blasting him out of the sky with a massive black explosion and crackle of energy. Airaxen crashed into the roof of the city hall building, the stone roof cracking and buckling from the force of his fall. He grumbled and looked at his chest, the attack was able to break through his armor his chest bleeding heavily.

“Blades of Blood!” He roared, stabbing his claw like hands into his wound and ripping them out dripping with blood. The blood froze over into 4 large crescent blades and flew down at Omega carving the ground up and nearly Omega had he not leapt back. Omega’s body quickly regenerated his lost wings and arm, he looked up at Airaxen and narrowed his visor like eye. He leapt up at Airaxen his claws down at his sides and ready to strike. Airaxen put his hands to his chest then out to the sides his hands glowing dark blue.

“Black Water!” Airaxen shouted the ground under Omega cracking apart and suddenly a black pillar of water shot out of the ground and nearly smashed into Omega but he swerved to the side his leg caught in the attack, however his leg was now nothing more then a stump the water having burnt it off. The water rained down around the general area melting whatever it touched like a powerful acid. Omega regenerated the lost limb and shot a glare at Airaxen, opening fire with his left arm and firing a black plasma bolt at him. Airaxen kicked off the roof doing a flip in the air and then brought his tail down vertically on Omega’s head. He quickly grabbed his tail in his right claw, swung him around by the tail and smashing him into the ground, lifting him back up and firing another plasma bolt up and into his face, letting go and smashing him away to the side with his right claw. Airaxen caught himself in the air, sticking his right hand out and skidding along the ground on his feet and with his hand for balance. He straightened up, his left palm pointing at Omega.

“Dark Lightning,” Airaxen said quietly. From the sky 5 blue lightning bolts crashed into the ground around Omega at the 5 points of a star, the lightning didn’t disappear however and lingered there before shooting in on Omega. He didn’t stand still for the attack and shot between two of the lightning bolts but he wasn’t quick enough to avoid his wings from being blasted apart. Omega grabbed Airaxen’s head in his left claw the beams burning at him causing Airaxen to cry out in pain. Omega laughed and fired a plasma bolt into his face with a earth shattering sound, an explosion covering his face and silencing Airaxen. Omega smirked and dropped Airaxen to the ground. He laughed quietly to himself and took a few steps back.

“Well I do enjoy battling with you Airaxen but this must end. Shatter-” Omega let out a cry of pain, a blue beam hit him in the back and blasted apart the silver armor. Omega spun around but was created by another 2 beams that struck him in the chest and blasted him back, cracking his gem. Tikai stood 10 meters away from the two of them, her arms raised and her face blank and emotionless.

“Airaxen, get back to your feet,” she nearly ordered, any hint of emotion gone from her voice to which he didn’t move. Yasosume who stayed by the doors of the city hall building finally got over her fear of water by her fear of Airaxen dying and dashed over to him, grabbing him and taking him away from Omega before he could recollect himself. She took him behind a building then looked him over. Airaxen was unconscious, his chest wound spilling blood onto the ground but the damage to his head shot out sparks and strange little blue cubes that were drifting away from his face each one that left took a part of his head. Airaxen’s face was damaged greatly, the right half generally intact but not really. The other half of his head was absent of any ‘skin’ except around his eye and mouth, the rest were blue vines with thing green grid lines over top of them. Yasosume leaned down and then propped him up against the building his head falling limp to the side.

“Come on you imbecile you can’t die on me! Now wake up!” She ordered, a single tear sliding down her face and falling to the ground. Airaxen didn’t respond, simply staring forward blankly.

“I SAID DON’T DIE!” Yasosume screamed, a few more tears dropping to the ground. She looked away her eyes shut tightly. Airaxen came around slowly and put a hand under her chin and turned her to look over at him, the sparks and little cubes stopped.

“I heard you the first time,” Airaxen murmured being short of strength at the moment. Yasosume looked away, wiping her eyes but mostly because she was ashamed to be seen crying by him.

“Just...Get back up on your feet, go out there and fight. Tikai can’t hold off Omega forever,” she mumbled. Airaxen nodded slowly and stood up carefully. Tikai flew back in the air as Omega tried to gash her apart with her claws. She held him back with a barrage of lasers and beams, her hand blades out and ready to strike if he did get too close.

“Stand still human, I just want to rip you apart!” Omega taunted between her laser blasts.

“Shut up,” Tikai replied lowly. Airaxen stumbled out into the open once more, hovering into the air slowly.

“Omega! Your fight is with me!” He shouted bravely despite the bloody dripping off his clawed feet. Omega stopped pursuing Tikai letting her escape down an alley. He turned to look at Airaxen and laughed at him loudly.

“Don’t joke Airaxen you could barely put up a fight! Just give up now and I’ll kill you swiftly!” Omega mocked arrogantly. Airaxen chuckled weakly to himself and shrugged.

“My power is almost gone and so is my strength but I have what it takes to make at least one final stand against you,” Airaxen declared with his usual air of heroism when making such short speeches. Omega laughed louder at his comment and contorted his face to what was a smirk for him.

“I only need one attack to finish you off, and it’s the one you used to nearly kill me, fitting wouldn’t you say so?”

“Yeah, yeah I get the point, you like to hear yourself talk, lets just get this done with!” Airaxen repeated.

“SHATTERED SOUL!” Shouted the two fighters in unison, both of them vanishing into thin air with an echoing ring. A second later the two reappeared in front of each other, and charged forward with their left arms raised and slashing at the other leaving behind a purple trail. They stalled in the air for a moment then spun around and continued the attack slashing at each other for 4 more attacks creating the purple star design around both of them. Then the two vanished once more this time reappearing 20 meters apart hanging in the air above the city, hands out to the sides and clenched in fists with black orbs of energy forming in their hands. Both of them spread their wings, Airaxen glowing a purple aura with blue energy crackling from his hands, Omega glowing a black aura with just more black energy crackling around him.

“You die here Airaxen!” Omega shouted.

“Never!” Airaxen replied defiantly. They finally released their attacks, Omega’s beam was simple and pitch black, Airaxen’s beam was no longer pitch black as it was the first time he used the attack, now it was a mess of the 9 colors of the crystals but much darker. The two attacks collided together with power to split the Earth apart, which it did. The force of the attacks smashing together caused the ground beneath them to crack and break apart. Airaxen couldn’t accept losing to Omega, with a burst of desperation and a demonic roar he dug deep into his reserves and pulled out all of his remaining strength. He redoubled his efforts, his 10 foot wide beam growing to be 15 feet and possessing enough power to shatter Omega’s rendition of the Shattered Soul attack and was once more struck by the power of the true Shattered Soul. Omega’s body ceased up once being hit by the beam, beams of light slicing through his body and cutting through the black clouds overhead. Airaxen gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes showing the strain he put on his body to maintain his attack which was causing a noticeable amount of pain to Omega as he let out a metallic cry that rang out throughout the city. The silver body of Omega began to break apart, and with a loud shattering noise his silver body was blasted apart into a mass of millions of particles of light. Airaxen smirked and fell to the ground, limp, weak and losing consciousness. However Omega still wasn’t dead, it was only the silver overtop his normal frame that was destroyed, he was crouched on the ground but still alive. His body was black and followed his normal body shape but there were many red lines streaming out from his central gem and wrapped around his body, his wings just massive bone-like skeletons without the silver over his body. He growled quietly, reforming the silver for his wings and taking off before something else happened to humiliate him that day. Tikai blinked and looked up at the sky, the dark clouds clearing way to allow the sunlight to cut through again. She looked at Airaxen as he lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood and was suddenly washed over by a wave of sorrow and sympathy no longer able to maintain a mask of indifference. She began to skate over but Yasosume beat her to him before Tikai could even move a meter to him. Yasosume looked down at Airaxen lifting his head up gently, the two began to talk but Tikai couldn’t make out what was being said. She looked at the two, getting along...Getting closer and decided to leave them be and head back to the Starblade.

“Keep your eyes open Airaxen,” Yasosume ordered sternly.

“Can’t I just close them for a bit...?” He asked weakly.

“No! Stay awake Airaxen until I can figure something out here. Maybe if you went back to your normal form?”

“Don’t want to yet, I’ll be ok the bleeding stopped.”

“But what about your face and the rest of you?”

“I...Just need some...Time...” Airaxen murmured quietly his eyelids closing slowly. Yasosume grabbed him by the shoulders shaking him fiercely but it was too late, Airaxen was already unconscious and fast asleep.

* * *

“How is Airaxen holding up?” Ethernial asked Tikai. She shrugged and looked away. Still in her armor she sat in the pilot’s chair of the ship with a comlink opened up between herself and their friends back in Lutenia.

“Yasosume carried him back to the ship still in his Demon form and took him to her room to rest,” she finally said.

“Oh ok, good to know he’s still in one piece these days!” Ethernial frowned then paused and looked at Tikai carefully. “Tikai? What’s wrong?” She looked over at the screen then away again taking off her gauntlets carefully and then the rest of her upper body armor. Tikai placed her armor to the side and sighed quietly before turning to look back at the screen.

“It’s nothing...Really...” She mumbled. Ethernial shook his head disapprovingly and let out a sigh.

“It’s...Airaxen...I...” Tikai trailed off and then wiped her eyes letting out a sniff.

“What’s wrong with him? Is he sick? Not going to make it?!” Ethernial asked frantically.

“No...I’m sorry it’s stupid,” she mumbled again.

“No tell me, I’m good at this stuff!”

“Ethernial...Do you know if Airaxen still cares for me...?” She finally asked in a near whisper.

“I’m sorry I don’t. Airaxen doesn’t talk about his feelings, I don’t think he even knows what they are. He’s too dense to understand these human feelings still it seems...I don’t know why do you ask?”

“I think...I think he doesn’t care about me anymore, I think he might...Love Yasosume instead. I know it sounds selfish but I confessed to him and he didn’t do a thing differently! I mean...He could at least pretend to care...I can’t believe that he doesn’t at least have a little soft spot for me after all we’ve been through...I don’t know now. I do love him, but Airaxen is still a machine at his core, it was stupid to think that there have been a soul to him...” She muttered and hung her head.

“Maybe he just needs to realize what you mean to him or something? You know that human saying ‘don’t know how much you miss something until the first day it’s not there’, maybe that’s the case?”

“Forget it, I give up...He doesn’t want some raggedy human like me! He’d rather be with one of his own kind...Yasosume...” Tikai became engulfed in her thoughts after that point leaving Ethernial on the other end of the comlink frowning and sighing.

“Don’t give up, if it means that much to you then don’t give up hope so easily! You know, fight the good fight and all that,” he suggested.

“No...”

“But?”

“No.” Tikai had enough and closed the comlink.

<I thought I was meant to be with him...> She thought then shook her head remaining perfectly still in the chair, not making a sound or moving an inch.

Airaxen lay in Yasosume’s bed with her sitting in a chair next to him. His upper wings covered his body except his head, the set of lower wings straight out to the sides. Yasosume changed into some new clothes while Airaxen lay unconscious since she was covered in whatever blood was still on Airaxen as she took him back. His body suddenly shifted, his wings trembling slightly and then he let out a weak groan, opening his eyes slightly.

“Tikai...?” He murmured. Yasosume blinked and slouched in her chair slightly, her fox ears lying flat on her head.

“No, Yasosume,” she replied. Airaxen sat up slowly his wings moving away and furling up on his back.

“Sorry, normally it’s always Tikai next to me when I wake up from repairs,” Airaxen said quietly the demonic tone to his voice gone. His chest was generally repaired, his chest plate was replaced and free of bloodstains. Airaxen’s face was also free from any patches of vines and looked perfectly normal again, his body was quick at repairing itself this time. Yasosume put a hand through Airaxen’s hair and then leaned back against the chair.

“You care about her don’t you?” Yasosume suddenly asked. Airaxen blinked, thought then nodded slowly.

“I do, she’s nice and fun to talk with.”

“Heh, and I’m not?”

“What? I didn’t mean that, I mean...Well it’s hard to explain,” Airaxen replied quietly. Yasosume looked to the side and closed her eyes.

“You love her don’t you?” She asked of him trying to keep her voice calm.

“I...I don’t understand what you mean. She once said that she loved me but I don’t know what this concept means. You said I have to learn what that is myself but can you tell me anyway?” Airaxen inquired curiously. She looked at him awkwardly, blinked and blushed a bit.

“Well...It’s sorta like when you need to be around that person to feel complete, to be next to them and feel their warmth as they hold you in their arms. And when they’re not there you yearn for them again, and just thinking about them can make you feel all warm and happy inside, like you’re on top of the world,” she explained quietly, blushing a bit more as she continued. Airaxen blinked and tilted his head slightly.

“Are you in love?” He inquired a slight bit naively. Yasosume suddenly looked at him and waved her hands defensively.

“N-no! Of course not! This is me you’re talking about Albino and I don’t love anyone or anything! You got that?! I’m a pirate, we can’t do that sort of stuff,” she declared in nearly an angry tone. Airaxen blinked and shrugged.

“Ok then, but it sounds like a nice thing to me.”

“...Just forget it albino,” Yasosume mumbled then stood up and turned around.

“Um, ok?” Airaxen said confused.

“Ok then albino get the hell out of my room you pervert!”

“What?” Yasosume shook her head, grabbing his arm and flinging him out of the door which was partially opened, then slammed it shut and locked it. Airaxen blinked and looked from side to side, then down at himself still getting used to his new Demon form’s appearance (the tail was a bit awkward to use). He looked around, Tikai’s room was closed with some light escaping from under the door, she was in her room probably up to something constructive. Airaxen blinked and then decided to head into the cockpit having nothing better to do. He was about to head to the top of the ship then paused and looked at the monitors and thought for a moment. Airaxen walked over to Tikai’s pilot’s chair and took a seat in it, looked around at the controls then found what he was looking for and pressed a button. He waited a moment and a new holographic screen appeared this time the comlink had dragged over Sonaris who was out of his normal armor and in a black shirt.

“Airaxen?” He said confused.

“Sonaris? Why are you in normal clothes?” Airaxen inquired.

“Maria convinced me into it. Why are you in your Demon form? Stuck like that again?”

“No, no, I can revert back to normal anytime I want but I’d rather stay like this for awhile longer. How else am I supposed to accept the darkness in me? It’s best to be one with it and I don’t feel any different except that these wings and my tail make things hard for me to sit down or lay down,” Airaxen explained. Sonaris chuckled and shrugged.

“What is it that you wanted to talk about?” Sonaris inquired.

“I don’t know really, I felt like I needed to talk to someone and well I was trying to get Ethernial but you seem wise.”

“And what is it that you want to talk about then?”

“Well I don’t really know that either. I just talked with Yasosume, she told me what it was like to be in love, then she asked me if I loved Tikai...But I don’t really know...Well I don’t know what I don’t know if you get my drift,” Airaxen mumbled.

“I don’t know if I know if you don’t know what you don’t know, you know?”

“Um...I lost you there.”

“That was the point.”

“Oh.”

“But seriously for a moment. I think that you simply are conflicted here,” Sonaris guessed.

“Over?” Airaxen asked feeling a bit stupid. Sonaris sighed and shook his head.

“Have you not noticed that Tikai and Yasosume both want to be that one person in your life?” Sonaris told him, thinking that Airaxen was more dense then he first thought.

“But I don’t want one person in my life, I like having a lot of people in my life, they can both be friends and such with me,” Airaxen mumbled again.

“Alright this is more of a human concept here. Now I’ve been alive for a very long time with even more time to learn about the things around me, so let me explain this to you. Humans have emotions, that we know right?” Sonaris checked just to make sure, Airaxen nodded and he continued. “Now affection is one of these emotions, that’s when a person becomes very attached to something, not in the physical sense but in the emotional sense meaning they won’t want to let go of something and want this thing around. Alright now what I’m going to try and explain is what those two actually want from you Airaxen. Tikai said that she loves you, that means she has affection to you and is very attached to you. Yasosume doesn’t show it but she is also very attached to you and also has affection towards you. Now since they both feel like this for you it’s kinda hard to win your affection since they both have part of it but can never get all of it because of the other.”

“But why not be happy with just part of my affection?” He asked confusedly.

“Well I don’t really know, they both want you for themselves which I already said but...Hm...When someone is in love with someone they will become illogical and try to do whatever it takes to get this person to notice them and accept them, that’s why Tikai learned to build weaponry and that’s probably why Yasosume doesn’t want to kill you and from what I heard from Ethernial those two getting along must be an act of self control on both parties. The thing is that humans believe that there is only one person that another person can be with, so right now you have a dilemma. Tikai and Yasosume want to be that one person to you, and even if you don’t realize it you feel something for each and can’t decide which one to pick, or something like that,” Sonaris tried to explain.

“Ok so Tikai and Yasosume both want my affection and I don’t know which one to pick?” Airaxen paraphrased.

“Well I guess that would be it.”

“Well that’s easy! I’d pick...I’d pick...I...I don’t know...” Airaxen realized.

“Not so easy now is it? You have to figure out which one you love, if you don’t then you’ll just start tearing yourself apart not to mention them. Love is a very illogical thing, I tried my best to explain so I hope that helped.”

“But...How do I decide?” Airaxen asked Sonaris to which he shrugged.

“I can’t answer that for you. You have to figure out which one is the person that means the most to you, the person that you simply couldn’t live without, do you understand?”

“I guess...”

“You’re more human then I am, you should be proud. Embrace that part of you and enjoy it.”

“But is it always so confusing? Does it always cause my chest to hurt?” Airaxen inquired while moving a hand to his chest.

“That’s how it works, but if you can make it work out then you’ll be happy, very happy.”

“Happy?”

“Enough of this Airaxen. Get some rest you look like a wreak I’ll research into the location of the next set of ruins after you’re done there. And good luck in making that decision I hope I was of some service,” Sonaris gave him a wave and closed the link leaving Airaxen still confused but a bit more enlightened. His body was engulfed in black flames and then they dispersed with Airaxen back in his normal form in red armor which he dematerialized a second later.

“You better not have damaged my chair Air,” Tikai spoke up from behind him in a cold voice. Airaxen stood up suddenly and looked at her his body all tense.

“I’m sorry!” He said back nervously. Tikai walked up to him staring him down even if he was taller then her. She had an unnerving aura to her now, one that made Airaxen nervous, something changed but he couldn’t place his finger on it.

“Right then.” Tikai mumbled and then looked him over carefully. “You look fine, didn’t take that much damage did you?” He shook his head.

“Good.”

“Tikai?”

“What?”

“Is anything bugging you?” Airaxen inquired nervously.

“Nothing is wrong with me,” Tikai hissed back.

“Sorry, sorry! I won’t ask you again. I’m sorta worried about you, you’re acting a bit funny...”

“I’m not! Besides if I was I wouldn’t tell you,” she spat at him, causing Airaxen to wince slightly a sudden stinging pain shooting through his chest.

“I’m sorry...” Airaxen mumbled as he looked down at his feet.

“You needed help from Sonaris?” She inquired. Airaxen blinked and wondered how long she was listening in on his conversation the nodded.

“You still care for me Airaxen?” She inquired again. He sighed and nodded.

“Yeah...I do. Um, you’re nice and fun to be with,” Airaxen said quickly.

“But you care for Yasosume as well,” she stated quietly. Airaxen nodded again not bothering to deny a thing.

“I like her too, she’s...Unique.”

“Airaxen, what Sonaris said about me wanting your affection was right...I want your affection, your acceptance and your heart...But I’m not good enough for you anymore am I? You have Yasosume, a hybrid like you and she can keep up with you where a human couldn’t, isn’t that right?” She questioned.

“What? No! I...Well you see...Oh man I don’t know how to explain!” Airaxen began but Tikai heard enough and left the room, she heard what she had too. Airaxen stood there paralyzed, watching her figure as she left.

* * *

<I don’t like having to think this much on something....> Airaxen thought to himself. <Tikai has suddenly become more like Yasosume while Yasosume has sorta become a bit like Tikai. I wonder why...Sonaris said that love made people illogical so that could explain why they seem different. But I don’t seem to be any different or illogical so that would mean I’m not in love? What? I still don’t get this, Sonaris didn’t explain this very well...Maybe I should wait awhile to figure out how to decide this or...Yeah...> Airaxen decided finally, he was getting a headache from all of the heavy thinking he was doing. He lay on one of the couches in the living room, face buried in the armrest being on his stomach. Airaxen let out a sigh into the armrest and rolled over to stare at the white ceiling. He sat up and ran a hand through his hair then stood up stretching.

<Since I’m repaired it would be a good idea to head off to the ruins since Omega isn’t around here anymore, and after that battle I don’t think he will be for awhile.> Airaxen walked out of the room, down the short hallway and up a ladder to the main floor. His companions were shut in their rooms, Airaxen considered notifying them but decided to reconsider and left the ship and onto the docks. The sun had began to set, it was about 6 or so Airaxen assumed. He looked around the docks, they were crawling with men and women trying to repair the docks since they were cracked and broken in most places, risking the entire set of docks falling apart. He frowned since he had to devote all his time to obtaining the Crystal Key pieces, he wouldn’t be able to help with repairing Ravenhourde after the attacks from Omega. Airaxen dashed through the streets, blowing past the citizens and slipping through them like quicksilver. He arrived at the damaged city hall building to find it fenced off by construction workers. Airaxen looked around and asked one of the workers where the mayor had went, the man thought for a moment and pointed down the street at an old warehouse that was being used as a temporary city hall. Airaxen thanked the man and then raced off towards the building. He burst through the door entering a dusty, dimly lit building with 2 desks, one for the mayor and one for his secretary. They both looked up at Airaxen and after a pause the mayor stood up from his desk, walked over to Airaxen and extended his hand.

“Thank you Airaxen, even thou it looks like the damage to the city is severe it isn’t, we’ll have the city repaired good as new in a week,” he said happily with a slight hint of a weariness. Airaxen shook his hand a bit feverishly, chuckling weakly.

“Is it possible to open the ruins now?” Airaxen inquired trying to mask his impatience.

“Oh yes of course, it’s the least I can do! I should warn you that the ruins are submerged in water, you might need something for going down there. Oh yes I heard that you travel with two young ladies, I’m fairly sure they might need some equipment so there’s a shop that sells some.” Airaxen blinked and thought for a moment.

<I don’t think they’ll be coming along for this...Yasosume might be able to get around town now but she probably isn’t ready to be in water that deep. Tikai...Well...She doesn’t seem to want to be around me so I’ll just let her have her space,> he concluded. “No it’s ok, I’m the only one going in this time, but thanks for the information anyway,” Airaxen declined. The man shrugged and quickly wrote a note and gave it to Airaxen.

“Hand this note to the overseer of the ruins and then he’ll open them up for you. The ruins are situated in the center of the city, and good luck.”

“Thank you,” Airaxen said and dashed out of the warehouse, he had to work faster to beat Dimitri to the key, luckily the citizens of the islands were willing to help him. He breezed past buildings until he arrived a 10 foot wide marble octagon with a large black eye marking, the telltale signs of a set of ruins. Airaxen looked around and saw an old man leaning against a telephone booth. The man looked over at Airaxen, looked him over and saw the slightly tattered note in his hand.

“Want in don’t you?” He asked, Airaxen nodded. The man straightened up and walked into the telephone booth, hit some buttons on the telephone and suddenly the eye marking began to glow and then faded away along with the marble around it. He nodded approvingly and approached the ruin entrance, until he was stopped dead in his tracks by:

“Airaxen...” The new icy voice of Tikai. He froze up and turned around slowly to face her in her battle armor, arms folded and staring Airaxen down.

“Y-yes?” He stuttered slightly.

“Why are you going on your own?” She demanded.

“Well, Yasosume still has that fear of water so she can’t go obviously. And um...” Airaxen hesitated and turned to the side slightly, a hand rubbing the back of his neck. “You don’t really like me around and well, you sorta scare me now. Guess this is how it felt like when I did something like that to you, sorry about that. I’m also sorry for not being able to answer your question on the ship, and I’m sorry for anything else I should be sorry for that I don’t know about,” Airaxen mumbled his apology. Tikai looked down and closed her eyes.

“No, I’m sorry,” she replied. Airaxen looked over at Tikai, she peered over at him then went over to him quickly and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Tikai?” Airaxen questioned.

“After seeing you and Yasosume so close I felt like I was obsolete and useless, she’s more like you, I guess I got jealous and you know...I started to loose interest in you...I still love you but I suppose I can only admire you from a distance...To make it easier I wanted to be mean to you, it’s hard but...Whatever just get out of my sight,” she finally spat out.

“But you have it wrong, you see-” Airaxen began, but she didn’t want to hear anymore and shoved him away and into the hole in the ground leading down to the second set of ruins. Airaxen caught himself in the air and flew up through the entrance to try and talk to Tikai. She was still standing there thankfully.

“Wait hear me out at least! I-” Airaxen began again but Tikai didn’t let him speak and pointed a gauntlet and shot a beam at him that struck him in the left side of his chest and blasted him out of the sky. Airaxen fell down the abyss of the ruin entrance until he smashed into the surface of the water and began to sink slowly.

<I don’t want to fight with you and want you by my side,> he thought silently, almost in a daze. Airaxen recollected himself, thankfully for him the water crystal merged into his body allowed him to breath in the water, and some power from the gravity crystal protected him from the water pressure. He formed his armor and then shot straight down in the water, trying his best to stop thinking about Tikai. The water grew darker as he went further down. Soon he saw the glow from the walls knowing he reached the dangerous part of the ruins. Airaxen pulled the Marimatsu from his back and rocketed down into the water headfirst. He shot through the water like a shark, finding that there was nothing in the ruins but glowing walls and water.

<This isn’t right, where are the defenses?> Airaxen pondered. He soon could make out the bottom of the rather bland set of ruins, but he didn’t see anything there either. Airaxen stopped his descent, floating in the water. Having felt a bit used since there was nothing to reward his efforts in gaining access to the ruins he let out a bubbled sigh. Airaxen decided to continue with his descent anyway, there might be something at the bottom like a trapdoor. He didn’t find any such thing when touching down on the ground he was disappointed to find nothing of the sort. Airaxen looked around and then he noticed something to his right, a small orb that had a shudder like structure around a blue gem. He blinked and then moved a hand towards it, knowing full well of what would happen next. Just as he anticipated the orb glowed and began to shift from the wall and float through the water at him. Airaxen flew up leaving a trail of bubbles behind him. The mechanical orb hummed quietly and shot up after Airaxen. He sped up and soon shot straight up and out of the long cylindrical set of ruins. The half meter wide orb chased Airaxen out onto the surface soon after he had returned to the surface, it launched backwards and then began to glow. Around the orb’s sides a set of thin metal rods formed hovering in the air to create a wing-like skeleton on either side. Another set of rods appeared on the bottom of the orb to make a fan design, and finally a single rod formed at the top of the orb. From the opening of the ruins a massive tower of water erupted and shot into the air, dark storm clouds forming. It began to rain fiercely then, the water however never hit the ground and arced through the air and converged with the orb and clustered around it to begin forming a bird-like body. It took less then a minute to form the body; to get to the Crystal Key piece this time the task was simple, defeat the guardian the Water Phoenix. The rain stopped, the Phoenix let out an earsplitting screech, it’s watery head parted to look like it was opening it’s mouth. From it’s mouth a large blue beam with flecks of purple tint shot out at Airaxen, he positioned the blade of the Marimatsu in the way of the beam causing it to diverge around him, exploding to the sides. The Phoenix soared through the air at Airaxen, then flapped it’s wings, two large translucent purple waves of energy launched themselves through the air at Airaxen. He leapt into the air doing a flip, at the same time swinging the Marimatsu to fire out an energy wave of his own to negate the Phoenix’s. The two attacks collided but it was Airaxen’s attack that was defeated instead, the waves of purple energy smashed into Airaxen and exploded violently, cracking the armor around his chest and arms. He was knocked back by the attacks, the Phoenix reopened it’s mouth and fired out another beam at Airaxen which hit the ground under him, blasting Airaxen into the air like a rag doll and then back onto the ground with tremendous force. He shook off the aftereffects of the attack and got back to his feet, the Phoenix was gone from where it originally was, Airaxen scanned the skies looking for it but it seemed to have vanished. He moved around the area carefully, keeping on guard incase of a sudden attack. Suddenly another screech split through the air coming from behind Airaxen. He glanced back to see another beam fire at him. Airaxen kicked off the ground and leapt to the side, spun around, swung his sword again and another white energy slash shot out at the Phoenix. This time his attack did hit it’s mark, the watery body of the Phoenix was splattered by Airaxen’s attack leaving the mechanical skeleton vulnerable. Airaxen quickly formed his wrist weapon, split the blade apart and fired an orange beam at the skinny mecha. However it suddenly began to rain again, at least 3 times harder then before, the rain droplets converging around the mecha skeleton and reformed the Phoenix’s body. By the time Airaxen’s beam hit the Phoenix all the attack did was blast a large dent into the water body which was just repaired by the rainfall. It stopped again, the Phoenix then opened it’s mouth about to emit another screech and beam, Airaxen didn’t allow it to happen thou. He dashed to it, leapt up and brought the sword down and right through the water body and split apart the rod on the top of the orb, but the orb itself was resilient enough to deflect the attack back and sent Airaxen reeling backwards. The head of the Phoenix was no more, dissolved away from the rest of it, but it wasn’t beat yet. The water bird flapped it’s wings at Airaxen as he was still being knocked away, two purple energy waves blasted his chest plate into small shards. He raised pointed his wrist weapon at the Phoenix and fired 3 orange beams at it. The bird spun to the side avoiding the first beam, but the other two pierced a hole through it’s right wing, the water splattering onto the ground. It was stunned for a moment, allowing Airaxen to target the orb and fire a single beam into it. His beam exploded and blasted apart the liquid body again. Airaxen swung the Marimatsu upwards, another energy slash firing out and carving the ground up until it suddenly shot up in an arc and cut off the skeleton wing on the right of the orb. He drifted back quickly with the Marimatsu in his left arm raised and ready for a counterattack. The rain started yet again rebuilding it’s body, left wing and tail, however the Phoenix had trouble maintaining upright in the air having lost a wing. Airaxen smirked and put away the Marimatsu and dematerialized his wrist weapon. He formed two orbs of light in his hands.

“Dark-light bombs!” He cried out, then flung the orbs through the air as they grew to massive size and blasted apart the body of the Phoenix and the rest of the appendages on the mecha orb. The orb was left smoldering and floating in the air, but it was still unscratched for reasons beyond Airaxen. It suddenly began to rain again, however the water fell to the ground normally rather then converge to the mechanical ball. The rain was so fierce that Airaxen couldn’t make out anything a foot in front of him, he simply had to keep on his guard for what would happen next. What was strange was the water that accumulated around the city didn’t overflow off the edges but simply continued to accumulate and build up. The water around Airaxen was beginning to reach his head at an alarming rate, he jumped up into the air and hovered above the waterline as it rose. In minutes the water level had raised to be able to submerge cars and the bottom half of the buildings. The metal orb was skimming over the edge of the water. The tremendous rainfall suddenly stopped, the clouds above starting to move apart and let the sunlight back through. Airaxen blinked, his hair soaked as well as his jumpsuit. He blinked and then looked around the area, almost complete submerged in water. The orb hung in the air for a moment longer then dropped into the mini ocean. The water began to ripple and rumble, large waves beginning to form. The waves began to smash into buildings, toppling them over or snapping them in half. Airaxen shot straight up above the scene to avoid being crushed by the tidal waves. Finally the water suddenly converged in the center of Ravenhourde over the hole into the ruins, then straightened up into a massive tower, a few hundred tons of water lingering in the air ominously. Airaxen was perplexed by the change of events and stayed in the air examining the pillar of water. It suddenly quivered then came crashing down back to the ground, the water splattering out to the sides as a massive, destructive tidal wave that ripped apart anything in it’s path, the city being destroyed by the tons of water. Airaxen looked at the sight of floating debris, broken cars, and what angered him the most were drowned humans, floating there dead. He furiously looked through the water to find the mecha orb, he had to destroy it before it could do anything else. The water was still within the city somehow, still not spilling a drop over the edge of the city’s walls. The water began to cluster to one side of the city, beginning to move together to form a strange