Dragon Ball: Untold IC

[Naval Monte]

Earth, A week after leaving the temple

The evening sky was awash in colors as the magical energy from above dance and twirled like cosmic dancers. The aurora borealis, this one a product of magic than solar energy, filled the sky as it gave the mages below a wonderful show. Sitting on the roof of the Sacred Temple, legs dangling off the edge, was Nymphaea who watched the display with awe.

By her side was Krog to her left and Clarinet to her right. On the middle of the watchers sat Alex who was the one that lead the group to the perfect spot to see the show. "So what do you think of my home?" Nymphaea asked as she never took her eyes away from the aurora. "I got to say it's a nice place. It feels cozy and peaceful. More so than most cities I've been in. I think me and Miek wouldn't mind living here if we were mages." Krog told her.

Adeline shrugged. "A mountain city is cool but I'm not one for the monastic life. I very much prefer the glamour and excitement of the typical city life." The young Namekian would say. "It kinda reminds me of my home in a way." Kubu would reply. "I was thinking more of Mindhoir than New Namek." Dunwich was silent as he was thinking on what to say about the city.

"So if you guys are hidden from most people does that mean this place is technically a hidden village?" Dunwich heard Kubu say, which gave him the perfect fodder to use to make a question. "Yeah, does that mean that you guys have no relationship with the Earth Kingdom?" Nymphaea looked over to her mother as she was the better one to explain the whole ordeal with their city.

"I suppose by technicality we are subjects to the Earth monarch. But because we live away from most of the government and the people our status isn't that of a regional province of the Earth Kingdom, a fact hit even harder as they don't own the Heights legally last time I checked." Alex explained as she placed a finger on her chin.

"We have our own economy, legal code, and government body, so in every way we are pretty much an independent state." The aliens are surprised to hear the news. "How are you guys still free after all these years?" It was Elizabeth who replied back. "The previous king never saw much use for the Heights so he often ignored it even when others want to claim it to extract resources. The fact we kept our magical transmutation on the land limited to only a few kilometers around the city means we can keep the rest of the city barren and desolate to disway anyone from coming in." she told them.

The aliens thought of what they have heard, with Kubu being the first to break the silence. "So you guys are sort of like ninjas?" The statement would get a few chuckles from the Ashwoods. "Well if you mean that we like to use stealth and subterfuge along with magic than I guess we are like ninjas. I mean we have to make our things like ninjas." the grand mistress stated. Kubu would thrust her hand in the air. "Yes! Coming here was a great idea!" the mages couldn't help but to laugh at the Heran's enthusiasm.

"You've made some interesting friends out there in space Nymphaea." Alex said to her. "Well we were going to fight alongside with each other for a while so we not make friends along the way?" the Saiyaness stated. The older witch smiled at the response. While it was a naive one she didn't have the heart to try and break it. Alex would get up. "Well I have to go. I have something important to attend to." Her daughters said their farewells as she was she was beginning to leave. When Alex reached the door she looked back at the group, or more precisely her daughters.

She saw Nymphaea sitting from the right side of the group, a side that still had the faint light of the evening sun shining from the horizon. She saw her having Clarinet sitting on her thighs as she hugged the Namekian from behind. When her eyes turn to Elizabeth she would see that she made Kubu blushed from a flirty remark she made towards her while Dunwich shook his head. Her side was cast into shadow from the approaching night.

The witch smiled as she left the roof and began to descend down the stairs. As she walked through the halls of the temple she only found a few mages in the halls with her. She wish all of them a good night as she made her way to the chamber at the heart of the temple. Knowing the place well she would find the chamber with no problem and when she open the doors she would walk to the center of the magic circle.

"You three can come out now. I know you followed us back from Glacia's planet." She would say in the nearly darken room, candle lights being the only thing illuminating the room. The fire would blow against a gust of wind and when the flames went out they would suddenly be replaced by blue flames. Outside of the circle she would see the three spirits from before appear before her.

"You are the founders of my Order aren't you? We did you follow us?" she asked them. The gray one would speak. "We are the Sephirah, we are the first magi to have come to be in this galaxy and it was our civilization that stressed across the stars, long before the Herans forged their empire and longer still before the Arcosnian ascension. It was by our teachings and guidance that The Order was made. We made it as to persevere knowledge of the mystic arts and to ensure that it's tradition and practice will continue until the end of time." the Sephirah told her.

Alex was expecting a simple yes or no answer but she would take the long winded one since these guys were the first mages and from the looks of it were the first galactic imperialists before the PTO. "I'm sure the Mindhoirite branch would be more of your interest as they were your first students. We come down here? Earth isn't that important?" she asked them.

The one that wears a cream and green robes would speak, her voice being more feminine and dainty than the more masculine and stern older one. "Your world is indeed one most would not except for us to visit but it is by no means insignificant. Right now the role it plays is small but it will not always be so in the future. Your world is destined for much greater things, and those signs of your future greatness will be coming far sooner than you would think."

Before Alex can ask what was the Earth's future the one wearing the black and red robes would speak up. "But we did not come here to tell you of your world's ascension upon the galactic stage, we came here to deliver a warning. Dark days are coming, Alexandria Ashwood. The world as we know it will be coming to an end soon and not even the gods can prevent that from happening. More importantly, a great darkness has been unleashed upon the galaxy and it is consuming worlds as we speak. Eventually that darkness will descend upon your world and Yggdrasil."

Alex used her training to keep a calm and cool expression as she heard the warning from the spirit. Even though on the inside she was panicking immensely. "What can we do against this darkness?" The older Sephirah of the three would speak. "This darkness, this crawling chaos, is one we have dealt with before and sealed. But we knew that in time the seal would be broken and it would be unleashed. We have predicted that two daughters shall be born when the seal has been broken. One is a daughter of light, order, and harmony. The other is a daughter of darkness, mystery, and chaos. It is by them that your world and many others shall be spared from the coming dark times."

Alex look down at the ground as she thought for a few seconds on who they mean by the daughters of light and darkness. "I know who you are referring to but why them?" she asked as she look at them. "It was not by our will that your daughters receive the fates they have. It was the will of Anima." the lead spirit told her.

The feminine spirit would speak. "Your daughters are not only prophesied on stopping this grand darkness from consuming your world but they also have a roles beyond with other future events." Alex would look to the spirit. "What events will they play in besides dealing with this darkness?" The darker spirits would reply with. "Are you sure you wish to know the future Ashwood? You might find that what you see would be events you wish to never know."

Alex was silent as she thought over the options presented before her. "If what you three have told me is true than not only is there a wonderful future waiting for us but great danger. I need to know what awaits us so I can do my role in ensuring that my daughters will have a wonderful future awaiting for them." she told them. The spirits looked to one another and all three would stretch their hands to her.

"If you accept to see what we have saw than step forward Ashwood. Gaze upon events that have yet to be told." She would do so and when their talons was were inches from her face she would close her eyes. The witch would not see anything when suddenly she would let out a loud gasp and light would surround the room before darkness consumed her.

---

Alex would wake up feeling like a mess. She lay on her back as she rubbed her forehead. She wondered what had happened when suddenly a stream of images would flood into her head. The witch would grasp her forehead tightly as she screamed in agony. She stayed like this for what felt like hours until the images stopped. Now getting on to her hands and feet, she can feel sweat going down her face and falling down on the floor. She was breathing deeply as her body was shaking.

"You now know what is to come and your role in them. What you do with will determine whether the future will come to pass as we have saw it or it will change in ways neither of us can predict. That choice is now yours." she heard the spirits say in the darkness as they finally disappear. She would get up and almost fell before using her staff for support. The witch would stagger forward to the exit. "Bloody hell, no wonder why Nymphy felt the way she did with those visions." Yet, despite feeling immense regret over accepting the visions she was still strangely glad. She now can prepare for what will to come. "I just hope the changes aren't going to be too severe now that I know what is coming."

She thought of what to do with her daughters; should she share to them the prophecy that they are now a part of? Those thoughts plagued her mind her mind as she walked out of the chamber and looked at the great hall of the temple. "It's like the Corpus Mysteriorum said after all, everything is always changing, nothing can ever remain the same forever." she would continue towards her room, to prepare for the future.

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

Danu
Phobos Station, A Few Days after the Coronation.

The Saiyaness suddenly rose from her slumber, her head jumping forward as she did so. Sweat caked her face as she grabbed her hair, trying to slow down her breathing. Ever since the battle with Fuar, Danu had been plagued by nightmares of the worst variety. She couldn't even remember most of them, but she was losing a lot of sleep over them. Of the ones she could remember, images of Scall and Ikki were common. From what she could tell, they were only getting worse, especially since the Coronation. Danu shook her head and swung her legs out of the bed, preparing for another long day.

Phobos was not an ideal home. Though Danu's Ki control allowed her to counteract the strange gravity of the world, it did not make for comfortable living. Still, it was nicer than Deimos. Phobos was acting as a temporary base of operations while the intial terraforming of the planet below was completed. Here, Danu sat through day after day of council meetings overseeing her new world and people.

She hadn't asked to be Queen. Granted, she was the obvious option with Ikki presumed dead, her having killed Scall, and her lineage, but the role could have gone to any Saiyan with the power to take it had she denied it. Her mother had approached her about it when they both emerged from the healing pods, but Danu was taking time to make up her mind when Glacia forced the post on her. Danu slipped on her armor, getting ready for another long day.

A short walk down the hall took her to a small dining room, where her mother already was seated, enjoying a mug of coffee. Arsle had been quite taken to the Earthling beverage since discovering it. Sighing, she said calmly "Well, at least I didn't send you to a world lacking in good food and drink. How did you sleep Chay?"

Danu rubbed her head and sat down, saying quietly but tersely "Bad. More nightmares. I just feel like... I don't know."

Arsle reached forward and grabbed her daughters hand, looking into her eyes. The Queen-mother made a 'hmmph' before saying "You're the survivor."

"I'm sorry?"

"You lived. Your friend didn't, and so you feel guilty."

"I wouldn't say guilty."

"Maybe not exactly guilty, but you can't move forward because you do not feel strong, and because you do not feel strong, you think that Scallion died for nothing."

Danu cocked an eyebrow at her mother. Arsle sighed and said "Chay, not a single member of our race doesn't appreciate the work you are doing to build us a new world, but half of being a Saiyan Queen is continuing to grow, and you cannot grow either in strength or in mind while you are caged here. Pack a bag."

Danu quietly asked "Why?"

Arsle merely said before she left the room "We are going to secure your throne."

[Britanania]

Collab Between Saint, Anarcho, and Brit

One Week After the Coronation: The Queen’s Drawing Room, the Palace, Central Capital, the Earth

Prime Minister Archibald Turnbull stood over the seated monarch and looked at her as if he were looking down upon a misbehaving student. Turnbull had his Party’s support and held the position of Prime Minister for nearly a decade; he was a close friend to the late King Hyperion himself and ruled the Earth with little issue during Serena’s year-long absence.

It helped that he came from old money. Turnbull’s father was the younger son of a duke, and while not a noble himself, carried himself like one. Turnbull was not pleased when Serena first left for space and was less pleased that she made any deals with the PTO without his consent. As monarch, she was technically within her right to represent the Earth, but this little stunt of hers was too much, as far as he was concerned.

“My dear,” he said calmly as if speaking to a small child, “Despite what you might think, or whatever queer ideas you picked up milling around space, but being Earth’s sovereign is not like playing dress-up, nor is it like make-believe with your dolls. There is a real responsibility to it, and our traditions safeguard the monarchy. You have the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn but that is all. It is Parliament’s role, my role, to govern.”

Serena turned her back previously to her Prime Minister. She was garbed in a simple fur coat with black gloves covering her hand which were clasped in front of her waistline. Her golden hair was done up in a regal bun and it seemed to shimmer in the artificial lighting, though if one were privy to Serena’s adventures you would know that that gleam was the spark of magic which naturally flowed through her from her chest outwards.

“I believe there is a misunderstanding here Sir Archibald” She stated, her head tilted up slightly as a red tint appeared briefly on her sapphire eyes. “You believe that I have simply been spending my time dawdling in space whilst you maintain the organised chaos that was left behind in the wake of a rebellion caused by centuries of frustration with how the state was being run.”

Turnbull shook his head, looking a bit gaffed by her words. “No, Your Majesty, I’m simply telling you what is expected of you.”

“Yes, and I will tell you. If you expect me to sit idly by and let you or the Parliament run me then you will be sorely mistaken. In the year since I first left, the Earth has seen rapid technological advancement. We have terraformed and colonised the Moon, Mars and Ceres, and have also established outposts on several planet-sized asteroids within the Asteroid belt. The rebellion that once threatened our people has been uprooted and continuously weeded out, and we live in harmony with not only the mages of the Order but the other advanced races of the galaxy. So tell me Mr Turnbull: what have you done, as a member of the elected cabinet, that I haven’t done on a much larger scale and far more efficiently?” She tilted her head, eyebrow raised and waited for an appropriate response.

It took Turnbull a moment too long to respond as he fumbled for the words.

“Exactly, so until you have lived a day in the life of my shoes and have accomplished a fraction of what I have accomplished in a single year, I strongly suggest that you take on the role as an advisor and not a political rival in a game that was not designed for you to play.” Serena rose from her seat and then took her leave, her heels clicking on her way to the door.

“Good day.” She paused at the door and made direct eye contact with the stunned Minister before she walked out.

---

One Month After the Coronation: Cabinet Conference Room, Prime Minister’s Residence, Central Capital

The Saiyan tugged at his collar as he watched the members of Her Majesty’s Government filtered into the conference room. Spicer didn’t mind his meetings with Serena herself, it was the vultures that he didn’t like to deal with. They looked at him with a mixture of distrust, disgust, and disdain as they took their seats around the large oak table. The temperature in the room seemed to increase with each minister who entered.

Keep your cool, Spicer the Saiyan thought as he took a sip of water from a cup on the table. You’re not only representing the PTO but Empress Glacia and Serena as well. You can handle a few government officials…

As he put his cup down, Spicer took a moment to look at some of the portraits hanging in the room. Two stood out to the PTO’s liaison: a portrait of King Hyperion, Serena’s grandfather and predecessor as Earth’s Sovereign, and a portrait of a beautiful woman who bore a striking resemblance to Serena; her mother, Princess Artemis.

There was a life-like quality to the portraits that seemed to bore into Spicer’s mind as he looked up at those royals, as if, like the statues on Glacia’s capital, the souls of Hyperion and Artemis still resided in those oil paintings and could perceive the Saiyan and his thoughts

What would the king say, if he saw his government working with us, with aliens? he wondered. Serena told him recently that Hyperion was content with letting the government do most of the ruling, a concept he found bizarre and abhorrent. What was a king who didn’t lead but a puppet? As his attention drifted over to Artemis, eyes that looked so much like Serena’s gazed down at him. Spicer shifted in his seat as Artemis glared down at him.

Serena practically worships her late mother. I can barely even remember my own parents’ faces, but Serena was old enough to remember them when they died. I can’t even imagine such a loss… The arrival of Prime Minister Turnbull and Lord Castor Nolan broke Spicer’s concentration as the Saiyan watched the two take their seats at the table. Once everyone was seated, Turnbull opened the Cabinet meeting with a brief overview of the state of the Earth, before he passed over to Chancellor of the Exchequer Kiyomori Taira. The businessman-turned-politician read a lengthy report on the state of the Earth economy and the benefits trade with the wider galaxy provided, as well as the economic stimulus from Queen Serenity's recent coronation. After some time, Taira looked over at Spicer.

“General, do you have any thoughts on the economic revitalisation programme in Central Capital?”

“No, I am afraid I do not, Chancellor,” Spicer said bluntly. “I am here to represent Her Majesty Empress Glacia’s interests, not to discuss economics.” The Chancellor smiled as Prime Minister Turnbull leaned in.

“Ah, yes, about Empress Glacia,” he started. “I have been meaning to ask, what are her goals for us?”

“I don’t believe I follow,” Spicer replied with a frown.

“As we are now subjects of your galactic empire, surely Empress Glacia expects some form of tribute.”
“That is a matter between Her Majesty and Queen Serenity,” Spicer said crossly as he stood up. “Not her Ministers.”

“The Queen’s role is ceremonial only,” Taira interjected with a chuckle. “I think you need a primer for how we do things, Mr Spicer, and besides, the legality of Queen Serenity's agreement with Glacia is suspect at best. She had no authority to make a unilateral treaty with an alien power.”

“That doesn’t change my position,” the Saiyan said as he narrowed his eyes. “I am here to represent--”

“Yes, yes, you said that,” Turnbull said with a sigh. “But the fact remains, we are Her Majesty Queen Serenity’s Government, elected by the people. It is our right to know what this Glacia has planned for us.”

“Yes, elected by a mob who hardly know what’s beyond their own stellar system,” Spicer said as he rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair. “There are things out there that you couldn’t possibly understand. Queen Serenity has a far greater grasp of the situation than you could ever have.”

“Now see here,” Taira said, pointing a finger at Spicer. “Maybe as a Princess, she went and wasted her time on some adventure, but as Sovereign, she has no role than to look pretty for the press.” Spicer shot the Chancellor a death glare that caused the man to shrink back in his chair.

“You should best hold your tongue,” Spicer told him. “Or I’ll hold it for you.”

At the far end of the table, Lord Castor Nolan rapped his cane upon the floor once. Any clamour in the room over Spicer’s outburst came to a halt. “General Spicer, I must say that it is quite enjoyable for you to speak your mind at these meetings, however, I do not think it is becoming of one such as yourself nor an emissary of as high a figure as Empress Glacia to resort to petty threats. I believe I speak for the room when I say we hold the highest admiration for the Princess’s accomplishments in interstellar diplomacy, but for the moment, we are on Earth and we run things a little differently here unless of course that treaty that we apparently made with your Empress means nothing and we’re just another colony. In which case, by all means, we will pack up right now and leave this rather large stack of economic management, welfare upkeep, potential terrorist threats, scientific grant handouts, and other various bureaucratic tasks up to you, as governor of this world.”

Spicer looked over at Nolan. His role in the Cabinet was still unknown to the liaison, but it was clear to Spicer he commanded their respect--and probably fear. He narrowed his eyes at the politician.

So, in this world wars aren’t fought with fists and weapons, but with words… Spicer thought as a bead of sweat dripped down his cheek. In some ways, he’s more powerful than Fuar ever was.

“No, Your Grace, it is only that my own role in this administration is unclear,” he said gruffly. “I am not here to set policy, just to represent my Empress and her interests in the Kingdom of Earth.”

Lord Nolan gestured to the chair and said “Believe me, General, we are not exactly clear either. But, that is no reason for us to be hostile. By all means, sit down, have something to drink, and we will find a role for you in this capacity that will be workable for both of us. Our new arrangements haven’t been easy on this government, nor I imagine with yours. Now, the economics aren’t the most pressing issue at the moment. Instead, I would like to bring the subject of our meeting to colonization. Gentlemen, if you would have me, I invited a guest to our meeting today.”

Prime Minister Turnbull looked over at Nolan and smiled knowingly. Spicer quietly took his seat and wondered what the Duke had in store.

“By all means, Castor,” Turnbull said with a showy gesture.

“Gentlemen, this fine man needs no introduction, but for the sake of our new ambassador, I will list his achievements none the less. His most notable works of art and architecture include our lovely Justice Building, the Hyperion wing of the Royal Palace, The Museum of Human Achievement, Sora Industrial Headquarters, and the ever beautiful Vertical Garden of the Sunrise Rose. Gentlemen, Mister Logan Derils.”

A thin man in a black turtleneck and formal pants entered the room, a pair of circular spectacles adorning his closely shaved head. Nolan continued, “Mr Derils humbly volunteered to present to us today his magnum opus, the Twin Palaces.”

Derils pulled up a series of holographic blueprints on his personal holopad before calmly beginning his presentation, displaying an elaborate diagram of a pair of twin palaces, one red and one silver, to be built on Mars and Luna respectively. Nolan said calmly “Queen Danuja has already given her approval on the matter, our vote on the Luna palace is a mere formality after today’s vote in Parliament. They are to serve as the administrative centres on the planets.”

Spicer listened quietly as Derils explained his plans and went over the details, although in his mind he wondered if a palace to live in might also be a good idea.

Perhaps one built like the Solarians, he thought as the meeting continued. That would be fitting for someone like Serena. Eventually, Derils finished his presentation, and the formal vote merely validated what was already decided. Spicer watched as the politicians vacated the room and wondered why Serena put up with them.

[Saint Morning]

Collab between Saint, Naval, Aser, Ran, and Brit

Queen’s Drawing Room, The Palace, Central Capital, the Earth, 503 AU

Spicer avoided the temptation to pull at his collar as he sat across from Serena in one of the many drawing rooms of the palace. As the PTO’s official liaison to Serena’s government, the Saiyan general was required by both custom and Serena’s own insistence to dress like an Earthling.

“It makes everyone feel more comfortable,” she told him not long after their return to the Earth. Spicer didn’t argue then, and he wouldn’t start now. He had grown a little more comfortable in formal Earth attire over the past year, but he didn’t exactly like it either, but his mind wasn’t on his clothes. Today, per their weekly audiences, he and the Queen discussed official matters of state. Serena met with her other minister weekly as well, including the Prime Minister, but Spicer noted that his meetings by far were the longest. Not that he had much to discuss regarding Earth’s relationship with the PTO. No, instead it seemed like they discussed just about everything else.

Serena also enjoyed her meetings with Spicer, more so because there wasn’t any actual weight behind them. Sure they talked about important business issues, and Spicer would regularly update her on the progression of terraformation and colonisation of celestial bodies across the solar system, from the moon to Mars and Venus and then even the Asteroid belt. But their meetings never had the same amount of pressure and she never felt as though she needed to keep her emotions or words in check when around him.

I have to be Serenity around the Cabinet, but around Spicer, I’m allowed to just be Serena, she thought with a smile as she took a sip of tea.

Today was no different. They had a pleasant conversation about how the Saiyans were adjusting to life on Mars. She was pleasantly surprised that the local admixture of Saiyans, humans, Namekians and other PTO migrants who had been relocated there as a result of the war were living in relative harmony, odd skirmishes aside. But alas they could not dwell on that topic forever and soon they both would need to move on to today’s important event.

Spicer checked the clock on the far side of the room and put down his tea cup. They had been speaking for well over an hour, but to Spicer, it felt like only a few minutes had gone by.

“We should be on our way,” he said somewhat sadly. “It’s almost time for the memorial.”

Serena placed her tea cup down on its coaster. “On a scale of one to ten, how well do you imagine this event will be received?” A small smile was on her lips,which suggested humour, though she was truly worried about it all. She hoped for a better reaction than was received by the initial announcement of the Earth’s inclusion into the PTO, at least amongst the cabinet. The Earth people were majorly enamoured by their Queen in much the same way they had been enamoured by Artemis, her mother, so the general public opinion had swayed slightly favourable if considerably hesitant.

Spicer returned her smile before he crossed his arms and looked upwards.

“If your coronation is anything to go by,” he started with a hint of a smile, “Despite--or perhaps because of--you going off script, I would say an eight or a nine. The people seem to like all the pomp and festivities. Your return has brought a degree of stability that I think they appreciate, it’s those vultures in your government I’m more worried about.”

“Yes, I do worry about their reaction the most.” She looked up to her family portrait, a longing look on her face. She wondered what her grandfather would do in this situation, if he had lived that was. Probably pretend as though nothing was happening, let his administration do all the hard work She thought and sighed. That was not the type of ruler she wanted to be.

“I guess there’s no point worrying about it now hmm?” Serena clapped her hands together and stood up with Spicer quickly following her lead, his years of service to monarchs showcasing themselves in the deference he gave Earth’s Queen. Serena then offered her arm for him to take. “Care to walk me out?”

As Serena offered him her arm, the Saiyan hesitated for a moment before he nodded and laced his arm with hers. It reminded Spicer of the time she took his arm on his ship, before a training session.

It seems like such a lifetime ago, Spicer thought as they walked out of the drawing room.

“Have you heard if Danuja will be in attendance, or any of the other Wraith Squadron members? I know Nymph is representing her mother, but the others elude me.”

Serena’s words broke the Saiyan’s thoughts. He had stayed in contact with some members of their Squad, of course, as the official commander of the PTO garrison on Earth, but he couldn’t account for all of their activities.

“I haven’t heard from Her Highness in months,” he admitted. “The Torhan Generals told me they were coming, and of course, General Fawkes is still off-world.”

“Aw,” Serena began as they made their way down the hall. “I was hoping to see some of the others, for old times sake.”

Spicer understood the feeling, but didn’t dwell much more on it as they neared the queen’s quarters. She gave him a pleasant wave as she entered to prepare, and Spicer made his way through the hall to the carriage that would take him to the service, with nothing but his thoughts to accompany him.

---

Memorial Square, Central Capital, the Earth

Not far from the Palace, thousands of onlookers packed into the 70,000 square metre Memorial Square--formerly Victory Square--as they awaited the official start of the memorial service. It was two years to the day that life on Earth changed, two years since the terror attacks that claimed countless innocent lives, and two years since the Earth first made contact with the Planetary Trade Organisation.

Spicer sat alongside the other dignitaries on a raised platform, watching the soldiers in the parade march by.

The crowds seem to be enjoying the festivities, the Saiyan noted as he peered over to his side and looked at the members of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet and the Queen’s Privy Council. Lottus sat next to him, as a representative of her Order, but Spicer’s attention at the moment was on Queen Serenity.

Nymphaea shuffled in her seat as she looked down at the crowd below. Her hands were on her thighs as she glanced at the other dignitaries she was sitting next to, some looking at her like she was an oddity, which in truth she was. Where everyone wore all black and had fancy but stuffy clothing the mage wore bright colored and flowy robes; befitting a master of the mystic arts. A deal struck by both her mother and Serena made it that Nymphaea attended the event as the representative of the Order to the public. One of the deciding factors for it was of course her being a soldier of the PTO and as such is as much of a war heroine as the queen herself.

I still think sis should have been picked instead of me. I'm not used to being watched by so many people. the nervous witch thought as she began to shake a little. "I want to go back home and play with my pets or learn some new spells. Not have the whole world watching me. Judging me. What if I screw up? I would humiliate not only myself but everyone in the Order too!" the witch was now beginning to sweat bullets as her trembling grew worse, the witch now muttering out her concerns without realizing it. A habit she got from her mother whenever she was in deep thought over something or nervous.

Spicer noticed Nymphaea fidgeting in her seat and gave her a quizzical look.

“You fought against one of the most feared squadrons in the PTO,” he whispered to her. “And helped kill a genocidal maniac, and this is what frightens the Great General Nymphaea of Holy Terra?” The mage suddenly became rigid when she heard Spicer say that the crowd scared her. “A bunch of puny mortals gazing upon me is enough to frighten me?” the mage turned her head up and away from Spicer. “Hardly. I’m just worried that Serena’s speech would bore us to sleep. It won’t look good for me or the Order if I fall asleep on such an important event after all.” the mage said as she defected the accusation of her having stage fright.

“Though,” she turned her head slightly to look down at Spicer’s suit. “I don’t think what you are wearing would be considered the traditional garb for Saiyans on these kinds of occasions. In fact, it’s really weird seeing you dressed up like that.”

“Only because Her Majesty asked me to,” Spicer said matter of factly. “I might not like it, but it keeps the vultures from attacking her, so for her sake I’ll put up with it.” Nymphaea blinked. “Vultures? How are you wearing that gonna prevent vultures from attacking her? Are you acting like a scarecrow but for vultures?”

Spicer opened his mouth to reply but thought better of it. He came to accept that sometimes it was better to let Nymph accept her fantasies than for him to try and control them.

“Did they not let you bring your eyepatch?”

Nymphaea puffed up her cheeks as she looked grumpy. “I wanted to bring it but mom said it wouldn’t look good if I wore it without actually losing an eye.” she would cross her arms in front of her chest. “I believe sealing my more powerful spells is a good enough reason to bring it over but nnnnnnoooooooo.” Nymphaea bemoaned as she rolled her eyes. She placed her elbows on her thighs and held her head with her hands. “I think it would have looked cool with my robes.”

Spicer smirked but didn’t add much else. He could see some of the members of Serena’s cabinet looking over with disapproving glances before he turned back to the parade. It was nearly finished, and in a few minutes Queen Serenity herself would take the stand and deliver her eulogy.

Teikoku and Arashi were marching at the head of the column of troops in the parade, both dressed in sharp military garb in the style of Earth’s military. “I don’t like these pants, man. They chafe,” Teikoku muttered to Arashi as they marched in formation, hissing the words out through her teeth to avoid changing her impassive expression.

Somewhat preoccupied with trying to keep himself from fidgeting with every little accessory on the uniform, he welcomed the brief distraction, and an opportunity for a jab. “Maybe if you didn’t pick a fifty foot tall body they could have found something that fit better.”

---

Queen Serenity of House Avernus, first of her name, Sovereign of the Kingdom of Earth, Princess of Luna, Regent of Mars, Protectoress of Ceres, et cetera, et cetera. The list went on and it was more than a mouthful to say even when done formally, which was why she had requested to only be introduced on this day as Queen Serenity. If she had it her own way she would’ve even wanted to just be called by her birth name, Serena. But formality dictated that she could not, even though it was Serena, not Serenity, who fought alongside the Wraith Squad protecting not only the galaxy but the entire universe from a rampaging Maniac.

It was maddening that none of these folks would ever know that. None of them would recognise the pain and suffering that her and her friends went through to ensure that the galaxy would be a safe place for them all. Maybe if they were aware of this fact, her government would be more willing to listen to her, the Prime Minister in particular seemed to go against her at every point, but unfortunately for him, Serena was not that meek child that ran off to space at her earliest convenience. Being Queen Serenity to the general public meant little if she was figurehead, and with the power she had… she would not just sit still and look pretty for anyone.

The Queen took a deep breath as she rose from her seat and took to the podium set up for her. She looked out at the multitudes who hanged on her every breath. The crowds, before so agitated in excitement, grew suddenly quiet at the sight of their young and beautiful monarch.

“Two years ago,” Serena began, “our lives changed irrevocably. The assassination of our predecessor, King Hyperion III, the terrorist uprising, and the apperance of the Planetary Trade Organisation all in the same afternoon came as a great shock to our planet. Great sacrifices were made that day, and in the days that followed. In those first few days, the chaos and destruction wrought by the terrorists nearly crippled our kingdom, and innumerable lives were lost. Let us think what it was that upheld us through those days of suffering and peril; the knowledge that everything was at stake: our freedom, our independence, our very existence as a people; but the knowledge also that in defending ourselves we were defending the liberties of a whole planet. In the darkest hours we knew that the enslaved and isolated peoples of Earth looked to that freedom; their hopes were our hopes; their confidence confirmed our faith. We knew that, if we failed, the last remaining barrier against world-wide anarchy would have fallen in ruins. We knew that had we failed, all that we have known and cared for, would have sunk into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. But we did not fail. We kept our faith with ourselves and with one another; we kept faith and unity and that faith and unity have carried us to victory through dangers which at times seemed overwhelming."

Serena paused as she looked out at the crowds. As she opened her mouth to say more, a tingling sensation at the back of her mind tugged at the queen. It was a familiar presence, one accompanied by a familiar sound.

Serena, get down.

“Get down!” Serena suddenly screamed.

Only when she turned at a forty degree angle, her eyes just catching onto Nymph’s, did she feel the sudden presence of things that were distinctly not human in attendance. The ground shook violently all around, and several thousand screams filled the air, those screams only escalated in pitch as several portals began to form in various locations. One in the centre of the path where the soldiers marched and one on the rooftop where Serena and the dignitaries were situated. Serena gasped as an unseen creature zipped from the portal and clutched her waistline. Only moments later, she’s not only flying towards the crowds due to whatever clutching her suddenly going airborne and taking to the skies.

The Queen looked around frantically and was shocked by the sight of several winged and knightly armoured figures plaguing the skies around the square. Some with one set of wings others with six. Some humanoid others oddly sharpened like abstract shapes with multiple arms and faces.

Nymphaea sensed something was wrong long before Serena looked at her, letting her know that she too can feel that something wasn’t right. Suddenly the whole event made to celebrate a new era for Earth turned into total anarchy as winged knights began to descend from rifts.

“THEY HAVE THE QUEEN.” A reporter soon screamed from below before turning to her camera. “You heard it here first at EBC, a horde of what could only be described as angels have attacked the square and have captured our fair Queen.” The Earth Broadcasting Channel anchoress pitched to the screen.

“Just what we needed,” Spicer said through gritted teeth. The screams of the civilians only escalated the tension in the air, but the creatures didn’t appear to be moving in any logical pattern.

Are they only after Serena? Spicer wasn’t sure, and he wasn’t willing to wait either. If there was a danger to the people, he had to act. The Saiyan general pulled off his tie and removed his shirt and jacket to reveal his usual Saiyan armour and jumpsuit hiding beneath. He wasted no time as he flew off towards the Queen’s abductor as the sight of several similar creatures appeared, and fired off a barrage of energy attacks at the new arrivals. Spicer knew, instinctively, that the Queen could handle herself--he heard about her adventure in the Feywilds, even if he didn’t understand it--but that didn’t stop the Saiyan’s natural impulses to help her either. A feeling of despair rushed over him briefly.

If something were to happen to her… Spicer couldn’t continue the thought--or wouldn’t--as he attempted to get the angelic creatures' attention. Dread continued to hang over the Saiyan as he reached into his pocket and retrieved his scouter.

“I hope the Torhans have their’s with them,” he said in a low voice as he attached the device to his head and pressed the button.

“Generals Teikoku and Arashi, come in,” he said. “Take command of the men and secure the humans. We cannot, I repeat, we cannot have any civilian casualties. Over.”

“Angels!? Why are angels attacking people? More importantly who summoned them and how can they summon so much?” The only person Nymphaea was aware of that can summon multiple entities at once was her sister and she has the fact she was a hybrid of a magical creature to explain how she can have so much magic to perform a feat that most would either fail on attempting or be so exhausted that they would pass out after doing so.

As the angel flew down at the crowd the witch suddenly stood up. “I wish I brought my cape with me but I can improvise for now,” she traced two mandalas in the air and from the magical constructs streams of magical energy began to spill out and form in the shape of twin swords. When the former of the blades were now longer just magical outlines of the blades, but glowing constructs in their shape, Nymphaea would grab them, the light dispelling away to reveal two physical blades The blades of the swords are moderately curved and single-edged, though often with a few inches of the back edge sharpened as well; the moderate curve allows them to be reasonably effective in the thrust. The hilts were canted; curving in the opposite direction of the blade. A cord wrap around the wood of the hilt and tassels; one being white and the other black. The guard was disc-shaped and cupped to prevent rainwater or blood from making it hard to grip the sword.

Spicer looked over to see that Nymphaea was quick to react to the situation, as well.

“Good, looks like we won’t be completely outmanned here,” he said aloud as he engaged the nearest angelic being. The creatures moved about with intelligence, but with no defined will, almost like they were animals. With the exception of grabbing the Queen, Spicer could detect no other purpose to their movements.

They were targeting Serena, but why? he wondered. They don’t seem to be after magic users, or General Ashwood would be targeted, and as for other powerful beings, the Torhans are suitable enough...

Nymphaea spun her body around and performed a few artistic slashes, trying out the blades. As she put her foot down and took a stance the two blades would release magical fire, one of black flames and the other white flames. She would lift her ring and middle finger and trace a circle on the air, a portal forming just in front of her away from the platform. “This is where the fun begins.” she said with a smirk before she ran forward, jumping up and landing on the rails, before jumping off it and going through the portal.

From the other side of the portal Nymphaea would find herself in the air. As she turned her body so her feet were facing the ground she would land on an angel flying by. She would quickly slash at the angel’s wings, cutting them off. As the angel screamed in pain and fell she would jump off the angel, using her magic to augment her legs so she can jump at incredible heights.

Just like before she would land on another angel flying by and just before the angel could react she would cut off it’s wings and jump off it’s wings as the angel began to fall to the ground. As she rose in the air she would see an angel flying towards her with it’s lance aimed at her heart. The witch would trace a circle on her feet and a mandala would form underneath her feet just as gravity began to pull her down, landing on the platform. Nymphaea would watch the angel and just as it was close she would jump away from the attack, spinning around the angel and striking at half the wing, severing them in two. The angel screamed in pain as he slid across the platform and ultimately slid off due to the momentum the angel had.

The Saiyan general fired a blast at the back of one of the angel’s heads, destroying it but drawing the attention of another. The creature shrieked before attacking with a backhand against Spicer’s chest that sent him flying into a nearby building.

As Nymphaea began to fall to the ground she would see two angels diving towards her with spears. She lifted her pointer and middle fingers and moved her hand to downward on the left. The angel above the other would suddenly feel an intense pull and he slammed himself on the other angel, making the two fall from the sky.

The witch would see a few angels aim what look to be aquabus made of gold and gems at her. When they pulled the trigger blasts of holy magic would come out from the barrel. The witch would use reinforcement to course her own magic around her body, augmenting her body. With her speed and reflexe now increased the angels would see Nymphaea become a whirl of blades as she began to deflect each blast shot at her with the magical blades, creating a swirling monochrome vortix.

As she deflected each shot she would try to find a way to escape from the angels onslaught, trying her best not to look down as she did so. The witch would however take a peak below and she saw an angel flying almost close to where she might land, this gave her an idea. Once the angels stopped firing at her to reload the witch would grip her blades with telekinesis as she began to make rapid circular motions with her arms. When she thrust both her hands forward a powerful gust of wind would come out, pushing the witch further down while sending the angels flying upward.

As the wind blew against her body the witch would turn around, channeling more magic into her body to further reinforce it. Her robes began to flutter loudly as she flew, infact she couldn’t see below her due to the robes. Instead she had to rely on her paranatural senses to guide her, and right now they were telling her to stay on course.

Her hunch would be created as she landed on the angel, making the angel buckle and fall downward slightly due to the sudden impact, the sound of his armor denting was heard by the two. Nymphaea would summon energy threads that would wrap themselves around the angels limbs, wings, waist, hip, and neck. The angel would shout at her in a language she didn’t know as he tried to break free. “Stop that! I will cut off your wings if you keep fighting me!” she warned the angel. As the angel tried it’s best to break free she would see angelic marksmen aim at her. As they fired she would use her sword to deflect their blasts. As she flew by them she would slash down at their weapons, cutting the guns into pieces, and as she flew away the wings on the angels would sever in two as she cut them.

The witch would pull on the strings and force the angel to fly up. As she fell up she would feel the angel beginning to turn around. She would hold on tightly to the strings as her feet were left off the angel as he began to spin wildly.

Nymphaea can sense that some angels were aiming at her again. She would wait for a few seconds before she let go of the strings, flying away as she saw the angel being bombarded by multiple energy blasts from his allies. The witch would fly like a bullet and she would feel her feet landing on the back of another angel who was not expecting the impact, the two flying to a close building as the angel was embedded on to the wall. Nymphaea would crouch down and jump off as the angel slid off the wall and fell. As she flew on the air she would make a downward slash, severing yet another angel’s wings, before turning around to have her back face the ground as she slash upward, blocking an angel who came down to strike her from behind.

As the two began to fall to the ground the angel would break off the engagement so he could thrust his hand forward and fire a sphere of holy energy at Nymphaea. The witch quickly moved her head out of the way and she would slash at him with her sword of white flames, the angel quickly blocking it as she would try to strike with the black flame blade only for the angel to push the white flame away to block the other.

She would attempt to slash the angel at his waist but like before the angel would push away her other blade so he can deflect the other, even when she tried to slash at his neck the angel would do the same thing and block that one. The witch would thrust her hand forward and unleash a telekinetic blast that would send the angel flying away from her.

The angel used his arms to protect himself from the attack and once he was no longer being sent flying away the angel would flap his wings before diving down towards Nymphaea. The witch on the other hand would have turned around and as such had her back towards the angel. She would use the magic contained in her ring to create another portal and fall through.

Above a news van, a portal would emerge and from it, Nymphaea fell through. The witch would turn so she landed on her feet, making the van bounce as a loud thud was heard. The witch ignored the news crew who was now looking up at her and recording her. She looks up the portal and senses immediately that she didn’t go through it alone. The witch would jump backwards away from the van as the angel flew down and stabbed his blade through the van roof, making the news crew scream in horror.

Nymphaea would be in a crouching position as she looked up to see the angel as he removed his blade from the van, the blade rubbing against the van’s roof not only caused a loud scratching noise to come from the rubbing of two metals but sparks to fly off.

The angel would point his blade at Nymphaea as azure flames combust on his blade. Nymph saw three angels come down, one having a staff with both ends having crystalline blades producing sparks, another with an axe of ice. “Three against one? That’s hardly honourable don’t you guys think?” She raised one blade forward while holding the other behind her as she took a defensive stance.

[Naval Monte]

Collab between Brit and Naval

Cabinet Conference Room, Prime Minister’s Residence, Central Capital, Before Memorial Attack

From the hallway a maid that was pushing a cart filled with cleaning supplies would be taking a turn down the hall when she would be face to face with a black portal that opened seemingly out of nowhere. The portal would release a soul piercing scream as what appeared to be blood would ooze out from the portal. The maid would let go of the cart and back away from fear before she ran down the halls screaming in horror, shouting how the gates of hell have opened in the palace and demons are invading.

She would not see the two women coming out from the portal. “You know we should have used a normal portal. The ones you made would have given us a bad first impression.” Alex told Elizabeth as the older witch moved away from the puddle of blood that was made on the formerly polished floor. Elizabeth barely waved her hand and moved the puddle away so she didn’t step on it. “I think making a memorable entrance is a good enough first impression.” she told her mother as she walked to the door.

“Not when it makes us look like evil witches.” the grand mistress muttered as she followed Elizabeth into the room. Once the two were inside they looked around in the chamber with awe.

The cream colored walls and marble white floors and ceiling gave the room a pleasant and cozy feeling, as though they were in a comfortable home instead of a chamber for important political discussion that would affect the lives of billions.

Exquisitely crafted chandeliers hung on the wall as they illuminated the room, revealing luxurious chairs made of the finest wood with peach leather cushions. Marble columns were spotted in the room and they saw a marble fireplace behind the chairs. The table had a green velvet cover that made them think of a pool table.

From the large mirrors to the walls, the antique clocks, the book shelves, the room was made to convey the senses of both history and importance, a show of prestige and power. But the two most eye catching objects were the paintings of the late king and his mostly believed deceased daughter-in-law.

Alex looked up at the painting of Artemis. “If only this painting can talk. Maybe it would tell me what happened to you?” she said as she watched the painting. Memories of her youth and her adventures with the former princess resurfacing as she allowed herself to relive those memories.

Meanwhile, the members of the Earth Cabinet filtered into the room and took their usual seats around the conference table. Prime Minister Turnbull gestured to some empty for the witches.

“Please,” he said stiffly but politely. “Take a seat,” he said as he sat down himself.

The two witches looked at the old man and did as he instructed. Alex looked at each member of the cabinet while Elizabeth’s eyes were set on Taira. “Have we met before? You look familiar.” The Chancellor looked at the witches and shook his head with a smile.

“No, I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure,” he said. “Although we might have passed by each other at Queen Serenity’s coronation,” he added. Turnbull moved some papers together.

“Yes,” he said quickly. “We might as well get started, but before the usual business, we have some matters to discuss with our guests,” the Prime Minister said as he motioned towards the witches.

Elizabeth gave him a shrug. “Perhaps you’re right. Or maybe I saw you on the news or saw someone who looked just like you on the street?” she said. The witch still had the feeling that she met the man from somewhere but decided to leave the subject alone for now.

Alex looked at Taira and she had to admit that she was having the same feeling too but she couldn’t quite put her finger on where she met him? However that train of thought will have to be for later as Turnbull said he has some matters to discuss with them.

The witch would give him a smile. “What matters do you wish to discuss about Mr. Turnbull?”

Turnbull leaned forward.

“The relationship between your Order and the Government,” the Prime Minister said as he adjusted his glasses. “You have been hiding from the Government for some time now, and we in the Cabinet think it is high time you join us in the modern world.”

The witch still kept her pleasant smile while Elizabeth still gave them a cold and disinterest look. The two witches knew that most in the government and probably Serena herself would want them to interact more with the outside world. The former princess especially since she was very excited about learning there were other magic users like her.

Poor dear. She must have felt very lonely here. Having no one to teach her about her magic as well as being told to suppress it, no wonder she became friends with Nymphaea so quickly. She was carving for companionship from others like her.

The witch said, “We expected such a request would be made and the idea has come up a few times from some members of our ranks. Of course the matter is the most contentious one in our Order. Many believe that magi and non magi can never truly understand each other and it’s only a matter of time before one or the other would strike each other down, and others believe that us being too distracted on mundane affairs would hamper our mission to understand the arcane secrets of existence and deal with any magical threats that might arise.” she would take a glance at Elizabeth. The cambion glanced back at her as the older witch gave her a smile. The next sentence she would give was dedicated to both her and Nymphaea

“But some members think that we ought to reveal ourselves to the people we swore to protect so they can know what is out there and know they are safe. Some even believe that revealing magic would make the lives of most people better.” she explained to them.

“I myself have to stay neutral so as to avoid the discussion from becoming too heated that it would cause the conflict to escalate but I’m willing to hear how our people should finally meet each other publicly.”

The Prime Minister cleared his throat.

“I understand your concerns, but that said, since the existence of mages has become more widespread in recent days, and in particular, that the Queen herself is a mage, we cannot have an unregulated group of powerful individuals outside of our jurisdiction.” He paused for a moment.

“The situation with the PTO is tenuous already, and we certainly can’t hold that monkey of theirs accountable.”

The smile on Alex’s face twitched slightly, yet she maintained it as she closed her eyes. “That “monkey” is a friend of ours and the queen’s, so I would refrain from insulting him in our presence.” her voice had a slight edge to it even though she tried to maintain the pleasant tone. “As for our group you are thinking that we are an organization of mages and in the foundation of our Order that was indeed the case, but that is no longer the case Prime Minister. The Order, and everyone in Airceltria for that matter, are all people who live what most would consider a nation. We have rules to maintain order within our own, including a judicial system and a governmental body, we even have our own economic policy. If you fear that we are some cabal of magicians and witches secretly influencing the world from the shadows than we are not, we are just people who want to live our lives the way we intend to and maybe interact more with people outside of our borders.”

“That is all nice,” he retorted, “but we don’t recognise your ‘nation’ as you put it, and perhaps more germane, neither does the PTO. Like it or not, you exist within the borders of the Earth Kingdom and are subject to Parliament’s jurisdiction.”

The grand mistress' smile faltered slightly upon hearing that. “Oh, you don’t recognize our nation? Yet you people never did anything with the Heights. In Fact, you can’t even make use of it like us. Our city was independent from your rule long before your monarchs were forced to sign the contract that made Parliament a legal body that had more power than them. The PTO doesn’t matter to us because they aren’t going to actively deal with domestic policies of this world unlike Serena and you people, so their opinion doesn’t matter. But let’s humour your little theory of us being under Earth’s jurisdiction. What would that entail for my people if we have to follow your rules?”

“A member of Parliament would run a ministry that would oversee magic,” he stated bluntly.

“Yeah no, we want a say in that ministry and who becomes it’s minister because we don’t feel comfortable allowing someone who barely understands how magic works to dictate what laws should be passed on it.” the witch stated in the same blunt tone. Her smiling facade now dropped as she was showing some slight irritation.

“I’m afraid that is not how that works my dear.” Taira injected. “Your rule over your “nation” is as questionable as its existence, as is the entire body that runs it. Unfortunately for you much of how you run that city will have to be changed as well. For starters we will have to adjust your economy to run along with ours since whatever system you have would not work once we integrate your city with ours. Second whatever criminals you have locked up will have to be tried by our courts and whatever body you have for governance will have to be disbanded.” he told her. Alex’s hands balled into fists as they began to shake with anger.

“Also, if what we have heard is right about some of your magic I’m afraid some of your practices will have to be banned, namely the practices of necromancy, demonology, and other dark arts, with their practitioners having to be put on trial for their…”

Before Taira can finish he and everyone would hear lights emit a loud buzz before they all blew out. They would see from the lights peeking through the windows some of the objects in the room flying off and either landing on the floor or slamming on the wall, one hitting a random minister on the back of the head, making him slam his head on the table and knocking him out.

Alex would get off her chair, causing it to slide and fall on the floor, as she slammed her reinforced hands on the table, her hands breaking through it. “THOSE CHANGES ARE OUTRAGEOUS!” She shouted as the fireplace would suddenly have a blech of fire that would spontaneously manifest into existence.

“We will not have little men in pressed suits and with the delusion of power say how we should practice the mystic arts or how we should live our lives. I thought we could try to make your queen and my daughter’s wish a reality but it seems that Jules and some of the other Elders were right. You people will never accept us, not without dominating us.” She would take out her wand and after reciting a small chant the wand would turn into a staff.

“We are done with this meeting.” she glared at the Prime Minister. “Tell your queen she is no longer welcomed into our city if she can’t keep her pets under control.” One minister would get up and look at the witch with the same fury she was giving the others.

“You will not leave this room Ms Ashwood. Not only can we file charges on you for assault and damaging royal property but you were allowed into this palace because we allowed it and you will leave because we demand it and right now we are demanding you to return to your seat and listen to what will be the new rules when it comes to magic and your order.” he told her.

The minister would hear Elizabeth scoffing loudly at him. “You think some piece of paper gives you power over us? The power of your fancy crown, paper, and worthless noble blood is insignificant compared to the powers of the mystic arts.” the man would sneer at the witch. “Don’t try to scare us with your sorcerous ways Ashwood, your precious mystic arts didn’t allow you to predict the arrival of the PTO, nor did it allow you to achieve victory over that lizard’s deranged cousin. More importantly, your magic won’t save you from the changes that will be implemented into your city once this meeting is...eck.” The man would suddenly find it difficult to breathe and would begin to clutch his neck as he felt an incredible tightness being pressed upon his airway. He would find Elizabeth was now holding her hand out as though she was grabbing on to something.

“I find your lack of faith, disturbing.” she would clench her fingers tightly and the man would feel more pressure on his neck as his face began to change color and his eyes bulged out. Alex looked at the scene. As the other ministers looked at the cambion with horror, some begging for her to let him go, Alex looked on with cold indifference at the scene. As Elizabeth was beginning to close her fingers in, making her grip on the man much stronger, Alex showed some concern. “I don’t think you don’t need to squeeze him that tightly Liz. What you have done now is enough to get the message across. So let him go.” Yet Elizabeth didn’t listen as she still kept her grip on the man. “I said you can let him go Lizzy.” her mother asked as she looked over to Elizabeth who was still holding on to him

“I said let him go Lizzy. His blood isn’t worth the trouble.” Elizabeth would finally let him go and the man would fall on to his knees, gasping for air. “I hope this reminds you all that while you have billions of people on this world fooled into believing that you are the most powerful people on this planet we know the truth.” her eyes narrowed at Turnbull. “If your people try to do anything to us, what has happened in here will happen again, and next time I won’t tell Elizabeth to stop.” she would turn around and began to stomp towards the door.

Elizabeth would give the men a feral smile. “I do hope you idiots try something funny. I would love to finish what I started.” the witch would let out a sinister laugh as she got up and followed her mother out of the room. When Elizabeth was out of the door she would slam the door with enough force that cracks would form on the wall. As she pulled on the doorknob she would break it off.

Alex looked over at Elizabeth, giving her a disapproved look. “What? They can easily replace the doorknob.” she told her as she tossed the knob out the window, breaking the glass. “That isn’t what I have problems with and you know it.” the younger Ashwood would let out a sigh as she leaned back on the door.

“Men like those can’t be swayed easily by words and demonstration mom, they need concrete proof that we are powerful and their power has no sway over us.” she told her as she folded her arms in front of her chest and put her right foot on the door.

“Be that as it may, having one of their own being choked to death would give them the excuse to send their armies after us to conquer the city and force us to live under their thumb.” Elizabeth would push herself off the door and walk over to the window that she shattered, looking out to the city that surrounds the palace.

“Furthermore, we’re enjoying the good grace of their people right now. We can’t allow these vultures to twist what happened in here to make it look like we are dangerous people.” Elizabeth would turn to look at her mother. “But we are, mother. We’re dangerous to them. They only have imaginary power while we have the real thing. They are used to being lords over the whole world and right now their fragile beliefs are in pieces. Them being the subjects of a ruler with real power is forcing them to realize that in the grand scheme of things they are as insignificant and as powerless as the peasants they rule over. They are desperate to delude themselves back into their fantasy and those absurd requests they want to force on us is proof of it.”

She would throw her hand back. “Why should we listen to those buffoons who are willing to let most of their own people live close to poverty while they reside in their ivory towers like they were gods of old. You agree with me that those bastards don’t care about the people they claim to represent, they only care about their own wealth and power.” she brought her fist close to her chest. “We would be better rulers of this world than those pathetic excuses of nobles!” The witch shouted as her eyes turned into their dark form and a dark aura exploded from her body, causing the windows in the hall to explode and shower the ground below with glass shards.

“ELIZABETH, CALM YOURSELF RIGHT NOW!” the older witch demanded as her own dark purple aura exploded out, trying to subdue the dark aura before it can spread throughout the palace. The two witches would have a battle over their auras as sparks fly off, striking at the wall and breaking through them as other sparks broke through the ceiling and floor, hitting randomly at objects in upper and lower floors. Eventually the dark aura began to recede as Elizabeth began to calm down.

Her shoulders began to sag as she looked down. “I’m sorry mother. I don’t know what came over me. I-...” she would feel her mother place her hand on her shoulder. Looking up she would see her giving her a smile. “I understand Lizzy. I know how you feel about how they run this planet and I agree, they have failed most people on this world. But that isn’t our battle. This is Serena’s battle, we can only aid her in her quest to make the Earth better. Our fight is making sure the balance between this world and the other realms is maintained.”

Elizabeth looked to the floor. “If we let them control us then they will try to exploit Yggdrasil just like Shinra.” Alex nodded. “That you’re right, I also suspect that they are still receiving Shinra’s money as well. But until they try to force this matter on us we will have to leave them to Serena to reign in. Perhaps we can have Nymphaea get in contact with Glacia to support us on seeing us as an independent state or maybe even have Serena support us?”

Elizabeth would look at her mother. “Are you sure they would help us mother?” the older witch gave a confident grin. “Of course I am. Nymphaea helped the empress with winning the war, a small favor is the least she can do. As for Serena she is the queen, I don’t see how such a simple matter would be difficult for her.” she said as she waved her hand.

A small smile would appear on Elizabeth’s lips. “I guess you're right. I’m just angry that they call us here just so they can say that they are now our new rulers.” Alex would let out a huff. “I’ll let them rule over my city over my dead body!” the two witches would begin to laugh for a few minutes.

“Let’s get out of here. I think we made enough of a mess here.” Elizabeth agreed with her mother and the two witches stepped through the portal and returned to the city streets in an alley.

[Britanania]

Collab between Naval, Saint, and Brit

Memorial Square, Central Capital, the Earth, 503 AU

The first to strike was the flame broadsword angel as he leapt in the air, knees bent back and blade raised above his head. As he came down he also brought his blade down on Nymphaea who brought her sword above to block the strike, causing her arm to move back due to the strength of the angel. The one with the electro staff began to spin the weapon around before he thrust his spear-like staff at Nymph, making the witch bring her other blade to block and deflect the weapon away as she pushed off the other flaming sword. The witch moved back as the angels took a defensive stance.

The witch can hear the axemen charging towards her. The witch leapt up in the air just as the frozen axe blade swung down and cut through the ground. In the air she would be upside down and thrust her hand forward, the angelic axeman flying back as the ground was pushed down into a crater from a telekinetic push. Just as she landed back on to her feet the staff using the angel began to charge forward and thrust his electric blade towards her, making the witch dodge to the right as the angel pulled back and thrust forward, having the witch block the blow with her sword as the angel pushed forward to break her hold.

The axemen would slam his blade on the ground and icicle spikes would grow from them and go towards Nymphaea. The witch would block another strike from the staff user before she leapt to the side to avoid the ice wall that was forming on her path, the staff user doing the same.

As she landed on the ground she would see a portion of the wall producing steam and melting. The wall would explode as a large stream of fire came towards her. The witch would thrust both blades forward and when the stream of fire touched the blades she would pull the two apart and make them face the ground, pulling the stream apart and making it splash on the ground around her.

As the flames surround her she can see the angel with the flaming sword pointing it’s blade towards her as he fires another blast at her. Nymphaea would bring her blades together and like before she would pull the blast away from her and on to the ground. The angel would deliver a third blast which Nymphaea would once more divert away from her but just as the flames vanished from her view she would see a bolt of lightning flying towards her. The bolt would strike her chest, causing electricity to course through her body as she was sent flying away, dropping her swords somewhere in the fly.

Nymphaea would fly in the away and when she got close to the ground she would bounce a few times before sliding to a stop. The witch would groan as she was looking up at the sky. At first, her vision was blurry but soon she saw the staff using an angel was in the air coming down with the blade aimed at her chest. Nymphaea’s eyes widened and she would've left her legs and most of her body up, spinning her legs in the air and nearly being stabbed once the blade stabbed itself on the ground. Nymphaea would kick the spear and the pole would be knocked out of the ground and out of the angel’s hand who was not expecting her to kick it out of his hands. With her hands still on the ground, she would push on hand out and make the angel trap from a telekinetic push as she placed both hands on the ground and pushed herself up in the air, using her wind elemental powers to fly up and flip in the mid-air before landing down on her feet. As the angel was trying to get up Nymphaea would conjure energy lassos from her threads and wrap them around the angel, trapping him. Nymphaea would open her hand and the staff of the angel would fly to her palm.

She would see another barrage of ice coming towards her and the witch jump away, rolling on the ground before stopping on her knee and foot. Seeing the wall that was made she would run towards it before jumping towards her, spinning her body around as she gathered air around her. She would plant her feet on it and she would begin to run on the ice wall.

Nymphaea can see the two angels down at the ground. She saw the fire bender release yet another blast of fire on at her. She would allow herself to gain more speed and soon slide on the wall as the blast nearly got her, the wish feeling the blast of heat coming from the blast. As she slid on the wall she would see the end coming soon. Bending down she would jump off the wall but still going forward. She would turn her body around to face the angels as she flew backwards, seeing the ice angel flying around her.

It would fire icicles at her. The mage would spin the staff rapidly and a vortex of wind would form around the weapon, catching the icicles and making them spin around. She would send the vortex out to the angel as well as the icicles. The angel would be slowed down but he was still capable of cutting apart the icicles with his axe. Nymphaea would conjure a mandala platform for her to land on as she would channel the electrical power of the staff and unleash a bolt of lightning at the angel. The angel would dodge the bolt and unleash a wave of frost at Nymphaea. The witch would jump out of the platform as the wave came over it, freezing it and the air around it. Nymphaea would land on the wall of a building and stick due on by applying a small bit of magnetism magic she learned from her mother.

But she didn’t stay in that spot for long as she jumped off the building as another wave of frost hit the building. As she landed on the ground she would see the angel unleash yet another wave of frost at her and as she jumped back she would see a wall of ice from where she stood.

Nymphaea would raise her hand up. “Gravirei!” She would shout as she brought her hand down. The angel felt gravity around it intensify as he was brought down to the ground. Nymphaea would run forward and jump over the wall, once more backflipping in the air as she landed on the ground and rolling around before getting on her feet and sprinting to the downed angel.

As the angel tried to get up the witch would unleash another bolt of lightning, this time electrocuting the angel. As the angel began to scream from the attack Nymphaea almost thought back to Eden when a similar situation like this occurred. Yet she shook her head and dispelled the thought. This was not like Eden. This was not Krell and she would not lose control like last time.

As the angel passed out from the attack the witch would sense something coming from above. Placing both hands on the staff she would raise it just in time for the flaming swordsmen to bring his blade on the staff, cutting the staff in half. The stun witch was surprised for a few seconds but she would quickly try to stab the angel with one of the blades of the staff but the angel would swing his blade on the upper left and deflect the blade away from her hands and would swing down to strike her on the head but would only find her blocking the attack with the other blade of the staff before she moved around to the angel’s side to get away from the blade, stabbing him on the side and delivering a burst of electrical energy into him. The angel would scream but he would not be deterred by the attack as he backhanded Nymphaea on the face. The witch moved away and just as she turned to look at him she received a punch to the face. As she moved back she would shake her head as the angel reached off and pulled out the broken piece of the staff lodged into him.

As Nymphaea opened her eyes to see the angel she would see him swinging down the blade at her head. The witch was able to dodge the blade from stabbing her through the head but she would feel it cutting across her face, nearly getting her right eye. The witch would scream in pain as she would thrust her hand out and push the angel away with telekinesis.

She would touch the sight where the angel cut her and she felt not only a stinging, burning, sensation but felt blood on her hand. Looking at her palm she saw her blood. The angel cut her right on the corner of her right eye. She was lucky it was just there and not her actual eye.

She would look down to see the axe of the fallen angel and she would reach out and make the weapon fly to her hand. She would see a blast of fire come her way and she would swing the blast away with the axe, controlling the fire with her own magic and using the axe as a conduit to direct the flames where she wants it to go. But as the flames were sent up she would see the broken end of the staff flying towards her. She would swing the axe down on the projectile and once they made contact she would explode, sending her flying away as her axe was now shattered into pieces.

Nymphaea would land on top of a car, causing the windows to break and the roof to dent inward and for the air in her to be knocked out. The witch couldn’t afford to waste time by reeling over in pain, especially as she can sense the angel was going to attack again. She began to channel her electrical magic to the one end of the staff she still held.

As the angel flew high in the air Nymphaea would use her telekinesis to launch the hilt of the axe at the angel. As the hilt flew up she would begin to channel a burst of energy to the staff just as she saw the angel deliver a wave of fire that sliced the hilt in half in blade flight, making the two pieces fall down as fireballs. She would launch the staff blade just as the axe hilt was destroyed. The angel merely dodged the attack but behind him, another angel took the attack and as he was electric the other turned to face the other angel just as the crystal finally exploded, making the angel it stabbed explode with it and catching the other angel in the explosion.

Nymphaea covered her eyes from the explosion. Burnt pieces of armour and charred lumps of flesh as well as ash rain down from the explosion, but among them was the body of the other angel. Nymphaea can see that his armour was blackened and distorted due to the intense heat, it was also shattered in some areas. More importantly, his wings were burnt badly.

The witch would place her head back on the car, letting out a sigh. “Sorry that it had to end like this. But you didn’t give me much of a choice,” she said, both to herself and the spirit of the angel if it was still lingering around. She would push her chest upward, holding herself on her elbow and forearms, her right knee raised as she pushed her leg on the roof and her foot firmly planted on it. But as she did so she would see the angel was getting up. “You gotta be kidding me! I thought that would knock him out!” the surprised mage shouted as she quickly got up on the roof just as the angel was using his sword to get up, though it was a struggle to do so. She would move her hand out and push the angel down to the ground.

“Stand down angel! You are too injured to fight. Don’t waste your energy fighting a pointless battle. Converse that power to heal yourself so you can see your home realm again.” she told the angel. If Spicer or Serena was around they would be surprised to hear the stern and authoritative tone that she was using. She sounded almost like her mother whenever she was serious.


Yet the angel was stubborn as it tried to get up, only to fall back down. Nymphaea would increase the gravity around the angel as it sunk further into the ground. “Surrender now!” she demanded. “I don’t want to hurt you any further but I would be forced to do so if you give me no choice.” The angel instead only responded by lifting his hand, a fireball forming. Nymphaea would move her hand and the angel would see his forearm and hand be crushed. The sound of metal and bones crunching and cracking was heard by the two as the angel screamed. The angel fell on the ground and stopped moving, surrounding.

Nymphaea would jump off the car and walk over to the angel, binding it with her threads. She would dash forward to the spot where she lost her blades to find them and deal with more of the angels, ignoring the bleeding cut on the corner of her right eye. She would deal with it once she had dealt with the angels and banish them from this realm.

“Ugh, not good,” Spicer said as he rose out of the rubble of the building. The Saiyan wasn’t sure how long he had been out, but from the headache, he imagined it was a while. Not only that, but he felt a severe pain from his side and difficult breathing.

“I think it fractured a rib…” Spicer looked down to see that his armour was slightly cracked. He removed the flexible armour and found a bit of shrapnel from the rubble lodged into his side. With a deep breath, Spicer removed the puncturing object and flew back towards the fight.

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

Danu, aboard the Ozaru

Danuja threw her bag into the spacious cabin. The room was far less claustrophobic than her chambers on Phobos. A large bed sat in the middle of the chamber on a dias, with the various other amenities of a master bed room surrounding it at various points in the room. Still, the room felt tainted, as it probably should, given that Danuja decapitated it's previous inhabitant, and said previous inhabitant was a genocidal monster. Danu sat down on the bed and bounced a few times. Tainted as the room was, she could get used to this.

Arsle poked her head through the door and nodded to her daughter. "Chay, I have the crew assembled and ready for their orders."

Danu stood up and walked out of the room, proceeding down the hall with her mother. Danu asked brusquely "You're sure that they aren't... y'know..."

Arsle shook her head "They're fanatics, but they were never cruel. The ones who were perished with him. Besides, since you proved their god was only mortal, they'll be more than loyal short of Scallion coming back from the dead."

The newly minted Saiyan Queen entered the bridge of her new ship, to find Suh, Anchovy, and Zucchi standing at rapt attention. Her mother had persuaded her to spare and release the members of Ozaru's Circle that had been captured in the aftermath of 24601. She had agreed, but only under the condition that they were kept under her watchful eye. And, dissapointingly, according to Arsle they were the only ones who also knew about their destination. Danu looked at them, and said calmly "At ease. Suh, mother says you know where we are going."

The large saiyan nodded and said "Indeed My Queen, but... you must understand, this mission... it's suicide."

"I have been warned of the dangers. Take us to the coordinates."

"At once."

[Ranoria]

Arashi

Arashi was quick to jump into action once he realized what was going on, restricting as the formal military attire was. And he was even faster to respond to Spicer's orders. His eyes flicked over to a portal opening in the midst of their ranks. He was fortunate that it caught his eye, because he had yet to figure out that it was where these things were coming from. But once he saw the angel emerging, he leapt over the soldiers in his path and had a blade of energy through the spectral being's chest before it could so much as move.

"All of you!" His voice boomed across what had quickly gone from a celebration to a battleground, ki making the sound of his voice reminiscent of a cannon. "You are not to engage the enemy, be you civilian or military. Please, return to your homes if your residence is nearby, or take shelter where available otherwise. If absolutely necessary, enter the palace and make room for others!"

He dumped the angel from his hand, its blood comically splashing down once he withdrew his makeshift weapon. In hindsight, he should have anticipated the frenzy that followed his orders. People practically climbing over one another, shoving each other out of the way. But they were trying to survive, who was he to fault them? Regardless, just as he intercepted one of the angels, he twisted in midair, slamming his feet into its chest to send it skyward and buy himself some time.

"Enough!" His voice calmed the masses for the most part, energy crackling at his fingertips threateningly. "No need to rush, General Teikoku and I will hold these things off more than long enough to get you all to safety. Please, proceed in orderly fash-urk!"

The angel Arashi had mule-kicked now had him in a classic rear naked choke, but he made a mistake that Arashi caught onto quickly. Having not leveraged his arm to the back of his head, Arashi pried that arm down, breaking the hold and tossing the angel away once again, this time hitting it with an energy wave as it flew.

What the hell are these things?

He didn't have time to ponder on that, however. Another one of their assailants joined the fray. His tight melee style allowed him to keep pace with both of them at once, but only just, and he felt each blow that slipped past his guard. Fortunately, his healing factor was more than able to keep up with the damage. They didn't seem to have that advantage.

He finally caught the first angel by slipping to the outside of its guard, away from their newcomer, and smashing his jaw with a quick cross. He staggered, and that told Arashi that he at least had some humanoid weaknesses. The second shot was a muay thai clinch, in which he brought its head down to his knee, an impact that could be heard across the entire square. He only had time for a couple shots, but he dropped the limp, and possibly deceased, angel. He was hoping to have time to defend against the incoming attack, but took one to the chin himself.

Fortunately, he was strong enough that it didn't quite have the same impact on his health, and he was able to overwhelm the angel with sheer speed, battering it from head to toe. Once it stopped fighting back intelligently, Arashi took it by the neck, whipped it around a couple times, and sent it hurtling towards the ground, where it left a crater that any asteroid could have been proud of.

"Okay, but seriously, what the hell? Aren't angels supposed to be the good guys?" A blade that seemed to be made of pure light just barely grazed his neck, and he whirled around. He caught the next strike with his own artificial blade, talking more to himself than the angel, "Maybe Fuar was some sort of god, and this is our punishment."

He grimaced as he almost got caught, "No. Maybe if Ikki had returned, that would be the case. But not now." He drove his fist into the angel, knocking it back before spinning three hundred sixty degrees to land his shin on the angel's neck, breaking it instantly in another heavy melee strike. The civilians, however, were still filtering out, and he had no time to take on one opponent at a time. Rather, Arashi let out a trio of warning shots that attracted the attention of five of the magical creatures.

This is gonna hurt.

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

Queen Danu, The Outer Rim

The outer rim of the Milky Way was a dangerous area of space seldom navigated by the PTO for a variety of reasons. The first and greatest were the Nebula Storms that completely filled the region with dust, lightning, random explosions, and planetary debris. The second was the general inhospitable of the region's planets. Plain and simple, people didn't want to live out here. Finally, there were far greater terrors lurking in the darkness of the Rim that would make even Fuar and Ikki shake in their boots. All of this left Danu with a simple question. Why was her mother bringing her out here.

Danu had not yet been presented with a reason to mistrust Arsle. After all, she was her mother, and perhaps Scall's greatest victim. And yet, this whole expedition reeked of insanity. Though the former members of Ozaru's Circle they had brought with them seemed to know why the Queen-Mother had brought them to the very edge of the galaxy, they held their tongue when Danu asked. Anchovy and Zucchi did not speak merely out of a still brewing dislike of Danu, but Suh, Spicer's larger cousin, did make conversation with Danu on the matter. His words still rang through Danu's head "Your mother is bringing us to our doom. She seeks a power beyond any of us that we made a very certain enemy of the last time we traveled this way."

The desk lit up around Danu. She was sitting in her room, searching through any and all files the PTO had on the region to try and figure out what they were travelling out here. Her new role as Queen gave her access to files short of only Glacia herself. And yet, Danu could not find anything that her mother may be looking for. Races with tech beyond even the PTO, Cosmic Horrors, even rumors of Arcosians who had survived the purge of Arcos. None of it made sense for what her mother intended. Sighing, Danu closed her current reading piece and began to search for another potential candidate.

A knock came from the door. Opening it, Danu was greeted by the large form of Suh. The Saiyan bowed as he said "My Queen, your mother asked me to bring you to the bridge. We have arrived."

Danu stepped out of her room past Suh and said briefly "Suh, I thought I told you to drop all that formal shit around me."

Upon arrival at the Bridge, Danu was greeted by an awe inspiring sight. Floating among the dust and storm clouds, floated a small ship graveyard. The remains of a fleet floated around a central ship, which had evidently been damaged and ripped at by whatever force had broken the other ships. The remaining ship was clearly of PTO make, but unlike anything Danu had seen both in her records or throughout the PTO itself. It was far larger than any model the PTO currently used and had clearly been updated and augmented several times over. On the outer parts of the wreck, near where the ship had been ripped open, far off figures appeared to be trying to repair the ship, the sparks from their repair tools flying off into the storms around them.

Arsle looked out at the scene and sighed, before saying "It has a certain beauty to it, does it not?"

Danu nodded before asking "What is it?"

"The Pride of Jinza. It's inhabitants will teach you to grow your power and how you should rule, as they taught your father, and eventually me."

"So why are these three so concerned about coming here."

Zucchi piped up from behind them "Because Ozaru was the one who created the graveyard and left the ship in that state. He would have finished them off, but that's when we first encountered Fuar."

As if to punctuate the statement, a shuttle ship suddenly burst forth from the larger one and approached the Ozaru. A voice came from the intercom "Members of Ozaru's Circle, it is a pleasure to see you wander into our territory again, and without your beast to protect you. You have one minute before we neutralize your ship."

Arsle picked up the comms device from the Bridge computer and said calmly "This is Warrior Arsle representing the Ozaru. We demand trial."

The shuttle stopped it's approach, hovering between the Ozaru and the much larger ship. After several tense minutes, the voice returned "The Vicar has seen it fit to honor this request out of respect for you, Warrior Arsle. The shuttle will retrieve you."

---

Danu boarded the shuttle to see two large figures facing her. They were bedecked in mostly hide and fur like clothing, with the exception of their heads, where they wore advanced helmets that covered their faces. Danu only had to take one look at the lenses that went over the eyes to know that they functioned with a similar purpose to PTO Scouters. Oddly enough her own scouter gave the warriors a near negligible rating. This didn't exactly line up with the respect that the rest of the circle seemingly gave the warriors. It was then that Danu remembered what Scall had said back in Glacia's treasury about being able to surpress his power, and the facts began to add up. It was only then that Danu noticed the most glaring detail. She had overlooked it due to how it blended with their clothing, but wrapped around the warriors' waists were two very furry tails. These warriors were Saiyans.

The pair gave Arsle a strange greeting when she stepped aboard, which she returned in kind. Guiding Danu to the back of the ship, she sat her daughter down. Suh, Anchovy, and Zhucci followed suit at various points in the shuttle. Arsle took her daughters hand and held it tightly before looking Danu in the eyes and saying calmly "Once we are aboard, you do nothing but follow me. You don't say anything, you don't look at anything, do you understand?"

Danu nodded quickly as she watched the Ozaru grow smaller out the window.

---

The initial hallways of the ship they were lead down resembled those of the PTO bases Danu had been in fairly closely. Still, the scale of the ship impressed Danu. It was like a floating fortress and city all in one. Soon enough, Danu's entourage and their escorts reached one particular door. Danu, her mother, and the remaining members of the circle stepped through the door, though the guards noticeably did not follow.

The group continued down a dark corridor. Slowly but surely, Danu began to hear the noise of hundreds of voices chanting. A light appeared at the end of a corridor. Stepping out into it, the Circle found themselves within a massive arena. Hundreds of Saiyans stood in the stands above them, chanting and hollering. They wore similar clothing to the warriors who had escorted them, though the styles varied greatly. Some wore helmets, other eschewed them. It was both a beautiful and terrifying sight. Danu had become particularly privy to the state her species was in over the past few months, and it was quite grim. This population would undoubtedly help ensure their survival in the long run. However, there was a tension in the air as Danu looked around the arena. Every single member of the crowd was surpressing their power, and who knew how strong they really were.

A large figure sat cross legged on a platform at the opposite edge of the arena. He did not wear a helmet but rather a small circlet of metal. In his right hands he held a large staff tipped with what appeared to be a monstrous fang. Gesturing to the group, he yelled to the crowd "These... murderers, have much gall to return to us do they not? Warrior Arsle, what possessed you to return after your husband murdered our brothers and sisters."

Arsle yelled back "Vicar Lychee, you know as well as anyone that my husband was no friend to me either. I return for two reasons. The second I shall reveal after the first has been accomplished."

The Vicar waved his hand and said calmly "Your mystery is intriguing and accepted. By all means, tell us your first task then."

"I seek to clear my name and the names of those gathered with me through Trial."

"You are aware of the implications of such a contest?"

"I am."

"Then, Warrior Arsle, present your champion."

Arsle gestured for Danu to step forward, which the Queen did. Arsle raised her daughter's hand over her head and shouted to the crowd "Vicar Lychee, Members of Clan Jinza, I present to you the chosen champion for I, Arsle, and the surviving members of Ozaru's circle. I present Queen Chay, the Avenging Fire, First of her Name! I present the Slayer of Scall, who was Ozaru Incarnate. I present the Catalyst of Fennes's rebirth. I present my daughter, and thus a member of Clan Rento. I present the Daughter of Omat, who was both Sadala's scourge and savior, as well as friend to the Jinza. I give you, THE QUEEN OF ALL SAIYANS!"

The crowd erupted into chaos, as the Vicar rose to his feet, riling the unfamiliar Saiyans into a frenzy. He shouted, with a look of glee upon his face "THE STRONGEST IS FREE OF THE TAINT OF NOBILITY. OMAT'S PROMISE HAS BEEN FULFILLED." The Vicar pointed his staff at the group, before continuing "WE, THE PEOPLE OF CLAN JINZA, EAGERLY ACCEPT YOUR BID FOR TRIAL. WE SHALL LEAVE FOR AKU AS SOON AS HER SPIRIT HAS BEEN PREPARED!"

[The Republic of Atria]

Ovan almost lost his balance as the strange woman tore the ground apart while she and him stayed on a rock. It looked as if she had some sort of telekinesis. "You're an Esper?" He asked.

"Courtesy of the Font. Well, not fully. I've had the powers since I was a little girl, but they were so weak. I could maybe lift a few coins and even then it was strenuous. It tried for so long to get them to get stronger, but it just never worked."

"Then you had a weird dream and got whisked away?"

"Not long after the PTO took Earth." She replied. "I've been here ever since. No reason to leave." She shrugged. "Don't let me keep you." She pointed. "We can continue talking when you get back."

Ovan nodded. "Alright." He said and went down the dark hole. Despite being several hundred feet down, there was still plenty of light, enough where it felt like the evening despite the only visible light source being the dot of sunlight that led out of the tunnel. He could see something that looked like a pair of temple doors. He slowly approached and pushed on the intricately carved stone doors, stepped inside as the doors closed shut behind him. The room was barren, save for it's walls written in some ancient hieroglyphic style that he had no hope of understanding, and the small water basin in the middle.

It looked like an incredibly shallow well. Though he could sense the shards of something immensely powerful deep inside the planet. He looked over the well, seeing it's perfectly clear water and leaning in close. It looked like water. Cautiously, he poked his finger into the pool, finding it perfectly room temperature and then receiving a vision.

Four beings. A large dog-like monster the size of a house, the same woman from before, as well as the giant space worm stick it's head into the group. Finally, there was a horned man about his height and build. It didn't take him but a moment to figure out who that was, but before he could say anything, the rest of the scene took place.

It was clearly a world that had been ravaged in such a way that it had to be a miracle that it was even holding together. It took him a moment, but he recognized the architecture of the world: It was Glacia's palace, and he was laughing, and talking with the woman, but he couldn't quite make out the conversation. So he looked around the scene and saw the corpses of several of the Arcosians and their Solarian allies. He had no love for any of them, but they certainly didn't deserve that...

The sight was enough to snap his awake and fling himself away from the pool, his body instinctively activating his battle meditation such was the stress. It all clicked into place. It wanted to empower him to USE him. Use him to... Destroy, carve of swath of destruction through the universe and then laugh about it, but that was the price of the power he was being offered. A piece of his mind and soul. Earth would be safe simply because there wouldn't be anyone else alive to threaten it. He managed to steady himself as he stood back up. "No... No." He said as his heartrate lowered back to it's resting rate. "That's not me, do you understand? I'm not some tool for you to use and toss away when you're done. Find someone else." He spat and waited a moment for something to happen.

Nothing did. Slowly, he backed away and opened the stone doors, making his way out of the tunnel where he found the woman petting the massive dog beast he saw in his vision. "I felt your power spike quite a bit." She spoke. "Not as large as I expected, but the Font knows what it's doing."

Ovan was about to speak up and explain, but decided it was for the best that he play along. He could feel the power emanating from the woman. She could have killed Fuar with little difficulty. The thought of her being capable of that... And just sitting here... "Yeah. It was... It was intense."

"Welcome to the club... What was your name?"

"Ovan."

"Ovan... Mine is Nia. Why don't we help train that little spark of power you got a little bit? See what it's truly capable of?"

"Sure... Yeah, let's do that." He nodded.

[Turkducken]

Tarasque HQ, Beneath the Earth Justice Building

Nolan nodded to the two gentlemen. In his deep yet smooth voice, he responded "Of course you both will be well compensated for your time with us. The cybernetic arm is just the tip of the spear compared to how we can otherwise compensate you. Name it, and we can probably obtain it for you. As for the permanence of this employment, we won't keep you on doing missions forever no. As I'm sure Daichi noted, Tarasque is more of an insurance policy than it is an actual operating body at the moment. For the time being, our goals are aligned with that of this 'PTO'. That is, our primary objective is to bring Riker to justice before he does any more damage."

Suddenly alarms began blaring through out the facility. A mechanical voice said over the intercom "Breach in Sub-Lab 4, all authorized personnel to defense." Nolan sighed and pulled the head of his cane off, revealing it to be a rather bedazzled looking fire arm. Daichi meanwhile pressed some buttons on his wrist watch, causing armored gauntlets and a chest plate to come out of the wall and lock around his chest. Nolan sighed and said "Case in point. Gentlemen, that's our call."

The group proceeded through a long group of tunnels until they reached an area filled with shouting. Turning the corner, they found a large group of soldiers surrounding a small room set up like an isolation cell. The room's ceiling had apparently been blown in, and all entrances were being guarded by people with some kind of energy shield strapped to their arm. Daichi yelled "STOP!" as soon as he saw this.

Nolan turned and asked "What is the problem Sora?"

Daichi ran forward and made sure the soldiers stopped preparing the ordinance to blast down the shields. He turned back to Nolan and said with a concerned voice "I recognize the make of those shields. Lura Corps latest Hardlight developments."

"So? We do not lack the ordinance to break through them."

A tapping came from within the room on one of it's bulletproof windows. Inside stood the muscular form of Colonel Riker Nacht. The terrorist laughed into an intercom, his menacing voice bouncing off the nearby walls. "Ah but you see Nolan, Mr. Sora designed his facility in a very particular way so he could collapse it upon any of these sublab rooms should an experiment go... awry. A smart move by all means, but one that did not account for someone like me. As you can probably guess from our unorthodox method of entry..." Riker paused and pointed out the rather large hole his group had somehow blasted down into the facility. "... we have comprimised the stability of the chamber. So while you likely could break through our recently acquired toys or any of these walls, The ordinance required to do so would bring down the entire Justice building on top of you, but more importantly, not me. Am I incorrect Mr. Sora?"

Daichi sighed and said "... No... you are not."

Riker smiled and said "Good, I do enjoy it when a plan comes together."

Nolan walked forward and faced down Riker through the glass. "I simply must understand Riker. Why risk all of your resources, especially yourself, on a suicide mission like this. Surely you must know that you're about to have an entire building of soldiers and aliens pouring down on top of you?"

"Oh, I'm counting on it Castor. In any case, the why is this. As I'm sure you're all aware, Daichi here has known about the existence of extraterrestrials for some time now. Mostly thanks to this." Riker turned to reveal a Saiyan pod, now detached from whatever instruments had held it in place, with several cables attached to it to pull it up the hole. "This wonderful device you have preserved will... well, revolutionize my little rebellion."

Sounds came from above as a man appeared to fall down the hole. Just before he hit the bottom, fire burst out from his feet as he set down. As he stood up, those who had watched the world tournament would recognize him as being from the same sort of experiment as Flynt, though the work on this man was cleaner, more precise, and far less disturbing. The man dropped a body in front of Riker, that of Commander Jambola. He responded in a robotic voice "As you expected Commander, the PTO forces responded to the explosion and we terminated a large part of them, including this particularly annoying one."

Riker smiled and responded "Most excellent. Good work Prototype 2. Well gentlemen, this chat has been a pleasure, but I can't say I have time to dawdle. Have fun with your spy business, I expect that this will be the last time we see each other for some time." Riker attached himself to a nearby cable, and began to rappel up "Until we meet again Castor."

Prototype 2 and the Saiyan Pod followed the Colonel out of the hole, leaving only the rebels with energy shields. The soldiers waited for the rebels to drop their shields, so that they could rush into the lab. Before that could happen however, another deep rumbling filled the room, and a load of dirt and stoned dropped into the Sublab, filling the chamber and almost certainly killing the rebels within.

Nolan pushed his hair back and breathed out. "Well... looks like we have a new priority gentlemen."

A young man came running down the hall. Standing at attention in Castor's presence, he said calmly "Lord Commander, I came as quickly as I could."

Nolan shook his head and said "At ease Alex. Mr. Higashi, Mr. Jones, meet Alex Nolan, my younger son. You'll get to know him as Agent Orochi however. Daniel, I want you to take these two men and bring them to the armory, get them acquainted with our weaponry and have Mr. Jones fitted for a cybernetic arm. Mr. Higashi, Mr. Jones, I would love to continue negiotiating pay and employment period with you two, but I'm afraid we have far more pressing matters at hand. We are to conduct a worldwide manhunt for Colonel Nacht, and we will not stop until we have his head. If you would excuse me, I must begin coordinating this from the command center."

One Week Later...

Higu, for the first time in years, looked upon his families ancestral home. The outer walls of the Urameshi Clan's fortified mansion greeted him with their ancient appearance and strong stone. Despite himself, Higu found a hard to swallow lump in his throat. "I said I'd never be back." he thought to himself, grimacing and gripping his duffle bag by its' strap, "Thirteen years I've been gone, never once looked back...but now," he swallowed the knot again as he pressed the call button on the intercom of the gate, glaring defiantly at the security camera as he did so. He found himself shaking slightly in the quiet and anticipation of the moment. He buzzed in again, pressing the button twice in his haste. The silence continued and grew louder in his mind, before the speaker crackled to life.

"H-Higashi?" a small voice inquired, with a tinge of shock and fear, "Yeah it's me Umi. Open the gate already." He turned his eyes from the camera with a tinge of shame upon hearing his younger sister's voice. The electrical gate began to scroll the weathered doors to the interior of the walls, and he began the long journey inside. "Of all the people I was prepared to see and hear again. She wasn't one of them..." he solemnly thought to himself.

As he entered his Clan's ancient holding, he surveyed the familiar but changed landscape, Higu found himself grimacing. All of the buildings and masonry were so familiar and just noticeably older. Disrepair was finally creeping in, and the once trimmed and maintained gardens were overflowing and shaggy. The associate family houses were shuttered and empty, clearly having been evacuated for more than a few years. Higu tried to harden his heart to the sights and silence of his home, but found himself stunned when he looked towards the mansion itself. Standing there on the steps up to the doorway, was his sister. She stood there in the distance in a large kimono tied firmly to her waist, raven hair blowing in the slight breeze behind her, with a face full of conflicted emotion. He ran to her, throwing his possessions to the side, practically jumping up the flight of stairs to embrace her. Despite everything he had told himself on the way here, he cried as he held her.

"Umi...I'm so sorry." he choked out. She just stood there, before slowly wrapping her arms around him in reciprocation. She said nothing but continued to hold her older brother. "I tried to write you everyday, but the mail never delivered yours." Higu explained, tears rolling down his face. "So after awhile I just," he was interrupted by his sister pushing away from him, her eyes looking up the full foot in height between them, "I got them. Everyday I got them and read them. He found out about it. But I still snuck out every night to get the mail." her voice was small but her eyes burned with a fierceness Higu was unfamiliar with. "I tried writing back a few times but Dad," spitting the last word out with a certain tinge of violence and disgust, "always caught me. Then after repeated tries he got the mail people to blacklist deliveries to you from this region." Higu finally released his younger sibling, still with a light watery stream of tears running down his face. His eyes fell to stonework below them in shame. With indignant anger his sister merely stated, "You should've kept writing." his gaze failed to return her glare as he weakly muttered, "I know."

There was a palpable silence as the air itself felt like it formed a barrier between them. Higu closed his briefly eyes and moved his gaze to meet hers, "I'm sorry." the silence grew louder and the air thicker as they stared at each other. Until finally broken by a "Pbbhhhh" as Umi pushed air from out of her mouth. "Well whatever. He hasn't been here in years now." Higu was visibly shocked before stuttering out, "Y-You mean...", "Don't get your hopes up." Umi interrupted, "He's not dead. Just gone. You know how he does. Hasn't been back in at least five years." Higu was shocked in disbelief, "He left you here? When you were hardly even fifteen?" Umi gave a harsh huff, "Well it's not like that was the first time I've been abandoned." Higu flinched as the truthful words stung his heart, "But I wasn't really alone," she sighed, "Uncle's still here. He's probably still sleeping off his 'medicine'." she sarcastically emphasized, "I'm sure he'll be happy to see you though." a wave of anxiety and joy washed over Higu as he thought about this. "Anyway," Umi flippantly continued, turning away and walking towards the wide double doors of their home, "Get your shit and come in. I need your help to finish dinner."

A few hours later...

After helping his sister prepare their dinner, he washed himself and found a distinct emptiness inside. He had come here to train in the downtime while Tarrasque was still tracking down locations and information on the Anarchists. He didn't really have the skills to assist in the espionage, nor did he really want to help the organization do so. He had told them to send for him at this location whenever they needed him to bust something up.

That emptiness gnawed at his satiated insides, and he found that he had been slowly drifting towards the family shrine. The shining monk greeted him with a warm smile. He lit the incense surrounding the statue, and moved to his knees in front of the statue. He began to meditate in the way he was taught as a child. Slowing his breathing to increase awareness of the universe, and began to focus internally. "Remember the Six Chakras." his own internal thoughts echoing, "Concentrate on the red aura of the Root..." he began to enter the meditative state. He began to see the Red sphere of the Root Chakra in his mind. It burned in the darkness a deep blood red pool at the base of the spine. The bright orange of the Sacral Chakra began to light up the darkness as well. Suddenly his left arm began burning, pins and needles and hellfire shot up through his arm up from the back of his wrist. A bright white light erupted in the darkness, emerging just below and left of where his Energy Chakra might be. The pain grew but he could not scream, he was forcibly transfixed on this emerging white light, as the pain grew and grew. As a sudden shock and jolt smashed into his right shoulder.

"So," the sudden volume of the word, and shock of being grabbed while in a trance, jolted him from the trance he couldn't escape. "you remember those lessons I taught you." Higashi fell to his side, having lost his balance from the sudden surprise and familiar voice. He whipped his head to the side to see his Uncle, stroking his gray white beard smiling at him. Attempting to calm his heartbeat after the scare Higashi clutched his chest and yelled, "Yeah I remember! Don't sneak up on me like that!" he panted out, his Uncle just laughed before joining him on the floor.

"It was worth it after not seeing my favorite nephew for at least thirteen years. Besides you're not fighting anymore, you can relax now, take it easy." Higu rolled back to a sitting position facing his Uncle on the floor. The pain had almost immediately subsided, and the vision he saw rapidly faded out of his mind. Getting defensive as he focused on what his Uncle had said he quipped, "What do you mean? I always defend my title belt, and I'm your only nephew." challenging his Uncle's assertion with a frown. "Bah," his Uncle waved away his defense, "I've seen you fighting on the television. You don't work for it anymore. Everyone knows you outclass even the Heavy Weights on raw strength alone. The commentary is pretty stale." Higu made a sound with his mouth and turned back to the Shrine with a dismissive, "Whatever."

His Uncle moved to his left and sat next to him in front of the shrine. The two men sitting there in silence. "I spoke to your sister before I interrupted you. She's feeling a lot of things right now, but she really loves you Higashi." Higu with his eyes closed, quietly responded "I know." while still attempting to reenter a trance. His arm suddenly burned again, as a sensation not unlike a needle shot into his wrist, causing him to yelp and grab his arm. This startled his Uncle, "Higashi! What's wrong?" he grabbed his nephew's arm and immediately yelped as his hands were burned at the touch. The pain within immediately subsided and Higu could relax focusing on what had happened to his kin. "What happened? Did it hurt you too?" Higu exclaimed, his Uncle displayed the reddened palms of his hands, "Your arm was on fire! How did you not get burned?" his Uncle inquired, "I don't know it just hurt. A lot." He tried to summarize his rapidly dissipating memory of what he had seen in his trance.

"Hmm," his Uncle sat and contemplated, a smelly ointment having been applied to his burned hands by Umi, "a vision of other chakras is not uncommon. We have only named the seven largest pools within the living body, as you know there are hundreds of smaller pools throughout every living being." having opened his eyes to look at his recovering nephew, who was having his temperature taken by his sister, "But I know not of one of a larger size in the intestines." the electronic thermometer beeped as it completed its evaluation, Umi retrieved it with an oven mitt from Higu's mouth, "Thirty-Eight C." she read, "Well you might have a cold but that's not nearly hot enough to have burned Uncle like that." dejected at the lack of an explanation Higashi pushed any concern he might've had aside, "Well whatever. Uncle, I came here to train." Higu forcefully stated, "I need you to help me train more. I thought the asshole would be here, but since he's not I need someone to push me beyond my current strength." Indignant at her brother's lack of a response or care for her evaluation, Umi quickly grabbed her things and gave a loud huff as she left.

"You should respect her more you know." his Uncle lightly chided him, "Regardless of your reason for power. I will train you nephew, but on two conditions." Higu solemnly nodded in agreement and apologized to his sister quietly, "One, you will be nicer to your sister and help her manage this place." Higu barely contained an eyeroll as he accepted this, "Two, you will repair the damage of the estate and bring this place back into some kind of repair. For as long as you are here of course, but remember to always come back." he silently nodded again. Determined to deepen his understanding of his Chakras and grow stronger while waiting to fight the terrorists. His Uncle beamed a wide smile and exclaimed, "Perfect! Let's celebrate tonight and start in the morning!"

Two Months Later...

Weeks had gone by since he arrived. He worked to repair the estate, helped his sister clean the house, and trained with his Uncle. Whatever that vision was on his first day back it hadn't happened again. Sometimes his left arm seized up and twitched involuntarily, but his fever had broken and he felt fine. He had meditated since then. The vision not returning and the unexpected White Chakra not appearing to him, even as he manifested all six visible chakras in his mind. He had been neglecting this training for years of his life. Purely focusing on his career and becoming the world's best. So when it all came back very naturally to him it surprised him. Which his Uncle chose to tease him about occasionally.

"You spend every waking moment for years of your childhood dedicated to the Hotei and Chakras! Yet you are still surprised when it comes as naturally as breathing!" His Uncle's boisterous laugh echoing loudly across the rock garden. Higu was balancing on one arm on a smooth rock in the middle of the delicately shaped sand. His whole body was contorted into a meditative pose lifted into the air by his left arm. He had been attempting to enter a trance like this for hours. Both the physical exertion and his Uncle's teasing proving to be very distracting in this moment. Sweat had been pooling on the surface of the rock, cascading off of his arm and dripping profusely from his head. It was hot and he was in the direct sunlight. "Uncle I would appreciate it if you would shut up!" Higu agitatedly yelled, "Respectfully!" he added on, working to still show respect for his mentor.

His Uncle merely sighed and shook his head, "Higashi if you were going to have a spiritual experience in that position it would've happened already." he stood up and cracked his back forcefully with three loud pops, "It takes a lot of practice to achieve a state of zen in that position. Come inside and have some tea." Higu opened his eyes and sighed loudly. He launched himself with power from his stance. Rotating himself back into a standing position on the rock. "Yeah whatever...with respect Uncle." he leaped across the carefully manicured sand onto the pathway. Barely making it into the shade before a loud sonic boom caused him to snap to alertness looking to the sky. A large hovercraft, modern in design, but completely lacking identification. Higu just shook his head, sighed, and made a slight frown. "Yeah well it couldn't have lasted forever."

He moved to stand out in the open courtyard. The craft apparently having spotted him, moved to land near him. The gusts of wind from the craft blowing away the carefully sculpted sand of his garden. Which elicited a deeper scowl as he did his best to look away. Finally touching down a familiar face stepped from the side door, shouting over the sound of the wind, "Higashi Urameshi!" yelled the founder and leader of Tarrasque, the Duke Castor Nolan. "It's time!" Higu shrugged with both arms outstretched, "At least I'm in my workout clothes." he took a second to adjust the wraps on his arms and legs, turning back to look for his Uncle. His Uncle gave a worried look, but his attention was drawn to the cold piercing gaze his sister was leaving him with. Her steel eyes accused him of a crime, but he couldn't tell what it was. "I'm sorry but I've got to go. I'll be back when we're done." was all he could muster to explain, he saw her gaze soften a bit. Before she turned and went back inside. Higu had no choice but to shrug it off and climb aboard. As the heavy doors closed, he gave one look back to his Uncle, who had clasped his hands together in a prayer...

48 Hours Later, Undisclosed Location, Northern Mountain Range...

His teeth were chattering. He had been wandering in the snowy mountaintop for hours now. Bundled tightly in arctic gear, the wind still whipped around his head. "When am I going to find this fucking place?" he yelled internally, to frozen to actually scream out. The peak towered above him casting darkness below it, but also providing shelter from the winds. Higu slowly trudged his way through the snow to the shade. Taking solace in the escape from the strong winds. He continued towards the rocky face of the mountain, searching for the deepest crevice in the darkness. He fumbled and felt his way through until he found something cold and hard. Unlike the natural rock all around him. He gave the surface a knock, and a dull echoing came back. He smirked in success, having found his target. He took a few small steps back, breathing in and out, focusing on the target. "Rankyaku!" he shouted, forcing the cold wind into a temporary vacuum he made with a lightning fast movement of his right arm, throwing the air with all of his might, as it sliced cleanly through the steel door.

An alarm immediately began to blare out its klaxon as the facility was exposed. A guard stationed at the door let out a surprised yelp before receiving a harsh blow to the face. He instantly fell over, being knocked unconscious by the blow. Higu entered the facility, descending deeper into the suddenly bustling compound. As he descended deeper into the facility the temperature became bearable. He shrugged off the hood and googles he had been wearing outside. Before entering into a large open area at the end of the entrance. Stepping through the doorway he was greeted by a small sea of security guards, fighters, and robotic security. Most had firearms trained on the doorway, but were surprised when only one person came through.

Higu stripped out of the now uncomfortably warm gear and began to speak, "Now, I'll give you all one chance to surrender. So either give up or you'll be on the receiving end of my fist." he said so matter-of-factly. This elicited a laugh out of the presumed commander of these forces. A very tall man who Higu could sense real power from. He merely signaled his men to eliminate the foolish intruder, which prompted Higu to respond, "Alright, that was your one chance." he immediately assumed his stance, fists raised in front of his head, keeping his center of gravity low and balanced. "Kami-e" he spoke aloud, as a hail of bullets zoomed towards him. Higu's body moved at unimaginable speed, weaving its way unnaturally through the field of bullets. Having the appearance of contracting to inhuman paper like thinness as he bobbed and weaved his way through the gunfire. For several seconds the gunfire continued, the gunmen in a stunned stupor as they used all of their ammunition.

The bullets finally stopped with a dull ringing sound as the last case hits the concrete floor. The enemy was stunned. Higu peered over his fists at them, and with a smirk said, "My Turn." he rocketed towards the closest face slamming his fists against their nose with a loud pow. They flew through the fire team, knocking several people over in the process. Before any of them had a chance to respond he swiveled on his right heel and unleashed a lightning fast flurry of blows against the remaining team. "Heikishō!" he shouted, spreading the blows as wide as possible. Some of the guards attempted to smash their weapons against him from behind, only for them to break or bounce off of his muscular back. "Tekkai," he muttered, before delivering a spinning kick into the side of all the attempted brawlers, "Rankyaku." Delivering a few more solid punches against the remaining would be challengers, before turning to face the last of the grunts. Desperate and scared the one remaining smallfry rushed right in. Higu pulled back as far as he could, gathered his strength into his whole right arm, he gave the charging attacker a wild look before unleashing the powerful blow with a twist of his wrist. "Kai-ten-da-ma!" he shouted, stretching out each syllable as much as he could.

The blow connected to the lower body of the poor unfortunate. Higashi himself felt that he may very well punch through the body armor he had unleashed against, and with a pained "Hyagh!" the poor grunt was lifted off of their feet and sent spinning wildly through the air. Slamming with a loud crack against the far wall. Still in the punching pose, he returned to a more relaxed pose before turning to face the commander still perched above them all. He gave the commander a big shit-eating grin, "Tell you what, I'm in a good mood today, so I'll give you one more chance to surrender." the large man was enraged and gave a huff before jumping down to meet Higu on the floor. "You overestimate yourself, whoever you are. The Colonel will hear about this, and he'll make you pay. If you can win." he threw off his coat to reveal his muscular form, and brought both fists to fight.

"Eh'nt. Wrong answer." Higu smirked, and charged towards the large man. Two right hooks to the lower body and one left hook as well. They easily connected under the guard of the commander, but he took the blows well and unleashed a strong punch against Higu's defense. Even with his ki reinforcing his body with Tekkai, he felt the sharp sting of the blow against his forearms. Higu unleashed a blow at the other man's right shoulder, making the connection but having overextended and leaving his defense open. The commander took the advantage and unleashed a strong left hook against the side of his head. His right ear ringing, Higu would've been disoriented if not for his experience with taking such blows before. He managed to pull his right arm back for defense, before hopping backwards, creating space between the two.

"Alright," Higu slightly slurred, shaking his head, "I might've underestimated you," he grabbed his wraps with his mouth and tightened them, "but I'm not going to lose!" he rushed forward into the commander again. "Heikishō!" he shouted, unleashing a torrent of blows into the Commanders body, recklessly slamming his defense with multiple blows. He had overwhelmed the Commander's defense and rained blows down on him over and over, but they were individually too weak to land meaningful attacks. The Commander seized the moment and grabbed both of Higu's arms, smashing his head into Higu's face with one solid motion. Higu had heard this sound before, the sharp crack of the cartilage snapping in the bridge of his nose. The sharp pain rang his head like a bell and further disoriented him.

Higu stumbled away as the Commander released his grip. His head was ringing and his vision blurred. He knew he was definitely stronger than this chump, "But why aren't I winning?" the thought lazily drifted in his head. The Commander just laughed at the display, "You rush in here, defeat a bunch of nobodies, and think you can defeat a somebody? Get real kid. The Colonel means business, and I was appointed by the Colonel. So that means my job is to squish upstarts like you, and once we figure out who exactly you are, we'll squish whoever sent you and your family for good measure. This Earth is ours!" the enemy Commander shouted, rushing forward to land a possible final blow on Higu. Higu just stood there, slowly blinking as the words began to process in his addled mind. As the words began to process, the world around him appeared to slow down. He blinked slowly as something began to materialize in his mind.

"F-Fu-FUCK YOU!" he screamed, his left arm grabbing the commander by the head as he got close. The fiery pain in his left arm had returned. It was gripping the other man's head like a vice. Fingers drawing crimson blood from the Commander's head. The Enemy Commander screamed a horrible scream as the heat from the hand that grabbed him burned his face. Higu's left arm lifted the taller man off the ground, having him completely suspended in its grip. Higu snapped from his stupor and found he was completely out of control of his left arm. He couldn't let go, it was on fire and was tense. It hurt in a brand new way unfamiliar even to that day when it had originally occurred. It wasn't pins and needles, it was a pain of being out of control, moving and acting on its own. He was witnessing his body rebel against him and contorting itself in unfamiliar ways. Unable to control or break his grip he did the one thing he could think of, "Ōzutsu!" he screamed even louder than before, pounding the man's gut skywards as he unleashed his power into him.

The Enemy Commander was sent flying straight up by the uppercut, breaking the iron grip of the left hand. Higu grabbed his left arm and tried to pull it closer to his body. The muscles fighting against him and seizing as he did so. It eventually subsided and left him feeling drained in the unconscious group of people. He stumbled over to his discarded gear, searching weakly through his coat, before finding the transmitter he was given. He pressed the button to activate the device, before collapsing against the wall as he waited for Tarrasque to arrive...

8 Months Later...

Higashi Urameshi had spent the next few days recovering from his injuries. The daring one man raid was an instant propaganda tool for the Government of Earth, and it made his exploits on behalf of the PTO-Earth Alliance famous almost overnight. Higashi recovered and was back in the field preforming the same exploits as before. The challenge varied from location to location, but he never lost. The one thing that continued to haunt him was whatever overcame him during the fight with the enemy Commander. Once again had he experienced that intense pain, and once again it disappeared without resurfacing. Constantly in his mind was the fear of losing control, the fear of his body rebelling against him. He carried it with him to every future battle against the insurgents. Despite his intense worry and fear, it would never happen, other than the occasional spike of pain or heat flash.

Higashi had spent eight months in the field. Deploying against the insurgents wherever Tarrasque could find. He and the mercenary samurai Lucius worked together on operations occasionally, but mostly the organization sought to keep their assets divided for maximum use. However after such a long time with sustained attacks against the enemy forces, intel began to dry up. They had hit over ten major sites in an eight month period. Whatever they were doing now was a mystery. They found sites abandoned, equipment discarded, and intelligence couldn't find new active targets. The brass concluded that either they were giving up or hibernating. So they decided to give both of their high value agents some downtime.

Higu had returned home yet again. Once again arriving back at the gates of the Estate. Where he was greeted warmly by his Uncle and Sister. They had of course been reluctant and disappointed when he left those few months ago, but after hearing and seeing some of his exploits on the news, they couldn't help but feel proud. Higu continued his training and meditation with his Uncle. Who he had also told about the new occurrence with his left arm. His Uncle began to throw him into intense physical training, and the next two months consisted of HIgu pushing his body in new and unfamiliar ways.

"The Urameshi Clan has spent decades perfecting this Art." Higu was balancing on a beam of shaved wood. Planted firmly in the soil and sand it hardly moved under the weight and movement of the twenty-nine year old man on top of it. He was contorted into a familiar shape above the wooden beam. Once again entering a trance like state while in this intense condition. "Teppeki draws out the latent energy within the living form. The chakra within all of our bodies is a well of untold exponential power." His Uncle was walking around the pole, lecturing him, "The Red Root Chakra, which concerns survival and is blocked by fear. The Orange Sacral Chakra, which deals with pleasure and is blocked by guilt. The Yellow Stomach Chakra, which deals with the force of will and is blocked by shame. The Green Heart Chakra, which deals with love and is blocked by grief. The Blue Throat Chakra, which deals with truth and is blocked by lies. The Purple Chakra of the Third Eye, which deals with insight and is blocked by illusions."

Higu strained against himself to maintain his balance and concentration. Keeping his eyes forcefully shut as he struggled to envision the Chakras that were being described. "Finally the intangible Chakra of the Spirit, to unblock and perceive this is to achieve enlightenment. That is the goal our Clan has sought for hundreds of years. In search of that invisible energy our ancestors created many martial arts, determined to prove that one of these would achieve enlightenment." Higu felt a presence he was unfamiliar with, it washed over his body as he achieved Zen. He saw himself reflected in his mind and witnessed each Chakra light up in the darkness. He saw their depth and connectivity, saw the pin-prick lights of the hundred of other points in the body. A sense of true serenity and knowing overcame his whole being as he saw this.

Eons away he heard the echoing familiar voice, "Your Ancestors have all achieved this final state of being. The same one has been achieved by every master in your family. With this new state of mind you have achieved a connection that runs deep within us. Feel the connection to your ancestors in the cosmos. Let their wisdom guide you." Higu's mind flowed across the little stars of his body and drifted to a familiar and massive presence. He did not know these entities, but they were warm, and offered him ethereal comfort and guidance. His mind drifted through them, unknowing their true shape and forms. Until he arrived at the foot of a chillingly cold presence that towered above the rest. He couldn't perceive it, but he knew in his heart who this was.

Snapping from his trance he gasped for air. Immediately he lost his previously attained balance and collapsed into the ground, striking his shoulder against the wooden beam he had been balancing on. He lay in the sand and dirt, breathing fast, attempting to catch his breath. "Why Him? Why here? Why Now?" HIgu hysterically called out. "Your Father's greatest achievement and greatest error was training you." Higu pushed himself up from the dirt and sand. Looking towards his Uncle, "He pushed you, used your abilities to their fullest and you have a become a great warrior." Higu sat up and stared into his Uncle's eyes, his face awash with shame, pride, and disgust, "But he robbed you and your sister of everything a child could ask for." His Uncle's eyes were full of tears, "No Child should ever fear their Father."

Higu spoke weakly, "He's a bastard as far as I'm concerned. You've always been there for me and Umi." his Uncle wiped the tears from his eyes and shook his head sternly, "Enough. You may not respect him, but you dishonor our family by speaking ill of him. He's still the leader." his Uncle turned and walked away from him. Leaving Higu to boil with anger at the thought.

The Present...

Memorial Square, Central Capital, the Earth, 503 AU

Higu had spent the better part of the year cleaning up some remaining terrorist strongholds. He and Lucius worked together to defeat some big players in the organization, and solidified a degree of fame with the people of Earth. He had attended the return celebration for the Princess Serena, now the Queen of Earth. He hadn't been particularly interested in attending the event itself, but at a special invitation from the office of the Prime Minister he found himself unable to say no. He briefly saw and shook hands with some of the heroes of the PTO Crisis, made his best effort to remember all of their names. He was introduced to them as a big time war hero, but he doubted himself. Not only because of his own personal conflicts, but because he could sense them. These people didn't occupy a space, they filled it. If he hadn't trained in restraining his ability to sense they might've been overwhelming.

So when it came time to attend the Memorial Ceremony, at the site of that fateful attack by the Terrorists two years ago to the day, he couldn't resist missing the chance to meet them again. "Besides" he thought to himself, "I can't think of how different my life would be if I hadn't got pissed off that day." So he had attended as a VIP, dressed up in a uniform he had only worn once, and sat with the important people as services began. The supernova Queen herself had barely begun speaking when she shouted a desperate "Get Down!" causing her bodyguards to scatter, before something that he could only describe as portals and hellish monsters appeared before them all. Some of the warriors immediately sprung to battle, only to be cut down by the abominations. He himself was targeted by a roaming creature, it's two heads disgusting him. Higu unleashed a powerful punch upon the entity only for it to ignore the blow completely.

He was fortunately saved as the Saiyan General Spicer fired a blast that destroyed one of its two heads. The entity, enraged by this, shrieked and flew towards the General. Visciously attacking him and sending him flying into a nearby wall. "Shit!" Higu shouted, moving carefully towards the far off location where the General had landed. "What the hell is happening!" he asked internally, mind racing. Before he had even reached where the General had slammed into, he was already up and flying away, returning to the fight above. Higu cursed to himself silently, "Of all the things I didn't learn!" and began jumping with all of his might from vantage point to vantage point, trying to desperately assist the much stronger warriors.

[Britanania]

Collab Between Naval, Saint, and Brit

Earth Broadcasting Channel Newsroom, Central Capital

“This just in. Terror grips the capital, unseen since the attacks two years ago, as strange creatures begin attacking today’s Memorial Service minutes after the Queen’s Speech. Reporting at the scene is Camilla Ashford.”

The same anchoress as before stood beside the crushed van as the scenes of fighting continued around her, in particular, Nymph as she fought off the angels.

“There is absolute pandemonium here at Memorial Square as angelic beings interrupted the memorial service in honour of those who died fighting the terrorists two years ago. One of these creatures has abducted Her Majesty, Queen Serenity. There are reports of fighting in the Square,” she said, as the camera panned to Nymphaea fighting the angels with her magical swords.

“Our defender appears to be Nymphaea Ashwood,” Camila said, as a picture of the Saiyaness appeared on the television screens. “She is a mage from the Order of Ancient Mysteries, and a close friend of the Queen, often seen accompanying Her Majesty.”

As Camilla spoke, a gust of wind of incredible speed and power blew through the news crew, nearly knocking them over, as Spicer reappeared and reengaged the angels. His movements, like Nymph’s, were fast--nearly impossible for the human newscasters to detect, but seemed to have some effect at fighting off the mysterious beings.

“It seems that we have another hero,” Camila said hurriedly. A picture of Spicer in a tuxedo, evidently taken at Serena’s coronation, appeared on the screen. “This new arrival is General Spicer of the PTO, the official liaison from Empress Glacia to Her Majesty’s Government. He is also the one who saved the then Princess Serena from terrorists two years ago. It seems history is repeating itself. Also on the scene are reports of the PTO garrison commanders, Generals Arashi and Teikou, are on the scene.”

“We also have confirmed reports that martial arts champion and war hero Higashi Urameshi, of the famous Urameshi clan, is at the scene assisting against the attackers.”

All across the Earth and its colonies, the video of the heroes fighting the angels beamed directly into every television set, computer monitor, phone, and tablet. They watched as the group banished the angels until only one remained: the one who had Serena.

Spicer landed near Nymphaea, his breaths heavy and his side bleeding from his earlier wound

“We need to save...Serena…” he muttered and stated the obvious.

Nymphaea was also breathing heavily as she held both swords in a reverse grip. “Tell me… something… I don’t know.” she muttered back. The magi wished she could get a break to regain her breath but they are so close to saving her that they can’t afford to mess it up now.

“How far can you throw?” she asked Spicer.

“Why?”

“If he tries to fly off I want you to throw me as hard as you can so I can control the air around me and give myself a boost to catch up to him.” Spicer looked at the mage like she was crazy but sighed. It didn’t seem like they had much of a choice. It almost reminded him of the first battle against Rads.

“All right, but I can’t guarantee my aim is perfect,” he said as he bent down behind Nymph, grabbed her by the ankles and tossed her into the air with all his might.

As the witch flew she would begin to spin around, channelling the air around her to not only keep her airborne but when she thrust her feet back a blast of air would come out to propel her even faster. As the witch got closer to the angel she would raise her swords and when she went past the angel she would attempt to sever its wings.

But the angel had anticipated Nymph’s movement and manoeuvred out of the way with ease. Momentarily distracted he would loosen his grip enough that all Serena needed to do was send a spark of magic to his claw-like hands and she was free-falling downwards, the angel having dropped her in surprise.

Several voices screamed out in horror as their Queen descended towards the ground rapidly and several cameras honed in just as Serena regained her bearing mid-air, flipping so that her feet were downwards and her upper half was straight, and she was hit the ground on the balls of her feet like a cat. There were several cracks that stretched from beneath her heels but she paid them no mind as she gave a glance around at the startled masses.

Spicer sighed as he saw that Serena was safe and glad that Nymph’s audacious plan proved successful.

Thank the Kais she’s all right, but that thing is still active, Spicer thought as he clutched his still bleeding side and looked up at the angel as it paused its motion before it’s brilliant white wings spread themselves out further than before, shimmering a holy light that would force anyone looking to force their gaze away, including the heroes.

Serena could sense that this was not just a diversion tactic as the magic that pulsed from the creature was far greater than any of the other angels that were faced, in fact, it quickly eclipsed even Nymph’s. With her eyes closed to shield them from being blinded Serena raised her hands to the skies and crafted a shield that covered the civilians, just in time for the angel to unleash a barrage of light-based beams that smacked against the forcefields.

The humans screamed, some grabbed their relatives and loved ones or even friends while others bent down with arms over their heads in preparation for being barraged by the beams. Luckily for them, all the shields held well.

Nymph, who was left outside of the shield, only had a moment to react before the angel bodied her full force and sent her crashing into a memorial statue. It then focused its assault not on the civilians, but on the Saiyaness, millions of beams of light zipped at her at high speeds leaving little to no room for escape.

“We are now receiving reports that the strange creature has let go of the Queen, but is attacking the crowds,” the newscasters reported as the footage of the angel’s rampage transmitted across the globe. “Camilla, what is the word on the ground?”

“It appears that Queen Serenity has constructed some sort of shield,” the blonde anchoress said in disbelief. “But now it’s changing its attack towards Nymphaea Ashwood.”

Meanwhile, Spicer flew over towards the rampaging angel. With all of its focus on Nymph, Spicer moved in behind with a roundhouse kick that sent it reeling. enough so that the assault of Nymph was halted for a moment. But then it turned its attention onto him and gripped onto his extended leg, it would then swing him around violently before it sent him down towards one of the constructed shields. Spicer felt an audible crack as his body connected with the magical construct, and a wave of pain shot through his body.

“That’s the only break I’ve gotten all day,” Spicer muttered as he struggled to rise up from Serena’s shield. With one eye closed he looked over at the angel and fired off a few energy blasts to get its attention as he flew languidly up into the air, eye level with the angel.

“I can do this all day,” he called out to the magical being with false bravado as he got into a battle stance, “so why don’t you fight for real?”

The Angel raised a hand to the air and in the palm of its hand, a massive ball of light formed. Its eyes locked onto Spicer as if accepting his challenge.

Spicer dropped his stance as he watched the angel power-up an attack.

“You gotta be kidding me,” he groaned. “What did he eat for breakfast?” The annoyed Saiyan put his hands together, charged an energy attack of his own, and fired it at the angel. The angel similarly threw its energy ball at Spicer.

The two energy attacks collided between the two combatants in a startling display of sound, light, and colour, but for all his power, the angel’s attack proved nearly too much for Spicer as the Saiyan felt himself being steadily pushed back.

“Just...a little….more….” Spicer said as he felt himself losing ground to the angel.

Serena then appeared above Spicer and smacked the blast away. It zipped through the air before exploding in a massive firework-like explosion harmlessly over the city. She gave the Saiyan one backward glance before she launched herself forward, the angel tried to channel more energy into the palms of its hand, but Serena was on him in seconds. Her eyes glowed a brilliant red and she slammed her hand against its chest.

The moment her hands collided with it the beast shone brightly before it began to dissolve in sparkling dust particles. The forcefield constructs dissipated then as the Queen descended to the ground and gave a quick glance from side to side, ignoring the civilians for the moment to check for any more threats, when she did not see or sense any so took to the air again, drawing gasps from many civilians and then she propelled herself towards the building where Nymph was thrashed in. She dropped down near the now cavern-like opening of the building.

“You look like you could use a snicker,” Serena joked as she bent down to help Nymph to her feet.

The witch only groaned at the queen’s comment. “I think I’m gonna need more than a snicker after this.” she would pull herself up to her feet. Nymphaea looked around and saw that all of the angels were taken care of. “We defeated all of the angels. That’s incredible.” the mage said with stunned amazement as she raised her hands up in the air as she jumped up in excitement.

[Ranoria]

Collab between Ran, Fin, and Brit

Centre of Justice Building, Central Capital, the Earth

The Saiyan general had just returned from another expedition against the angels. Despite their best efforts at containing the creatures, they continued to appear in seemingly random places across the planet. Spicer, utterly exhausted and still smarting from the recent fight, slumped into a chair in his spartan office. He put a hand on his face as he groaned.

Since their first appearance, the angels seemed largely mindless in their attacks against civilians and military operatives. They exhibited no greater intelligence than beasts, but had the fighting spirit and will of higher order beings. It confounded Spicer.

“What could they be after? There have been no casualties, despite the attacks, almost as if they are searching for something.” he wondered out loud as he lowered his gloved hand and looked out the window towards the palace. “They were after Serena, but why?” The dread that he felt during the attack welled up inside him once more. “It doesn’t really matter, so long as we kick them back,” he said, trying perhaps to fool himself more than anything. He leaned forward in the chair and drummed his fingers across the desk. He wondered what the Queen was thinking about, how she was handling all of this. Since the attacks started, she had been mostly holed up in meetings and dealing with the threat that way, and she briefly addressed the kingdom with a broadcast, of course.

“Seems like we’re going to miss our weekly meetings,” he muttered with a sigh as he leaned back into the chair. “I’ve grown accustomed to them, and it sounds stupid, but I’m worried” Spicer shook his head, feeling his face grow red and an increasing uncomfortableness in his stomach.

“I can’t be ridiculous,” he said aloud. “I have more important things to worry about.”

Right?

“Spicer,” Arashi interrupted his longtime commanding officer’s monologue by stepping in. No knocking or announcing his presence, that wasn’t really his style, “With all due respect, you look like shit.” He could just barely keep the smirk off his face, but the sarcasm in his tone was evident. Given his healing factor, he couldn’t help but poke a bit of fun.

“And you’re full of it,” Spicer returned the Torhan’s smirk, glad to have a bit of a distraction. He gestured for Arashi to sit as he went straight into it.

“It doesn’t look like these attacks are abating,” Spicer commented as he crossed his arms and looked upwards. “How are the men handling it?”

“Better than one would expect,” a general in his own right, Arashi glanced down, “We have a good few who fought with us against Floe and her supporters, so they’ve seen combat. I don’t think that will last if we start to suffer casualties, though.”

“Hmm, and how about the Earthling Auxiliaries? I saw that war hero, Lt Urameshi, at the Memorial. He put up a good fight. How have they been handling this?”

“They seem nervous. I’ve tried keeping them on the outskirts of the fighting when possible. Most of them don’t have a lot of training, much less combat experience. Not that they could have prepared for the angels.”

“Neither were we,” Spicer retorted. “Almost makes me wish General Fawkes were here, or well…”

Arashi shifted his feet. He hadn’t known Ikki at all, really. He had felt the young Saiyan’s loss mostly through the downtrodden mood of the others. “Right. Regardless, these things don’t seem to be stopping, and we can only keep everyone holed up for so long before people start to lose it. And we don’t know why they’re here, or where they’re coming from.”

“Right,” Spicer said as he looked upwards. “General Ashwood mentioned they are from Paradiso, but why creatures from the Nine Realms are attacking Earth is beyond me.”

“Magic’s never really been my thing,” Arashi tapped his skull to emphasize the point, “Ironic, I know.” He paused for a moment, head tilting characteristically, “Hear me out here. What if we have Nymphaea open a portal to, wherever it was, that they came from, and just blow the whole thing away? It’s certainly doable.”

“Supposedly you can’t just open a portal, I am afraid,” Spicer said with a disappointed sigh. “Otherwise I would be completely in favour. “And you and I can’t enter the Nine Realms without it being instant death,” he added with a shrug, skeptical of the magic business.

Arashi decided not to bring up his race as a potential way to survive the trip. After all Spicer likely knew just as much about it as he did. “Back to the drawing board, then.” Arashi crossed his arms, “Can’t say I’ve ever been the best with the game planning. But taking these things out one by one is inefficient, and eventually one of us is going to slip up.”

“Not to mention we have no good way to predict when they show up,” Spicer added with an agreeing nod.

“Blame that on Earth’s shitty logistics. Dinner says once we have fully integrated PTO detection and defense systems, we could at least get some kind of warning. That old man running with the Wraith squadron seemed like he could figure out damn near anything.” Arashi knew that was a hefty wager. Feeding a Saiyan was no easy task.

“I’m not so sure,” Spicer said skeptically as he rubbed his chin. “Not even the mages could do much in tracking them, and we have little to handle magical entities as is.”

“So,” Arashi finally asked the question, “Do we have any sort of plan then? I’m out of ideas, honestly.”

Spicer crossed his arms once more.

“For now we keep doing what we’ve been doing,” he said after a moment of thought.

Suddenly, however, a voice echoed across the office, filtered through an audio speaker. “May I offer a few words myself?” it spoke. The air flickered with flashes of light immediately after, until it formed a hologram in front of Spicer and Arashi. It was the secluded doctor himself, Shuichi Kita, sitting on what appeared to be a large, metallic chair with various buttons lined up on both of the armrests. His head was placed in his palm, and he appeared far less shaken by the incident than he could have been.

“General Spicer. Arashi.” the scientist stated. “I’ve been informed that the capitol is in the middle of an emergency. Could you brief me on what is taking place out there? That is, anything I have not yet seen on the news.”

The sudden “appearance” of the mad scientist caught Spicer off guard but the general quickly recomposed himself as he briefly explained the situation to Kita. As soon as his explanation finished, he reclined back in his chair and replied:

“And you are surprised why they were after Serena? From what I have heard of political news ever since we all returned to Earth, it is almost as if “Queen Serenity” is deliberately trying to make as many powerful enemies as she possibly can.” Having stated his opinion on the circumstances of the attack itself, Kita sighed and continued:

“Do you have any of their bodies?”

Spicer shook his head.

“No, they dissipate into light after their apparent destruction, as if they are beings of pure energy.”

“And you say that they were only after Serena, correct? None of you attracted them before you rushed in to defend her?”

“They grabbed Her Majesty and they retaliated when we defended her, that is correct,” Spicer replied with a frown.

If they are only after Serena, I know she can defend herself, clearly, but still, why does it make me feel so uneasy?

Hearing his statement affirmed, Kita weakly nodded and reached out to the side, outside of the broadcast of the hologram.

“I have a theory on what they might be related to, but, as you might guess, it’s merely a theory as I didn’t get to see the battle myself,” he replied and picked up his Serena Force tracker, tuning it in his hands for a second before placing it on his armrest. “If I can pick up any residual energy from the angels you destroyed, I can make a machine which tracks them. It will take time, however, and I’m not going to dedicate all of it to this incident.”

“I’ll see what I can do, Dr Kita,” Spicer said as he glanced over at Arashi. “General, if I’m not in, should Dr Kita arrive, I trust you’ll know what to do,” he told the Torhan. “As commander of the garrison, I leave it in your hands.”

The Torhan general save Spicer a cocky smile as he turned to the hologram of the human scientist.

“You got it, boss.”

[Naval Monte]

Collab Between Naval and Brit
6 Days Later

The Vision, Earth Broadcasting Channel, West City

A video of the battle against the angels flashed on the television screens, showing Nymph and Spicer fighting. A similar video then played, showing PTO soldiers including the Torhans Generals as well as Higu and Lucius, battling against the angels in various locations across the Earth before the scene focused on a panel of five women seated across a table. The woman seated to the far right side of the panel, a pretty black woman named Crystal Ball, started the discussion.

“Well, what are we supposed to make of these angel attacks?” she asked openly. To her immediate left, Holly Wood gave a shrug.

“It’s a lot like the terror attacks two years ago, but have you seen some of these heroes? That Saiyan is a total hottie.”

“And what about the others? Dinah Mitel seated on the far left, asked, ignoring the comment on the attractiveness of the Saiyan. “Who knew Earth had that many heroes, like Captain Urameshi. At least the PTO is helping us out. too.”

“They are only pretending to be heroes. They are following orders from their reptilian overlord to protect their new property.” Lily Pond dismissed as she waved her hand. “The lizards wouldn’t want to lose new slaves after all, especially since they brainwashed the Queen to agree to their Accord.”

“That’s being a little unfair, Lily,” Holly interjected with a smile. “Queen Serenity’s accord with Empress Glacia gave the Earth far more autonomy than any other world in the PTO,” she pointed out. The others seemed to nod in agreement and looked back at Lily.

“For now. They are using that to lull us into a false sense of security. The boomers in Parliament no doubt only accepted the deal because the space lizards gave them access to advanced technology and immortality!”

“Are you suggesting this was an inside job?” Dinah asked with a raised brow. The others looked similarly sceptical.

Lily nodded and leaned forward. “That is precisely what I’m saying. These “angels” are nothing more than genetically altered life forms made by Shinra! They are known for having a sub company made for pharmaceuticals but everyone knows that company is also experimenting on cloning, biological weapons, genetic mutation and biomechanical cybernetics. This wouldn’t be the first time mutants attacked people. Amenbo Island was terrorized by a strange creature the moment Shinra began operations on that island.” Lily explained.

“Or how about the strange cases of people going berserk and eating people in Tanuki City? Plus them making these mutants look like angels fit since Shinra has that strange obsession with the occult.”

“Aren’t we missing the point here?” Crystal interjected with an eye roll.

“Yes,” Holly agreed. “If the government wanted to make an inside job, wouldn’t it just be easier to stage it with aliens instead of genetically modifying people?” Crystal put a hand on her face.

“They did that already back with the world tournament.” Lily retorted. “The king was killed by parties within the government who decided they wanted a new puppet ruler. They chose our current queen because having your ruler being young and beautiful will make people more likely to obey her than an old man who was close to death.” she explained.

“And before you ask how it’s possible that they met the aliens before the world tournament, then I will say it; Shinra. They had access to alien technology. How else do you think they made all of the breakthroughs in the past? They had access to alien technology that UFO crashed back somewhere close to Ginger Town four or five decades ago. The government helped Shinra cover up the incident by saying it was a weather balloon so they can have a share of the alien tech.”

She would ball her right hand into a fist. “The government and Shinra are both working together in some sort of secret society to rule the world. Why else would the government be willing to bail them out of trouble and give them so much leeway to break the law!”

The ladies heard one member of the group give a fake cough as to break the maniac rant that Lily was giving. “While conspiracy theories would sell well what we have here is a princess not ready for her position believing herself to be capable of governance.” Rebecca Jarrit cooly stated. “The very fact she chose to force us to be aligned with this Planet Trade Organization without the approval or knowledge of Parliament is more than enough clues to her inexperience at the role thrusted to her.” the woman would say as she put her finger around the arm of a cup and brought it close to her lips to drink the ice cold water that was on it.

As she took a sip from the refreshing beverage she would lower it back to the table. “While the deal with the PTO has provided advanced technology we must not forget that they want us to become compliant to our autonomy being stripped away. How are we to be sure that Queen Serenity would have our people’s best interest in heart when she placed the planet under the governance of a foreign power?” She would cross one leg over the other as she folded her arms under her breasts.

“I think she is putting too much trust in this Glacia. Right now the relative freedom they are giving us is because they are trying to stabilize their dominance in the galaxy after a succession crisis. But once that is no longer an issue we will most likely see the “privileges” they gave us being rescinded.”

Lily was wagging her tail and nodding. “I can see that happening. Especially since she is mind controlling the queen with her psychic powers. In fact I would hazard to guess that is why she looks so cute to everyone! She is projecting an illusion to hide the fact she is hideous!”

Rebecca would push her glasses back. “I can’t say if she is adorable or hideous in reality, but she obviously has been playing the political game for much longer than our queen. Therefore she can easily manipulate her without Serena realizing it. This Spicer is no doubt a spy sent by Glacia to spy on the queen.”

“Oh that’s being unfair,” Holly suddenly interjected, her ears twitching. “If he was a spy, why would he fight so gallanty to protect us and Queen Serenity?” The young woman’s eyes seemed to sparkle. “How can someone so cute be a spy?”

The bespeckled woman gave the young woman a glance. “Besides you having questionable taste in men, the obvious reason for why he would protect the queen and her subjects is to gain our trust. While Lily has spewed so much conspiratorial garbage to lower the collective IQ of our viewers by twenty percent she is right that the PTO does have a vested interest in making sure our world still has people on the planet because we are a valuable commodity for them.”

“Although if it were just a charade, how does that explain the mages helping?” DInah said as Holly pouted and stuck her tongue out at Rebecca. “They have no vested interest in either the current regime, nor the PTO.”

As Rebecca was going to speak Lily would slam her hands on the table and startled the woman. “The mages are a secret society fighting against the one that controls Shinra and the government. They want to oust their rivals so they can replace them.” Rebecca can feel her left eyebrow twitching but she quickly regained her composure.

“While everything Lily has said was wrong she is right on one account. These mages lived in secret for many years and only revealed themselves when one of their own assisted the queen and some of the participants in the world tournament in fighting off Col. Chaos’ terrorist cell. As for why they would aid us, it's similar to why I believe Spicer would help us; they want to garner the good graces of the people.” She told the other women as she put down her leg.

“These mages live in the Heights, the one area that the government does not own legally because for many years past monarchs saw no reason to state any claims to them, even when many analysts state that the Heights could be housing vital resources.”

Once more Lily would interrupt Rebecca. “That’s because they were being bewitched by the mages to stay away from the Heights.” The beast woman would recoil back to her seat when Rebecca gave her an intimidating glare. The woman can feel a dark aura surrounding the bespectial woman as the lights of the stage gave the lens of her glasses the same glint as light being reflected off a killer’s knife.

“Now, before I was so rudely interrupted.” she almost hissed in frustration as she glanced at the trumbling beast woman, who was curled up on her seat. “These mages have lived isolated from the rest of us, giving them more than enough time to start to develop into something of a qusai-nation state, even if loosely one. Many in Parliament for obvious reasons don’t want these rogue mages running around without restraints on their activities and reject the very notion of an independent state on Earth so many are trying to convince the Queen to approve of a bill to annex the Heights and place the Order under Earth’s jurisdiction.”

She stopped for a few seconds to get another sip from the cup of water by her side of the table. “Now, these mages knowing that their independence is being threatened would try to find a way to keep it and them gaining support of the people is one way to make any move Parliament would make to become unpopular.”

Crystal drummed her fingers on the table.

“Speaking of the mages, I think it’s time we bring in our first guest,” she announced with a smile as the camera panned over to the side.

As the spotlights panned to the sides it would catch a portal forming from empty air. Stepping out of the portal was Nymphaea, a wide smile on her face as she was waving both arms over her head as she wore both her robes and armor. She would also come out wearing her eyepatch and the scar she sustained next to her right eye in the fight still remained.

"Hiiiyaaaa!" she excitedly yelled as she waved at the crowd. The mage would climb down the stairs but would trip and fall. Just as people gasp in shock at her falling they would soon see her floating a few feet off the ground as her cape caught her. She would look at the crowd. "I'm fine. My cape caught me." she told them as she would raise up in the air and fly to her chair. Lowering down in a sitting position as she finally sat on her chair.

Crystal looked over at the mage.

“Please, I’d like you to introduce yourself. After all, you have suddenly become one of the most famous people on Earth, and I think we’re all dying to know,” she said, looking over at her co-hosts.

Nymphaea looked over at the crowd. The mage drank a potion that was made to help block out the effects of stage fright for a while. It would last until midnight and from what she has heard she won’t be on stage for too long so she is safe.

“My name is Nymphaea Ashwood. But some people call me by my Saiyan name Lottus, both names are acceptable because they are both true. I’m a master of the mystic arts and I like playing board games when I’m not training and studying. I also like sweets and cute animals and music.” she told the hosts.

“Board games?” Rebecca asked. “What sort of board games do you play.” The mage seems to be happy that someone seems to share her interest. “Pai-Sho is my favorite but I also play checkers, sternhalma , chess, go, shogi. After being in space I learned a few alien games like the four dimensional chess, some alien form of poker and dart games.” she said as she pulled up each fingers on her hands to list the various games she mentioned, looking up as she thought of them before she blinked her eyes closed and looked back down when the lights shined on her eyes.

“Yes, so you went with this General Spicer and then-Princess Serena,” Dinah said. “What was that like?”

The witch began to think on the question as she began to think back on how the trip first started. “I didn’t like his ship. It felt cold and dead in there.” the witch grabbed her biceps and began to shiver. “I never want to be in a place as barren of magic like it again. Also being in space for so long and knowing that the only thing separating you and a cold and terrible death is just some sheets of metal was something that took me a long time to get used to.” she mentioned as her voice grew more somber and quieter with each mention.

When suddenly her mood would brighten in an instant. “But it got better after a while. The alien food was really nice. I never understood why the others complained about it so much? Also I made friends with some of the aliens in the ship and even some who were not with the PTO and one who was my enemy. Though I was almost killed by some and I even lost an arm during a fight against a group led by Spicer’s crazy ex-girlfriend… I almost got obliterated a few times too...” her eyes became distant once more as she looked away from the hosts.

“Ex?” Holly said suddenly. “Does that mean he’s single?”

“Please, Holly, control yourself,” Dinah said with an eye roll. “Supposedly you were fighting in a war?” she said quickly. That question would bring Nymphaea back into reality. “Yes. There was a civil war with the PTO because the previous emperor died and there were several relatives fighting for the Throne. Spicer came down because me and two other Saiyans were brought to here on Earth many years before the Saiyan’s former king committed genocide on his own people due to a rebellion. I honestly thought I was a baby possessed by a demon before I found out I was an alien.” she explained.

“At first we fought against Glacia’s sister, whose hips were as large as her insanity and ego. She was the one whose Spicer’s crazy ex was fighting for. We defeated her and stole the Regalia from. But then Floe lost her head to Glacia’s even crazier cousin who was talking about making everyone in the galaxy the superior race and cleansing the weaker ones while also working with the crazy king of the Saiyans. We had to stop him from gathering these magic items called the Dragon Balls so he could make his wish. We kinda failed on stopping that from happening but we manage to defeat Fuar and Scall.”

“From your perspective,” Crystal asked, “what is this Empress Glacia like?”

“She’s adorable for one. It’s almost unfair that something that cute is also that powerful. But besides that she is also very smart and is a fair ruler, almost much nicer compared to the other relatives I met. I mean, there were some who weren’t like Floe and Fuar but I don’t know too much about them. Except one of them had a really nice suit.”

When Nymphaea was done asking the question about Glacia the next one to ask was Lily. “Okay so you are a mage so maybe you can answer this question. There are many stories about people manipulating the elements, seeing the past and future, speaking with the dead, entering people’s dreams, healing folks, cast curses and blessings, bewitching folks, controlling the weather, and summoning spirits. Do any of these stories have a hint of truth to them at all?”

Nymphaea nodded. “Yep, all of those are true.” She said matter of factly.

“Can you do them?” Once more she nodded.

“Well the dream magic is still new to me as well as a few others but I can do the others. But the weathercrafting I need other mages to help me with. I’m not like my sister and mother who can do that by themselves. I still haven’t figured out how to do shapeshifting well before you ask because I know that is a common story about my kind. Magic potions and alchemical transmutations I’m still a student learning most of the ingredients for it.”

Lily’s tail was wagging as she heard each answer Nymphaea was giving, pretty much saying that most stories about mages were true. “Do you guys deal with demons and eat children?” she asked, which made the witch look at her with disgust.

“What? No one I know eats people! Only the most depraved rogue mage would ever do that! We eat things from Yggdrasil but that is different! We do however make deals with other beings, not just demons.” she confessed. “We’ve made deals with angels, faeries, horrors, elementals, ghosts, dragons, and even the gods of Yggdrasil. We even made deals with the creatures from the Null and beings from Heaven and Hell.”


“Angels?” Dinah inquired. “Like the ones that attacked us recently?” The witch nodded.

“Yes, the very same ones. Which are odd because that is going against their character. Even the ones who hate us and wish we just drop dead won’t actually want to come down here to our realm. Most beings from Yggdrasil get weaker once they do. They are actually risking a lot coming down here. Me and the others are still puzzled by this strange behavior.” she told Dinah.

“Are we going to ignore the fact that she just admitted that she and the other mages make deals with demons and devils?” Lily stated. “No.” Rebecca replied back. “What do you do for those contracts? You claim that you don’t eat babies but if you make deals with demons then surely you are offering something to them.”

To that question Nymphaea merely nodded. “You’re right, we do have to give demons either something or make an offer. But we have to decide on an offer or trade that we can agree on. So if a demon asks for me to give them a baby or my purity then I can reject them and banish them back home.” Lily would chime in. “So what you're saying is that if someone offers to sell their soul it’s their choice?” Nymphaea would give a simple yes to the question.

“The offer changes depending on what beings we summoned. But sometimes their demands can be similar. I had some beings ask me to sleep with them but I turned them down because I want the whole bed to myself.” the witch told the hosts, oblivious to what she just said. “My sister also told me that many demons also made the same request to her too. I know my mom did decide to sleep with one of those beings”

The two hosts were silent after the witch confessed that she and her sister had many beings request for sex to make a deal with them and the fact her own mother agreed to such a deal. “Anyways.” Rebecca would move her glasses up. “What is your Order’s connection to Queen Serenity and what did she do during the war?” the witch became silent. “I..” Nymphaea can feel her nerves were now breaking through the potion. She was not anticipating a question like this.

“We taught her some things about magic. Spicer couldn’t teach her the normal way because he wasn’t a mage.” Rebecca would soon ask. “But doesn’t the royal library have books about magic? Surely she could have learned from that?” Nymphaea once more was starting to squirm in her seat.

“She could have, but we know more about magic than her. We had to help her because if we didn’t she would have never learned to properly control her powers.” The moment Nymphaea said that question Rebecca would instantly jump in with a retort. “So youre saying that the Queen did not know how to use her powers before?” The witch shook her head.

“I’m not calling her terrible with magic, just that she didn’t have proper control over it all. She let her magic be controlled by her emotions too much.” the witch saw the hosts staring at her. “That sounds like you were saying she was terrible with magic.” Lily pointed out. The witch would sulk as she failed to defend Serena’s honor on live television.

“Enough about the Queen,” Holly interrupted. “Tell us more about General Spicer.”

“And the rest of these so-called heroes the rest of the press are talking about,” Dinah added with a side glance and a sigh to her co-host.

Nymphaea perked up as she was glad to move away from Serena. “Oh Spicer. I thought he was a cold jerk at first and that he was a dumb animal. But he is actually a nice guy after you get through his gruff persona. But he can be dumb at times. Like he sometimes doesn’t get some of the things I tell him, but maybe that was because that was an Earth thing? Might have been that. But he is incredibly dense when it comes to love or when women are interested in him. I’ve seen how some of the female soldiers looked at him and he couldn’t even see it!” She slapped her hand on her face. “It’s aggravating!” she shouted.

She would slide her hand down across her face and place it back on her lap. “But he does care deeply for the people he fights with. He is also incredibly loyal too. He was willing to go to another galaxy to save Glacia when she was dying and he was willing to sacrifice his own life to save ours.”

“A great personality for a great body,” Holly said as she licked her lips. Crystal rolled her eyes and gestured for Nymph to go on.

“Now for the others in Wraith Squadron or The Justice Friends as me and Ikki like to call it. Ikki was this one Saiyan like me who had green bushy hair and freckles. His faces looked cute even though he was almost as muscular as Spicer. He was a nice guy to be around. He was almost like the brother I never had.” the witch became somber as she began to remember Ikki. “I think my sister had a crush on him but she would never admit it… maybe. She gets weird with guys and girls that she likes.” she said with a shrug.

“After Spicer left we were led by Ovan. He was a pretty stoic guy who rarely let anything bother him and trained like crazy because that was his passion in life. He also meditated a lot, more so than me. He left the PTO on a spaceship to train somewhere and to make his own dojo. Danu was also a nice girl but she was also really sad because her dad lied to her about who she was and-...” Before she could finish she was interrupted.

“Yes, she’s the new Saiyan Queen, is that right?” Crystal interjected.

“The one raised by the Sora Daichi,” Dinah added as her ears twitched. “I went to high school with her,” she said with a nod.

“Sora Daichi?” Nymphaea asked? “Who is that? Danu didn’t tell me much about her dad other than he raised her for most of her life but lied to her and used the pod she came from to make most of the inventions he made.” When Lily heard that she would get up from her seat and scream. “Yes! I freakin knew it!” She would rush towards Nymphaea and grab her by the shoulders and lift her up, starling the mage.

“I knew he was reverse engineering alien technology. Both he and Shinra! Thank you for proving to everyone that us so-called conspiracy theorists were true all this time about them.” she would drop Nymphaea as she began to dance in pure joy on being right.

“You still have no physical proof that Sora Daichi was reverse engineering from alien technology.” Lily stopped as she was gasping at Rebecca. “The guy's daughter just told her that her father was doing that. Most likely Sora himself confessed to that. How is that not proof.” the beast woman said as her tail became rigid. The witch looked at the scene between the two with confusion, looking to Crystal and Holly for answers.

“If she had a tape recording of the confession than perhaps it would be more believable. But even if it was true then it just proves Sora’s genius mind as he was able to understand technology far beyond our own and apply it to our civilization.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “You just don’t want to admit that I was right about this conspiracy theory because you don’t want to think about the other ones being right!” Rebecca only scoffed. “The chances of the other insane stories being correct are impossibly low. The mages would have a better shot at keeping their autonomy than any of your other crazy theories being correct.” hearing those words made Nymphaea flinched. “I’m right here you know.” she said to the glasses wearing woman.

“Anyway,” Crystal said with an exasperated sigh and turning towards Nymph, “Danuja, adopted daughter of one of the richest men on Earth, is the new Saiyan Queen. How did that happen?” The mage glared at Rebecca before turning her attention back to Crystal. “She was in the world tournament too. She told me that she just got into martial arts. She joined us because we didn’t have much of a choice since if we didn’t the Earth would have been dragged into the war. She found out on her own that she was the daughter of the queen and the guy who started the rebellion. I kept it a secret from the others when she told me about it and in return I told her a few of my secrets. Of course all of those secrets she had got exposed thanks to Scall and all of mines got exposed thanks to my family and the Order getting involved.”

Lily would soon join in. “How would you describe Danuja?” Nymphaea thought about the question. “I think what my sister said about her fits. “She has a big personality and bigger assets.” She also said she wanted to motorboat her puppies but I don’t think Danuja ever said anything about having puppies.”

“Moving on,” Dinah said hurriedly, “before we are taken off the air, who are the other members of this, what did you call it, Wraith Squadron? The two other aliens, the commanders of the PTO garrison.”

“Oh. We have the two Tohrans named Tei and Arashi. Tei is cool. She helped me out in my first fight in the war when I was almost killed and she acts like a really cool aunt as she pretty much acts like she is just another soldier even though she is above them in rank. Arashi is really serious but I say he is like Spicer in that he is a softie on the inside. He cares about his men like Spicer did. We had someone named Jim who was a masked vigilante but he disappeared during the war. He was an odd fellow, but interesting. There was also Kita, Ikki’s dad. He was our doctor and while Ikki trusted him I never liked him. Guy gave me the creeps, especially with the way he would look at some of us. It felt like he was studying me like I was a lab rat.” she would shiver.

“He was really interested in learning about how Ki works, or as he called it Kita Force. He even wanted to call magic that because he thought it was the same as Ki. But since he never called it that anymore I would guess he finally got the message that magic wasn’t Ki. But he never did like calling what I can do magic for some reason.”

Lily would perk up when Nymphaea talked about Kita. “Kita? As in Shuichi Kita? The very same Kita kicked out from the West City Royal University due to his outlandish theories?”

Rebecca's interest was piqued by the revelation that a discredited scientist was involved. “You’re telling us that the mad man was not only raising a child but he was your doctor as well?” Nymphaea nodded. “Yes. Not sure how mad he is since some of his inventions actually worked. Except for that one time when he almost gave Spicer a heart attack because the stimpacks got mixed up. But I didn’t know he was kicked out from any places. What did he say that got him kicked out?”

“His theories regarding the manipulation of energy and human genetics,” Lily replied.

“And unethical and probably illegal experiments on the human genome,” Rebecca added. “You’re lucky that he didn’t turn you into a lab rat.”

The mage was silent as she heard more about him, her mind going to him doing experiments on people. The fact that Ikki looked different always made her wonder why he looked so different. Did Kita actually change him and if so, how much was he changed?

“You mentioned before you have a robotic arm? Can you show us it?” Holly asked her. Nymphaea would begin to remove her glove and show off her black and golden arm. “Cool isn’t it? Dr. Ridley gave me the arm. He is a dinosaur alien.” he told them as she began to spin her hand around a full 360 degree and she kept going with it.

“My arm can even vibrate and it’s metal cases can act as a shield.”

“If they can make robotic arms,” Dinah said, “why can’t they make robotic eyes?” she asked, indicating to Nymph’s eyepatch. The witch would begin to make a sinister chuckle. “Because this eyepatch is actually an artifact that is suppressing my great and terrible power!” she would touch her eyepatch. “If I didn’t have this on my power would threaten the world itself.”

Lily would look at her with fear. “I heard mages were powerful but I didn’t think they could become world breakers.” the terrified beast woman said as she pushed herself into her chair as she curled herself into a ball.

“Get a grip, Lily,” Holly said. “She’s clearly joking.”

Rebecca would get up from her seat and walk to Nymphaea. The witch would give the woman a blink of confusion. Rebecca would grab on the eyepatch and pull on it forward, stretching out the straps. “AAAAHHH! Wait Stop! Please don’t pull on it!” she pleaded as she tried to push Rebecca off. The woman would let go and the eyepatch would hit her on the eyes, making the witch hold on to her eye as she can feel her eye stinging from the pain. The woman calmly walked back on to her seat.

“I believe that proves that there is nothing to worry about with her eyepatch. She wears it for looks.” she stated as she began to drink from her cup.

“Okay,” Crystal said with a clap, clearly eager to move on. “I do have one last question for you, General,” she turned to Nymph. “These angelic attacks, should we be concerned about them, or do you and your allies have it covered?”

Nymphaea was covering her eyes as she muttered something about Rebecca. When Crystal asked her about the angels she would look at her. “I would say being concerned about them is the right thing to do because we don’t know what is making them hostile. But we have things under control for now. Once we find out what is making them act out like this then we will never have to worry about angelic attacks again.”

“Well there you have it,” Crystal announced as she turned back to the cameras. “Everything is just going to be peachy.”

“For now. But I believe we should still have a proper military response to them than just relying on “heroes” to save us.” Rebecca stated. “And we should make Shinra confess on them unleash their lab experiments upon the world!” Lily exclaimed, much to the exasperation of the other co-hosts even as they waved at the cameras as the broadcast terminated for a commercial break.

[The Republic of Atria]

1 year or so later...

Training was rough. The power that the Font had given Nia was obscene. For the first she, she simply tossed him around without much effort, even his battle meditation was barely enough to get him through the day, but so far, he'd only had glimmers of the power he used against Fuar, but no true manifestations. Maybe it was because he knew deep down that Nia wasn't actually intending to kill him. She could and it wouldn't have been even difficult. So a few months into it, he felt that he had been toughening up and growing somewhat resistant to her powers, he told her to pick it up a few notches to pressure him, and to only stop if she felt his heart stop.

Ovan considered it both the worst and best day of his life. Nia complied with his request and took what restraint she had with him away, and trounced him, telekinetically crushing, smashing, and throwing him around like a ragdoll. Normally she would have stopped when Ovan had trouble standing, but he insisted that she only do so if he had expired. At first, she had her doubts that he was going to be able to pull off what he wanted to, but with one final telekinetic slam, it seemed that Ovan had either died or lost consciousness. She knew that he used a healing pod in his ship to recuperate from previous injuries and figured that she should probably put him inside before he actually died. However, just as she was about to follow through, Ovan stirred, and she could feel the new power radiating from his body despite his injuries.

He stood tall and continued to fight her, putting up a far greater resistance to her abilities as well as incredible speed and strength despite his wounds. Most notably, she found it incredibly difficult to move him, as if his weight increased to such a degree that she had to use a considerable portion of her strength to even stagger him. Despite the massive boost in his speed and strength, he did eventually stop and collapse from his wounds at which point Nia did put him in his healing pod. He came out about an hour later, excited and insisting that he'd figured out how to activate it at will.

"Are you sure it wasn't just a fluke or some near-death throes?" She asked, a bit of snark in her tone.

"Absolutely sure." He insisted, flinching from some of the residual injuries. "Just give me a little more time, and then we can have a fight that's more than just you flicking me around like a ragdoll for half an hour."

And so the training continued, however, Ovan was starting to use his "Void Mastery" as he called it more often, slowly, but surely managing to trigger it at will as opposed to hoping it came out before he died in some desperate attempt to save his life. Time went on and she began to grow increasingly nervous. Ovan was making near explosive growth in his abilities, becoming more powerful, more resistant to her powers.

At least until one day when Ovan was resting after a particularly difficult fight, listening to the news, specifically news of Earth. She's long since left that planet of weaklings behind, and didn't understand why Ovan remained so fascinated with it. She sensed a power spike and quickly came over to see only to find him about to meet her.

"Earth is under attack! Get in, we can go and be there within a day!"

Nia stood outside. "Ovan, I left that world behind long ago. There's no need for us to go back and help those worthless people now. They've given themselves to the PTO. Let them live in their new lives"

Ovan's hope for a team was quickly dashed, and his expression turned to almost looking hurt by her rejection. "What? They're still our people."

"They might be your people, but I've long since given up on them."

Ovan was about to speak up again, but realized he was wasting precious time. "You know. I thought we were going to be friends for awhile there."

"I'm not wasting my time on people who aren't worth it."

"You're no better than the god damned Arcosians." Ovan spat back, slammed the door to the ship, and began taking off while Nia silently fumed at Ovan's insult. She was far beyond any of them, and had half a mind to tear Ovan's ship out of the sky, but she figured he'd likely never come back anyways.

She did have her old ship. Maybe she would go pay him a visit at some point and remind him of her superiority.

[Ranoria]

Arashi

A cough broke the silence of the abandoned quarry. The layers of dust under the stone had come up with Arashi's training, but a simple kiai cleared that out.

He was sweating, panting, but he wasn't tired. He had experienced that once in his life now, and never intended to do so again. That was partly why he was here. Of course, he could get more powerful by going into stasis, and often did, but training was just as important. After all, if he ignored the physical portion, he would lose all of his skill, he wouldn't know how to use that power. Or how to improve it.

In his hands was a bo staff. It was a simple tool, but in his hands it could become any sort of instrument he desired now. Before, he had only extended the reach of his weapons' natural blades. Now, he was simply using the pole as a base to create whatever sort of melee weapon he wanted, be it a sword, axe, or scythe. He glanced up at an old conveyor belt. A vulture had been perched there for hours, watching, probably waiting. "Do I look mortally wounded to you?"

"No, no I suppose I don't," he said, releasing the axe blades he'd formed on the end of the staff and sheathing it in the gemstone on his chest. Normally, he wore armor in combat, but that would have defeated the purpose of his training today, as it was a bit more difficult to summon objects that way. He had one more thing to finish today before he could call it quits. It had taken a bit to get the axe to feel properly heavy in hand. The leverage he had with it would grant him more power than a sword, regardless, but focusing more power on the blades made the weapon feel more natural.

The vulture squawked from above, annoyed that he had yet to drop. Arashi had to chuckle. Perhaps if a human had been training at the intensity he had up until now, it would have had a meal. "Look, I'm telling you, wasting your time." He brought up an arm, sweat creating a mist around his body as it evaporated, and flattened his hand. His trademark infinity spear shot out, impaling an old excavator, but he released it in frustration. The ki control required to adjust most attacks in midair was difficult, but not incredibly so, to attain. The nature of his infinity spear, being an impalement based attack rather than an explosive one, made it more complicated.

He couldn't quite get it to work mentally. And moving his hand to assist would disrupt the flow of ki. It was a bit of a conundrum, and Arashi shot the vulture a glare as he thought. It had to be similar, at least, to adjusting the blades on his staff in concept.

Raising his hand one more time, he took some time to charge the attack. Rather than letting it go instantly, he built the ki up at the tip of the attack, giving himself just a bit more to concentrate on when directing it.

When he released it this time, he didn't have it at first, but he reached out with his other hand. Not that he necessarily needed to, but it was both a physical and visual crutch to envision himself reaching out and changing the direction of the attack. With a flick of his wrist, focusing in on the point of the infinity spear, it changed direction 45 degrees. And again, and again.

Arashi laughed, he couldn't help it, and let go of his attack, the azure beam dissipating in response. "Damn if that didn't take me long enough." He glanced up at the vulture once again, "Or maybe not long enough, in your case, old pal."

An aggravated squawk was his only response.

[Naval Monte]

Night of the Coronation: Royal Palace, Central Capital, the Earth

The initial shock of Serena’--now Queen Serenity’s-- self-coronation reverberated throughout the Earth Kingdom, but that did little to prevent the festivities from officially beginning. The new queen gave an address to the people on the balcony of the palace before the Coronation Ball for the young monarch started at her royal residence, and in attendance were much of the elites of the elites in Earth society and government.

And of course, Serena’s guests. Namely, the Ashwood witches.

Nymphaea walked around the gala with clear awe. The white marble pillars, the fancy carpets, the rows of gourmet food and people in fancy dresses. They reminded her of stories talking about noble and fey courts and balls. For the witch she felt as though she had entered those old stories.

As she looked around with awe another member of the party was walking by her side, a creature that looked to be a cross between a dog and a shark. On its back was Squiggly. The shark creature smelled out something and it began to run towards a nearby table. “Where are you going Pesu?” she called out as the dog sank its claws into the table cloth and began to drag it forward, causing the cloth to pull forward and making bowls and plates of food fall down on the floor.

The noise the food made drew the attention of everyone in the party as Pesu began to devour the roast pork that fell. Squiggly would slither down and begin to devour pieces of cake that were now on the floor. “Wait you guys don’t eat the floor food no matter how tasty it is!” Nymphaea shouted as she ran over to try and stop her pets from eating the food.

Several of the aristocrats and plutocrats looked over at one of the food tables with looks of sheer disgust.

“Who invited her?” one of the noble ladies said to her husband. He shrugged.

“I didn’t realise they were letting the rabble in now. I’ll have to speak to Sir Archibald about this,” he said in an uppity tone. The man would soon feel a cold chill blast behind him as a dark presence can be felt behind him. “What did you say mate?” a menacing voice said behind him. He would feel a hand land on his shoulder. “Maybe you don’t quite know who that is but she is a friend of the queen and is an important representative of a group who has done more for this planet than any of you people ever done in your entire life.” He can feel the breath of the speaker hitting him on the back of his neck.

“So perhaps you should think twice what you say or else you will find out all of the secrets of the afterlife much sooner.”

“Well I never!” the noble blathered out. He would feel the grip on his shoulder tighten, nails digging into his clothing and sink. “You never what? Never cared about anyone besides yourself? Never lift a finger and do something for yourself? Perhaps it could be that you never loved your “wife”? I bet you only married her for the money and you only ever bother putting up with kids just so you can make some pitiful attempt on living on through their genes.” A dark aura would surround the speaker as their eyes began to glow red and the whites in their eyes turned black. These were the signs needed to show that it was Elizabeth threatening the noble. The witch’s face was starting to give an almost feral glee as she threatened him.

Liz felt someone touch her hand from behind.

“He isn’t worth your time, darling,” a voice told her, revealed to be one of Earth’s many beast people. He gave her a smile as he looked her over.

“Name’s Darjeeling,” he told the mage.

Feeling someone else touching her the eyes began to revert back to normal and the aura would disappear, her expression also returning to normal as she blinked in confusion. Turning around she would see the pigman. Unlike the pigman who wore a soldier uniform or her sister with her robes Elizabeth was wearing a more .unique attire.

Seeing the pigman she looked at him with confusion, seemingly ignoring the fake that he was checking her out. “And I’m Elizabeth. Why would you come to the aid of this man? Last time I checked you aren’t the biggest fan of the nobility, Darjeeling.”

The Socialist leader gave her a chuckle.

“Ah, so you already knew me,” Darjeeling said with an impressed look as he scratched his nose. He peered over at the noble, already scurrying off with his wife. “I wasn’t coming to his aid, but to yours.” He gestured over to some of the guards. “You might be the queen’s friend, but you’re not the Prime Minister’s friend. He is.”

The witch’s eyes rolled. “Typical. One rich fossil is friends with another. But that won’t matter soon once the queen is in charge.” the witch said as she waved her hand.

The pigman raised an eyebrow.

“You mages are a little more sheltered than I realised,” he said with a grim smile. “Anyway, it was nice meeting you, Elizabeth. I’d like to see some more of you, sometime,” he added with a wink as he walked off, giving her a quick tip of his cap as he did.

The witch watched the pigman walk away as she thought over his words. “Sheltered?” she repeated. The witch would look over to Nymphaea who was now carrying Pesu away from the pork as the shark was trying to break free from her hold.

“Looks like you made a new friend.” the cambion turned to see her mother who was also wearing a dress instead of the traditional robes. On her hand was a glass of red wine “I guess. Though I think he was trying to save me from whatever friends that bastard has.” she told her mother. Alex would spin the contents of the glass around. “Yes. The nobles in this party are an… interesting lot.” she said before taking a sip of her wine.

“More like assholes if you ask me.” Elizabeth would put her hands on her hips as she looked over at another group of noblewomen who were glaring at her, using their fans to whisper among each other and hide their lips. “How on Earth can Serena stand these people.” Alex shrugged. “She was raised to take their shit with a smile and just bear with it so she can get them on her side. We are lucky to never have to deal with them.” the older witch stated.

“The princess must have a stronger patience than I thought if she has to deal with their nonsense everyday.” Alex chuckled. “True. All though she now has Spicer to keep her company against these nobles and their petty games.” she would form a mischievous grin.

“And to keep her company on those dark, cold, and lonely nights.” she would warp one arm around herself. “Oh how I wish to be the fly on that particular wall. To see what sort of scandalous things that would come from a queen and a space warrior when they are left alone and they only have themselves in the world.”

The older witch was now blushing as she swayed her body. “Ara ara, I’m just getting goosebumps just thinking about what those two do when they are alone.” Elizabeth just simply gave her mother a few blinks about her action before she shrugged. “You are hyping yourself for nothing. Spicer may be a hunk and have the guts to put himself into battle, but he doesn’t have the guts to start a scandal let alone ask a woman out on a date” the witch said as she crossed her arms on her chest, just below her breasts.

Alex would slide her glasses down, her eyes having a glint of mishfit. “Perhaps a bet is in order? If Spicer does prove to have the guts on asking our queen out on a date and become his lover I win. But if he chickens out and makes the queen be the first one to confess you win.” Elizabeth would give her a grin that much like Alex conveyed the same emotion. “Sure mother. I’ll accept your bet.” Alex would extend her hand. “Then let the best witch win.” Elizabeth would shake her mother’s hand.

As the two mages settled the terms of their wager, a diminutive figure approached the pair.

“Well, it’s a rare sight to see mages from the Order of Ancient Mysteries these days,” the noble said. “I see that it is no exaggeration that Her Majesty’s accord extended even to you.”

The two looked down at the small monsterfolk. “Well we don’t like making ourselves known. It makes things easier for everyone involved if we stick to the shadows on most occasions.” Alex said to him as she gave him a charming smile. “My name is Alexandria Ashwood. This here is my daughter, Elizabeth.” Elizabeth gave the man a wave. “Hi.” the witch bluntly said.

“You have to excuse her. She is not one for parties like this.” the older witch told him.

“Oh that’s all right,” he said with a wave. “I’m Lord Pilau, by the way,” he told the pair. “It’s been a long time since I was even invited to a Central City gala.”

“Probably has to do with the fact that you are the Leader of the Opposition.” Elizabeth stated as she folded her arms in front of her chest as she tilted her hips slightly to the left. “You are the leader of the Warlords and most lords in the cities aren’t keen on your group.”

Elizabeth had met with some of the other warlords in her past missions and travels. While the Order’s main mission is to gather knowledge and preserve both magecraft and the Earth many mages often find themselves taking additional tasks outside of Airceltria, often it’s providing aid to the more rural communities. Many people in the city have abundances of food, medical care, and other utilities that many people living in them take for granted, utilities that some villages and towns are lucky to have. Often mages passing into towns and villages would take pity and use their magic to either heal the sick and dying, change the weather to provide a bountiful harvest, or scare off feral animals or bandits. Elizabeth even knows of some mages actually playing the role of teacher and teaching children and adults subjects they know because they lacked schools. Some of these mages even stayed more in those communities than in the sacred city because they lack professions like teachers or doctors, a few even leaving the Order to fully protect and care for the people in those settlements.

Of course that meant their way of life and teachings spread to those communities but it does make her question how this government can believe itself to be governed by the people and for them when they care so little for the majority?

“Ah, beautiful and well educated, I see,” he said with a smile. “But yes, Sir Archibald and I are hardly on the best of terms.” Alex would let out a chuckle. “Well us mages aren’t only studying magecraft after all. We may not have attended any of the fancy universities in the cities but we aren’t book dumb. It would contrast badly with one of the most common stereotypes about us.” the witch jested.

“I heard about you but I never guessed I would see you in person. You are much…” Elizabeth caught herself before she could say something that would make the conversation awkward. “Bluer than I expected.” Alex would give her daughter a strange look. “Right.” she turned her attention back to Pilau. “I do wonder why you came here if you know you would most likely encounter your enemy in here?” Alex asked.

The diminutive noble shrugged.

“As the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition, it is my solemn duty to attend these State functions. We all expect great things from Queen Serenity, and who knows, one day, I might serve as her Prime Minister.” The grand mistress would smile. “Maybe if your opponet becomes to senile to to fulliful his duty the queen might take you in. She seems like she wants to change how things work here. I’m curious to see what she has in mind. I know she wants to change how her kingdom and the Order interacts. Though I don’t know much about those plans yet.” she would nurse the wine on her glass.

Elizabeth would look around in the crowd. “Are you the only warlord present?” she asked.

“We’ll see how we do next election,” he admitted. “We have stiff competition from the Greens and Cavaliers these days. And no, there are a few members of my party floating around, and the entire Shadow Cabinet as well.”

“I wish you luck on the next election. Unless you want us to bless you with good fortunes for that election?” Alex teased as she finished off the wine. Elizabeth would catch a glimpse of the prime minister. The man would give the monsterfolk a scowl before turning away. Elizabeth chose not to say a word on that matter. “How come those guys are giving you stiff competition? Shouldn’t you try to get the Greens on to your side? I figure your parties would have enough common ground to join forces?” Elizabeth asked.

“Ah, yes, well, some of the Greens oppose our stance on nobles and the monarchy,” Pilau admitted. “It would be difficult to form a Coalition with them, so long as our social views are in opposition.” “Oh, I never heard about them having views about the nobles. I figured they only cared about the environment and having everyone getting along.” Alex said.

“It’s a bit more complicated. They are like that but they are torn up on what to do with the government. Some want the government to be in many pieces like it was in the past, others want Queen Serenity to be in charge, or for it to become a republic. The only thing they can agree on is the environment, equality, and the means of production being spread out equally to everyone.”

Alex nodded. “You really are interested in the politics of this world.” Elizabeth shrugged. “I always get stealth related missions. It’s a requirement for my job.”

Elsewhere Nymph had several plates on the floor so both her pets could eat their meals without making a mess. The witch herself was eating ice cream from a bowl, her eyes closed as she hummed in pleasure from the sweet and cold treat.

The witch would feel someone tugging at her robes. Looking down she saw several children wearing fancy clothing. “Excuse me, miss. Is it true that you are a real witch?” Nymphaea nodded. The kids looked excited. “Can you show us real magic then?!” one of them asked. Nymphaea was torn. On one hand she was supposed to keep magic a secret, a lesson that was drilled into her head for years. But seeing how excited and hopeful the kids were for her to show them magic just made the idea of rejecting their wishes feel cruel.

The witch would take one last bite from her ice cream before she made her decision. “Sure. I can show you some spells.” the kids cheered. “Now kids, stand back because I need space for my magic.” as the kids moved back Nymphaea would jump in the air and would begin to move the air around her, pushing it down below to form a sphere of spiralling air. She would land a foot on the sphere and balance on it.

“Cool huh? I call this an air scooter.” she told them as she moved around on the air scooter to the amazement of the kids. Meanwhile, Pesu wandered over to a child and started biting at her foot as Squiggly tried in vain to restrain his sark-dog friend.

Nymphaea would hear a child screaming and she would see what is happening. “Pesu let her go! Children's feet are not food.” she scolded the canine as she moved over to where Pesu was with her scooter before dispersing it. She would grab on to him and lift him up, causing her to trip up the girl as the shark still had his teeth on her shoes. “Please let her go Pesu.” she pleaded as she shook her the dog as the girl screamed.

The commotion would unfortunately draw the attention of the other party guests. Nymphaea would hear a woman screaming. “Someone save that child from that monster!” she heard. “I got this under control!” she shouted back as other people started panicking over the spectacle.

Nymphaea would deliver a small electrical current to make Pesu let go of the girl's foot. The girl would get up and start running away crying, “Sorry. He’s a good boy I swear.” she said but the little girl didn’t hear her. “Some should put down that thing before it tries to eat all of our kids.” she heard a noble man say.

She would hug Pesu tightly. “NO! I won’t let you hurt him! He’s a good boy I swear! This was just a misunderstanding. He’s harmless I tell you.” The shark-dog was just wagging its tail as it looked at the crowd absentmindedly, unknowing or uncaring for what was happening around it.

“All right, move along, nothing to see here,” the voice of Commander Nolan rang out as he made his way through the crowd and towards Nymph. “Don’t we have a coronation to celebrate?”

Nymphaea calmed down as Nolan shooed away the nobles. “Yes we do. Thank you for standing for Pesu’s side.” She looked down at the shark. “Say thank you Pesu.” the shark dog said nothing as it stared at him, it’s tail still wagging.

“Least I could do for a friend of Serena’s,” Nolan said as he shot her a smile. “Just try to stay out of trouble, “ he said with a wave as he headed back to the main part of the party.

---

“So he turned himself into a giant ape. Funniest shit I ever saw.” Alex said to a noble she saw sitting next to as she laughed, spilling some wine she had on her glass. “I set him and the other one on fire when I rain down a firestorm. Just like the time I was high on some shrooms and I accidently set Fukurou Forest on fire.`` She leaned close to the noble man. “Don’t tell anyone I just said that.” she whispered as she began to snort, the sweet scent of the wine coming from her breath. Her cheek was flushed as the wine was affecting her mind.

“You know I pretty much have to thank the queen’s mother for allowing me to find the best guy I ever had the pleasure of knowing. Great man to be with. I would marry him but well I’m like a legal dwarf and a mage and he is a giant demon, I’m surprised he didn’t crush me by accident. Honestly it was a miracle we managed to click so well. Maybe you should try to save the current queen if she gets kidnapped, maybe you would have a good romantic partner.” The noble man looked around in utter confusion as she gave him a smile.

“I swear he ruined me for other men. No matter who I have been I can never find one that can match or surpass him.” she began to laugh more. “But considering how he lavished me like I was his queen and all of the things we did together, how can I find someone who can surpass him.” she would rest her arms on the table and her head on it. “You want to hear how me and him made a half demon?” Before the noble man can even refuse the offer the grand mistress began to retell the story, by starting with how she saved Artemis from Maikai.

On the other side of the party Elizabeth was walking around different tables, intentionally swaying her hips more as she knew she was catching the eyes of several men in the party and a few women. The witch would brush back her hair to bewitch more of them as she reached a table that had a bowl of ice for people to gather from tongs to put on their glasses for their drinks.

The witch would reach out with her hand and many of the ice cubes would float out of the bowl and surround her as she walked away from the table. As she approached the window she would move her finger around and cause the ice to rotate around her as they melted. When she was by the window she would open it and look down. She saw a few soldiers giving themselves a smoke break. The witch would begin to snicker as she moved the liquid blob outside of the window. She would use her hands to aim at her target.

“And fall.”

With those words the water would finally let gravity take control and it would fall down at the soldiers. As it splashed the soldiers would jump back as the freezing water hit them. The soldiers began to look for the source but Elizabeth quickly went back inside, leaning against a column as she laughed to herself, her right hand covering her eyes as she lost control of herself.

When she finally regained control of herself she would see Turnbull speaking with some people with Taria being among the group, she also saw Pilau and Darjeeling close by who were glancing at the prime minister. The witch would let a wide grin form as she rubbed her hands. She would begin to chant and trace some symbols on the air. When her spell began to take effect Turnbull’s hair began to grow out quickly in front of everyone. When he had the same length of hair as a heavy metal singer it would suddenly combust into flames. Several attendants rushed over to see what the commotion was about as they whisked Turnbull away as the Prime Minister’s hair suddenly fell out entirely, only to reappear a few moments later.

Elizabeth would cover her mouth as she struggled to not laugh too loudly so not to expose herself. She would fight against her laughter for a few minutes until once more she was able to breathe at which point she returned back leaning against a column, the back of her head resting on the column, as she looked back outside of the window. She had a glass of wine in her hand but unlike her mother she wasn’t consuming hers in a quick pace, infact her glass was still full. The witch never thought she would be in such a lavish event filled with nobles and yet here is where she is. Serena wished for her to enjoy herself but she was honestly torn with how to feel. She wanted to enjoy herself for Serena’s sake but the fact she was surrounded by the same people who cause so much issues on the planet and they barely care about it just sour her festive mood. Elizabeth looked over at one nobleman who was chatting with a woman who was laughing at some joke he said. His freckles and bushy hair made her think of another man who had the same features, but his hair was green.

“I wondered how he would act if he was thrown into this den of snakes and wolves with me?” a part of her wondered for a moment how he would have thought of seeing her dressed the way she was. Elizabeth shook her head. “Get a grip of yourself Lizzy. Dead men can’t feel anything.” she chisted herself.

“Though, perhaps I would have liked to have some company.” she looked over to her mother; drunk and retelling past exploits to a nobleman who was now blushing as she reached to scandalous parts of her story. When she went to Nymphaea she saw her surrounded by kids as they all took turns playing and feeding Squiggly, Pesu was placed on a table eating a pile of fish. She saw the table had a dome of energy to keep Pesu locked within the dome and on the table.

Elizabeth would smile at the two witches enjoying themselves. Her eyes would move away from them and look towards Serena and Spicer. While the queen looked regal and elegant in her dress the Saiyan general almost made Elizabeth laugh. The very sight of him in a suit was just comedy gold and his obvious discomfort on wearing it just added to the humor.

But while the sight of Spicer looking ridiculous was a sight she would cherish for as long as she lives she couldn’t help but to be curious on what the two were doing? “Is Spicer trying to propose to her? I hope not. I don’t want to lose the bet just as it began.” she would finally drink the wine from her glass. The witch would channel her magic to reinforce her ears to increase her sense of hearing so she can overhear the two.

“...and that’s when Emperor Kalt brought Glacia and Floe into the throne room. Floe nearly torched the emissarry, while Glacia just sat there and…”

“Looks like mom isn’t the only one going through memory lane.” Elizabeth said as she moved her sight around and saw some of the politicians. Her eyes glared at them as she decided to reinforce both her eyes and her ears to watch them closely and overhear what they are talking about.


“...give a little more to the nanomachine union and we can be sure to have their votes at least through the next cycle…”

Her eyes narrowed more when she overheard what they were talking about. “Trying to bribe your way into victory huh? It would be a shame if misfortune would befall your plans.” she would drink more of the wine. She thought of maybe overhearing more of what they were going to say when she heard the sound of something shattering.

Turning over to the source she saw Meik had spilled over a punch bowl when she tried to grab it with her robotic hands. She apologized but Elizabeth can tell from the reactions of the nobles they were wondering why she was even invited along with the other aliens.

This time she chooses to leave it be, they can take care of themselves. She went from the nobles to something more important, the prophecy, but more important a part of it. “That army of shadowmen. Are they with that great darkness that Nymph saw?” she thought. She looked down at the window to see some of the soldiers standing as guard.

[Britanania]

Collab between Naval and Brit

The Palace, Central Capital, the Earth

Spicer paced the halls of the palace uneasily. Ever since the attack at the memorial service, he and the rest of the PTO garrison were busy dealing with the sudden and random angel attacks that broke out. Since the attacks, most of the government was in a frenzy, and that included the queen and often Spicer, as he coordinated defences with the garrison and went out himself to defend the city and planet. It was a rare moment that Spicer wasn’t busy fighting one of the angelic creatures, but that left him with little relaxation.

In fact, his mind was clearly in another place. Since the attack, he couldn’t get a singular thought out of his mind, or rather, a singular fear that continued to fester and grow in his mind, and his conversation with Arashi and Kita did little to assuage his fear. In fact, it likely exacerbated it.

I...I can’t bear to see her hurt, the Saiyan thought as he paced and took a bite out of his thumb. She’s the most powerful person on this planet, I know, but seeing that angel attack her…. Spicer ran a hand through his long black hair. It would be like losing part of myself.

Spicer bit his lip and hit his fist against a wall, creating a slight dent in the architecture. A few servants who were watching the Saiyan scattered.

“It’s wrong, I know it is. She’s a Queen, and I’m a soldier, a liaison officer, but…” Spicer shook his head. He thought about his meetings with the queen, and how happy she was during them. “Maybe she feels the same?” He couldn't be sure, but if there was a chance, he was willing to take it.

With a sigh, Spicer headed down the hall, wondering who he could talk to. A woman, obviously, made the most sense.

“General Teikoku, perhaps?” The Saiyan shook his head. “No, she’s a little too...aggressive.” Spicer shuddered at what she might say. He personally liked the Torhan, but she could be a little...much. “Perhaps Alexandra or Elizabeth Ashwood?” Images of the two flirtatious mages flashed in his mind.

My my, Spicer, he imagined Elizabeth said with a devilish smile. Am I not good enough for you?. Spicer shook his head.

“What about Empress Glacia.” Spicer stopped, his mind fluttering with an image of Glacia's almost condescending smile looking down at him.

You’re in love with the Queen? How cute, he imagined her saying. Even the idea of Glacia looking down at him like that was enough to make Spicer utterly sick to his stomach.

“I suppose that leaves General Ashwood,” he decided with a sigh and made his way towards the room she was staying in. Since the angel attack, Serena insisted Nymph stay in Capital City to help defend it in the wake of these recent attacks. When he reached her apartment, Spicer took a deep breath before he knocked on the door.

“Lottus?” he called out. “It’s Spicer, are you there?”


Spicer would hear a startled meep from behind the door followed by the sound of objects being tipped over as well as Nymphaea saying “Oof”. He would hear more objects being shuffled around until he saw the door being unlocked and its opening. When the door was open he would smell an earthy smell followed by smoke.

“You startled me there Spicy. What do you want?” she asked. Spicer wrung his hands together nervously.

“I, uh, do you mind if I come in?” he asked, his face turning slightly red. His tail uncurled from his waist and flailed about

In her mind, she was squealing at the display Spicer was showing in front of her. “Of course! You and Serena are always welcomed!” she told him as she grabbed him by his wrists and began to pull him into her room.

Once inside Spicer would find that the source of the smell was a Hookah in the room. Just like the room he gave her in his ship, she decided to decorate it with the same mystical items from before. On the table, Spicer saw Squiggly drawing with crayon and below the table, he saw Pesu walking out to greet him.

“So what do you want to talk about that is private Spicer?” Nymphaea asked as she sat on the bed. The witch was wearing some clothing that one of Serena’s maids gave her because the witch wanted to try out clothing the queen wore. Unfortunately, she couldn’t just wear Serena's clothing due to it being improper and because she couldn't fit in most of them.

“Is this some sort of secret PTO thing? Is there a secret mission you want us to be in?” Spicer looked over at the paraphernalia but his mind wasn’t on that.

“It’s about Serena,” he started. Nymphaea tilted her head slightly to the left. “What about her?” she asked. She leaned forward. “Is Serena in trouble!” she asked with panic.

Spicer shook his head and put up his hands.

“No, Her Majesty is fine,” Spicer said as he looked to the side. “Um, it’s about Queen Serenity and…” He paused for a moment as he clasped his hands and took a deep breath. “And me. It’s about Serena and me.”

The mage was silent as she was staring at Spicer. The slime creature stopped drawing to look up at Spicer while Pesu was also staring at him.

“It’s happening! It’s finally happening!” The witch suddenly flung herself onto him and give him a bear hug. “You’re finally accepting the fact you love her, you loveable dork!” she told him as she left Spicer off the floor and began to spin him around.

“This wonderful news!” she told him as she looked up at him as she stopped spinning. “You told her how you feel?”

“N-no, not yet,” Spicer said as his face grew redder. The Saiyan’s tail twitched for a moment as it wrapped around his waist. “That’s why I came to see you.” Spicer wrung his hands together again. “On Earth, your customs are very different. When Saiyans get married, it’s a simple contract. I want to ask Serena her way...the Earth way. You know, ask her to…” Spicer’s words trailed off.

“Ask out on a date and propose to her!” she squealed loudly in front of him as she began to bounce around, making the Saiyan flop around as she held onto him. “Oh Kami I knew this day will come but I still can’t believe it’s finally happening!” The Saiyan saw that Nymphaea’s eyes were twinkling almost like stars from the night sky. He wondered if she was projecting an illusion to create that effect.

“Don’t worry Spicer. I will help with asking out Serena and to make your special moment memorable!” she told him as she suddenly dropped Spicer. She moved her hand on to her chest as she looked up. “I am after all the witch of love.” she boasted. She grabbed her skirt and began to sway her body from side to side as she began to hum a tune that she was making up on the spot.

“Ah,” Spicer managed to mumble, unsure about Nymph’s antics, and silently wondering if asking her for help was a mistake.

“The first thing is a ring,” he fumbled out. “And then picking a good moment to ask…”

She leaned down to look directly at his eyes. “You are on the right track, Spicer! But you can’t just pick any ordinary ring. Serena is a queen, she needs a special ring.” she told him. “Diamonds are too plebeian and from what my sister told me they aren’t even that valuable because the companies behind them are lying about their value.” She placed a finger on the bottom right corner of her mouth.

“But where would we find a special gem for your ring?” she hummed loudly as she began to pace around. The shark-like dog would walk up to Spicer and open its mouth to begin munching on his hair.

“I know!” she turned to face Spicer. “How about I get a gem from Yggdrasil! That would be the most valuable gem ever because you can’t find it on either Earth or anywhere on the galaxy.” Meanwhile, Spicer gently took hold of Nymph’s alien pet and deposited him on the ground as he thought about what Nymph proposed.

“Just nothing too ostentatious,” Spicer commented with a raised hand. “I don’t think she would like something too flashy.”

“Ehhh?” the witch uttered in confusion, her arms raised up almost to form a t-pose. “But she’s a princess… well, queen now, she’s supposed to like shiny things,” she stated as she jumped in the air while spinning around, having her back towards Spicer as she thrust her hands into the air above her head. “Plus they are magic crystals! Everyone likes magic crystals just like how I like sweet dumplings!” She would scream as sparkles surrounded her. The shark began to walk back to Spicer, this time trying to climb up his leg.


The Saiyan warrior picked up Pesu and set him on the bed as he frowned.

“No, I think she would like something simple, but elegant. Beautiful, but understated. Like..”

Well, like her.

The mage began to rub her chin as she thought what would fit that description. She began to pace around the room as she tried to think what would fit the type of gem Spicer is looking for. The shark dog wagged its tail as it watched Nymphaea walk around. Squiggly was making the final touch to its drawing. When the slime creature was done it would happily chirp as it grabbed the drawing and lift it up for everyone to see. It showed a childish drawing of the Ashwoods and a few mages with Squiggly in the centre, little hearts surrounded them as they stood behind a crude drawing of the sacred temple. When Nymphaea saw the drawing she happily squealed in joy and rushed over to the creature, cupping it in her hand and rubbing her cheeks against it.

“That drawing is wonderful my little friend. I will show it to mom and sis when we get back.” she doted on the creature as it chirped happily. The shark dog got off the bed and walked underneath the bed. The dog soon came out with a box on its mouth and it walked to Spicer, dropping the box in front of him. Spicer picked up the box and looked over at Nymph.

“What’s this?”

Nymphaea stopped rubbing her cheek against Squiggly to look at Spicer. “Oh, that? That’s a crystal that my sister gave me from the Shadow Temple. She’s the elder of it and sometimes we mine gems from in there for our magic.” she told him. “It’s a family tradition to be an Elder for that temple since that one was made for all of the dark, creepy, and forbidden spells and rituals.” she placed Squiggly down on the table. “When my sister eventually becomes the new Grand Master I will hopefully take her place as the next Elder of the Shadow Temple,” she said with a big smile on her face.

Spicer had a hard time imagining Nymph with that much more authority, but then again, she was technically a general.

With her own legion, at that, the Saiyan was reminded.

“An Ashwood is always in charge of the Shadow temple?” Nymphaea nodded.

“Yes. My family specializes in dark magic,” she admitted as though the subject has no negative connotations. “My family knows spells for necromancy, summoning demons, invocations of things lurking in the Null Realm. You saw my sister summon her army right? That is an example of what my family’s magic is like.” she told him as she walked over to the bed and threw herself on it, bouncing up slightly as she lay on it on her back. “Thanks to the adventure I went through I finally got the chance to learn those magical disciplines I once told you that my mother and sister know. I thank you and everyone for getting to this level in my magecraft,” she kicked her legs up and down as she had her hands by the side of her head.

Magic still wasn't exactly Spicer’s forte, so he took the mage’s word for it.

“Right,” he said laconically as he looked over at Nymphaea’s two pets. “How do you plan on going about getting this gem? I thought interdimensional travel was difficult.”

The witch cackled in her best attempt to sound either sinister or mischievous. “A good witch never reveals her secrets, Spicy. But I have a way of getting there.” she looked at the box. “But that box in there does have a gem altered by Yggdrasil’s magic. Though I don’t know if she would like to have a gem containing arcane energy from the Shadowlands.”

Spicer considered Nymph's words for a moment as he crossed his arms.

“Probably not, she isn’t exactly interested in necromancy and demons.” Spicer thought for a moment more. “What about from the Feywilds? That’s where she and your sister and mother fought Puck. She said that’s where she awakened her magic in the first place.” Nymphaea was silent for a while until she slapped her forehead. “I’m an idiot. That realm has many pretty crystals to collect. We can go there for gem hunting… well, me and someone else, not you.”

“I imagine they don’t take too kindly to muggles,” he replied.

Nymphaea laughed. “Serena is teaching you well. But yes, that realm isn’t suitable for muggles. You might even die just by setting foot in there. We don’t know what happens if a non-mage steps foot in those realms.”

The idea of instant death didn’t seem appealing to Spicer, and if his last experience with magic with the Mindhorities was any indication of what the Feywilds would be like, Spicer was glad he couldn’t go along with her.

“So just a quick adventure? In and out, twenty-minute adventure? We still have the angels to worry about; you can’t be gone too long.”

“Yep. I mean maybe. Time flows differently in Yggdrasil.” she turned so she was on her side to look at Spicer. “Some mages who went into Yggdrasil sometimes stayed for an hour only to find that years have passed back on Earth, or they stayed for years in the Cosmic Nimbus and only a few hours or minutes have passed on Earth. It depends on which realm you are in and which paths you walked on in that realm.”

None of this seemed very promising to the Saiyan and he put a hand on his face. Getting lost in a magical reality sounded like a terrible thing.

“Maybe this was a bad idea…” he groaned. She simply waved off his concern. “I know what I will be doing there. So there is nothing for you to worry about,” she assured him, as she placed her hands behind her head. “I’ll go in and I will go out with no problem. It will be as easy as stealing candy from my mom’s secret stash.” She said with a chuckle.

[Naval Monte]

Collab between Saint, Naval, and Brit
The Queen’s Drawing Room, the Palace, Central Capital, the Earth

“The reports of these angelic creatures appearing in our cities have only increased in recent days,” the Prime Minister said as he continued his weekly audience with Queen Serenity.

“The largest concentration has been in Central City, but thanks to the efforts of both the PTO garrison led by General Arashi, Captain Urameshi, and other heroes, we’ve been largely able to hold them at bay.” Turnbull adjusted his glasses.

“It appears that the PTO and their trained monkey general are good for something,” he begrudgingly admitted. Taira nodded in agreement.

“Yes. Worse still those rogue mages have been sighted in those battles against the angelic creatures. While most thankfully flee from the news crew once their fight is done a few do stick around to ask questions.” Taira groaned.

“The Ashwoods being the prime example. Those mages are getting the people to see them as heroes. I suspect that Ashwood is trying to win the hearts of our subjects to support their claim of independence.”

Serena was only somewhat tuned into what was being spoken between the two men. Her mind was clouded with a constant static, like a scrambled radio airwave, and she found it increasingly difficult to think let alone focus on what was being said to her in the moment. She had even missed the insult thrown Spicer’s way or the blatant disregard for the mages, specifically the Ashwood sisters.

Rubbing her temple, she exhaled a warm breath. Ever since those angels attacked she had been feeling this way, hearing this constant static beating against her skull, making her feel as though she was on the fringe of insanity. Which is why she hadn’t been going out and helping the others fight since the first time, even though the media had recognised her as a member of the “Wraith Squadron” (how they had been dubbed that she had no clue but assumed Nymph had something to do with it).

“Your Majesty,” A voice through the static. Serena jolted as though she was getting up from taking an accidental nap.

“Yes, yes, what is it?”

“There’s also the matter we discussed last time,” Turnbull said. “About your marital status. It is simply unbecoming for the sovereign to remain unmarried nearly a year after her coronation, and the matter of securing the future of House Avernus is a duty you are expected to perform.”

If she was still off her groove she might’ve groaned at the comment or even done the classic roll of the eyes, but she had done well to curb most of the quirks she had acquired while in space. Instead she stared blankly at the minister, groaning internally, and wishing that she could just roll her eyes at him.

“There are angels wrecking havoc across the Kingdom and you’re concerned about my marital status?”

Talk about warped priorities...

The Prime Minister adjusted his glasses again.

“Let the so-called heroes handle the angels. That’s what the PTO garrison is for, after all, and their monkey of a leader. Securing the future of the dynasty is one of our top concerns. Would you at least consider the list? Commander Shepard Nolan is the son of a duke, the grandson of a former Prime Minister. It would make a good pairing.”

“Is there a reason you keep referring to him as a monkey? In most cultures that would be considered racist, and I do not take well to racism in my court Mr Turnbull.” Serena snapped, for the first time hearing his common designation for Spicer this evening.

“ Moreover, marrying Shepard would be like marrying a brother. We are long past incestuous relations Mr. Turnbull.” Of course they weren’t actually related, and that she was speaking figuratively as she did see him as one of her closest confidants outside of Spicer and Nymph.

But romantic interest? No. Thanks.

Turnbull frowned but gave the queen an exasperated sigh.

“As you will, ma’am, but he does come from the aristocracy. Considering the scandal your great-uncle Eddard caused, it is simply good protocol.”

“I’m well aware of Uncle Ned,”’ she said, this time not hiding her eyes rolls.

How could she not be?Abdicating the Throne to marry a Divorcee from North City? Choosing love over status? What a tragedy.

“At least give the matter some thought,” Taira interjected.

“Fine,” Serena relented with a sigh. If only to keep everyone happy.

Satisfied, the two ministers bowed and quit the room, the tone of Queen Serenity’s voice clear that the meeting was over.

Another meeting that went about as well as one could expect. She honestly had no idea how her grandfather would have put up with all this nonsense. To be a puppet king with men like Turnbull running the show. The audacity to talk to her about marriage when there was a global crisis going on was quite ludicrous in the young Queen’s opinion.

She stood up and looked out the meeting room window, watching as palace staff ran on by in the courtroom. From her position she actually managed to spot Spicer going about his duties. She smiled softly, fingers grazing the satin window curtains. In all the confusion of the past few days, their meeting was postponed, a fact that especially stung considering how much support it gave the young queen.

Serena

The Queen turned around abruptly, eyes that were already wide from shock narrowed in confusion at there being no one behind her. The static in her head scratched at the wall of her skull and she would place both hands on her head, attempting to massage the sudden pain away. Flashes of a city on fire, screams, mages battling, and faes dancing filled her head and suddenly there was coherency amongst the static.

The Order needs you.

---

Serena burst into the study where Nymph and Spicer had set up for the evening. Spicer looked over a map which depicted the nine worlds of Yggdrasil and Nymph, dramatically, explaining every one to him. The Saiyan seems mildly lost but engaged nonetheless, and Nymph was so entirely engrossed that she didn’t even stop until Serena physically placed herself in her line of view. Spicer rose to his full height as Serena entered, first giving her a smile, but it quickly faded as he noticed her intense expression. He moved something behind his back, out of the queen’s view.

“We need to go to the Airceltrai” She said, somewhat out of breath, bent over and clutching her knees. She glanced up at Spicer first, then at Nymph who was currently standing on the table seemingly reenacting a battle against a beast from the Feywilds. “Am I interrupting?”

“No, no,” Spicer said hurriedly, a mixture of confusion and worry on his face as he examined the queen. Spicer put something into his pocket. “What’s going on with the mages?” he asked, looking over back at Nymph for a moment before focusing intelty again on Serena. “Did the Grand Mistress call you?”

“I don’t know,” Serena muttered. “ But I got these visions and the voice came back to me… I think something is happening and I’m willing to bet that these angels are linked to it somehow.”

Spicer stayed quiet, wondering what was going on. With everything that had happened, he and Serena hadn’t been having their usual meetings, but even so, the talk of the return of the magical voice was troublesome, and the visions even more so.

If these angels are behind it, could it be trusted? he grimly thought. How are the mages connected? At the square they only seemed interested in Serena.

“By the way Nymph, you said you thought these creatures looked familiar? Beyond being, you know, angels from myths. Are they from Yggdrasil?”

Nymphaea looked over at the exhausted queen. “Yes. They look like the angels from Paradiso. But them coming into this plane is extremely odd, most Yggdrasilian entities refuse to come here unless summoned due to the fear of becoming too weak once they enter our realm, a fear that is somewhat lessened considering the beating they gave us,” the witch began to rub the side of her waist.

“But the queerest thing is that them attacking people is odd. This isn’t how they normally act,” the mage explained.


Ever since the attacks started everyone back in Airceltria has been wondering on what caused the angels to have a sudden change in their behavior. Sure, some angels were never good to begin with, Nymphaea encountered a few who were arrogant pricks if she was honest. But outright attacking civilians is out of character even for the most misanthropic angel.

“Wait. Why did you say we need to go to Airceltria?”

“Because if my visions are to be believed, then everyone there is in trouble.” The queen said grimly, finally straightening to her full height. “Think you can portal you and me over there?” She asked.

“I’m coming too,” Spicer suddenly blurted out, nervously looking over at Serena before looking down at his feet.

Serena blinked and turned to Spicer. “Are you sure?” She didn’t want to downplay Spicer’s abilities, for a ki user he was powerful, but this was magic they were dealing with and Spicer hadn’t had the best performance against magic as evident with their last encounter. If there were indeed fey running wild in the Heights along with angels things could get messy very quickly.

“You’re welcome to come, it’s just, we might be up against some dangerous magical beings.” She said to him before glancing at Nymph. “If my visions are to be believed, there are faes there.”

Spicer breathed in and looked back up at Serena, his face turning slightly red. The Saiyan was aware that when it came to magic he was next to useless.

“Well, yes, I...” He paused and took another breath. “I think it’s important that I come to help, at least, as support.”

I know it’s a bad time, but if everyone is all right over with the mages, and this is a false alarm, it might be easier to talk to her there than in the palace, surrounded by the vultures…

Serena eyed him for a moment, silently admiring his bravery, then a smile broke out on her face. “Well I guess we just need a ride there, Nymph, would you be so kind?”

When Serena told her that she had visions that warned her that her home and family were in danger she wanted to think that the queen was pulling her leg, that she secretly had a dark sense of humor and she was testing Nymphaea's reaction to it. But the grim aura around her told the mage that this was not a joke, she was serious about her prediction. Nymphaea would create a blue shimmer that would change the clothing she wore to
anew sets of robes and armor, the set she both made and got for herself after the Galactic Civil War so she can have the happy medium of both traditional robes and practical armor.

Nymphaea would pull her hood up. "Stand back you two. I don't want you guys to be close when I make the portal." The mage was determined to save her home, so much so that she ignored the fact that Spicer was trying to make himself look manly to impress Serena. The witch would begin to trace her fingers on the air to create the portal to the sacred city. But nothing happened.

The witch blinked and did it again, once more nothing happened. Puffing her cheeks she would try to create the portal a third time and nothing appeared again. "What in Kami's weed garden is going on? Is my sling ring busted?" she asked as she looked at the amulet.

“Fourth time's a charm?” Serena blinked at the anticlimactic turn of events.

Nymphaea did as Serena suggested and tried a fourth time, with no results. She would try a fifth time and once more nothing. The witch would soon begin to spin her arm rapidly, screaming loudly as she closed her eyes. Her arm was a blur as she tried desperately to create a portal but no matter how hard she tried no portal will be made. Eventually the ring would somehow slip out of her fingers and fly straight into a mirror, shattering it into pieces and knocking the frame out of the wall. Spicer looked increasingly concerned at the turn of events.

Nymphaea looked at the mirror as she covered her mouth. “Sorry.” she squeaked out, nervous how Serena would react to the accident.

“Well that’s no good.” Serena frowned, looking at the scattered shards now lying on the ground by the fractured mirror. “Something must be blocking your magic,” If she were to guess, it would’ve been the creatures currently lurking up in the heights. She hummed lightly as she removed her gloves. “Let me try, gimme your hands. Both of you”

Nymphaea would quickly grab her ring before returning back to Serena and giving the queen her hand. When she grabbed her hand the witch would say. “Silky smooth.” under her breath as she felt her hand. She would blush when she realized that Serena would hear her say those words.

Serena raised a brow at Nymph’s comment? Compliment? “Thanks, yours are pretty soft as well,” She returned with a soft chuckle.

With both Spicer and Nymph’s hands in hers Serena closed her eyes and imagined Airceltria in all its glory. One inhale and one exhale later magic surrounded them all, but as Serena began to teleport them out of the room and towards the city she would see flashes of a male fae filling her mindscape. Then they were gone in a puff of smoke.

[Britanania]

Collab Between Saint, Naval, and Brit

Yunzabit Heights

When the smoke materialized in the new location everyone would be hit by a cold wind that blew on them. Nymphaea looked around and saw the vast valleys and tall mountains that filled the Heights. The dark clouds churn and turn, twisting like agitated serpents as the wind howl all around them. But those were ignored by her. Instead, she saw the kaleidoscope of clashing colours spiralling in the air.

“The Anima in here is of a higher concentration than usual. That can only mean that a rift to Yggdrasil was torn open.” the witch began to bite the nail of her finger, a cue that she was extremely nervous. A quirk she inherited from her mother. “Getting to the city will be difficult. We are going to deal with not only interlopers from the other side but also phenomenons created by wild magic,” she warned the two. “But we have no choice! We have to reach the city if everyone is in danger!” the witch would fly off before anyone can stop her.

“Lottus, wait,” Spicer called out to Nymph, albeit too late. The Saiyan had never been this far from Earth’s capital, but from how both Serena and Nymph described it, this did not look anything like the sacred city of the mages. Spicer similarly didn’t understand much of Nymph’s explanation for why they weren’t teleported directly to the city.

Serena could teleport from the Earth to Glacia’s capital with no issues, he mused. So something must be seriously wrong to be blocking her magic.

“Can’t say I’m surprised,” Serena said as she watched Nymph blast off with much haste.

“Spicer, we should get a move on,” Serena called to him, beginning to float up into the air. The Saiyan general dutifully followed after her, his flying off-kilter as the atmospheric pressure radically changed around him in no predictable manner.

Serena was concerned, though she carried an air of ambivalence as she hovered, something powerful was lurking about, powerful enough to keep herself from teleporting directly to Aircetaria. Nodding off to Nymph’s rapidly fading form in the distance, Serena flew after her with great speed, enough to catch up to Nymph but not leave Spicer in the dust. The Saiyan general soon caught up with Earth’s sovereign, but that did little to reassure him as something appeared over a hill.

“Is that what I think it is?”

Spicer had never seen one personally, but in his year living on Earth, the Saiyan had seen several depictions of the creature in the Palace. It was a dragon.

And it looked mean.

The witch materialized her twin blades. “It’s a greater wyvern!” she warned the two. “Those guys should be in the mountains of Purgatory, not here.” she would stop flying as she held her swords in a defensive stance. “If there is one greater wyvern around then there is bound to be a bunch of lesser ones close by.” the mage would begin an incantation just as the dragon roared at the two.

It would begin to flap it’s powerful wings, creating a strong gust that would almost blow the trio away, as the dragon managed to lift its body off the mountain top and fly towards them, spewing out a blast of metal melting fire at the trio. Nymphaea would create a massive mandala to deflect the blast of fire as the dragon flew above the group.

The dragon would let out another roar as it flew forward. As Nymphaea turned to prepare a spell on it she would hear more roars coming from both caves and below them. “Oh no! The pack is coming out!” she shouted. From the canyons below much smaller wyverns, those equal to the size of commercial delivery flying trucks began to fly through the mist while others crawled out of caves and took flight, all flying towards the trio as the greater wyvern began to turn around and head towards the group.

“Darn it,” Serena muttered, flying back as one of the smaller wyverns blew a gust of flames her way. She quickly threw up a hand, creating a small shield which materialised in front of her, the shield taking the brunt of the attack.

“What are dragons doing on Earth?” She wondered out loud.

With her other hand, she released a burst of telekinetic energy which would hit the offending wyvern like a freight train, sending it flying back down to the cave for which it came from. Dazed but certainly not down for the count.

Distracted, she hadn’t noticed the largest of them charging a massive fireball from the side until it was blitzing her way. She gasped shifting to the side just in time for her shield to take the attack instead of her. Unfortunately while more than capable of holding back the flames of the smaller variant, it shatters upon contact, and Serena is blown back by the powerful gust of wind that follows. Sent towards the ground at a rapid pace, and only recovering to land and slid several metres on the ball of her feet at the very last minute.

In the nick of time, it seemed as if she was pursued by one of the smaller Wyvern. Serena gritted her teeth and quickly crafted a gigantic magical construct, which took the shape of a mallet, in her hand. Launching into the air, the Queen would bring the construct down on the beast quicker than it could react, and smack it against the earth with a sickening crack. Whether it was the bones of the Wyvern or the very ground beneath it, she paid little heed.

Meanwhile, Spicer focused on the smaller worms that circled about. One of the beasts grabbed a hold of Spicer from the back and bit part of his shoulder. The Saiyan roared in pain as he grabbed the monster’s mouth and crushed its head, throwing its lifeless body away even as another one spewed fire against Spicer.

“Son of a…” Spicer muttered as he flared his aura and fired a series of energy blasts against the dragon. The first beam struck the creature’s wing, and the next hit the monster’s neck, killing it. Even as he did, more of the smaller dragons emerged from the cliffs to attack.

Nymphaea would have her mandala block another blast of fire as the flames moved around the shield and burst from the corners. She would launch her shield towards the dragon and strike it, sending it flying straight into a cave and expanding the mandala to lock the cave, keeping the wyvern trapped in the cave.

As would dodge to the down left as a dragon flew by and tried to catch her with its talons. She would point her sword at the dragon and fire a bolt of magic energy at the dragon, striking it at the thigh. The dragon would scream in pain but it kept on flying as three more wyverns flew towards her.

Nymphaea would create a platform and leap off it and over a wyvern and as another opened it’s jaw to bite her she would conjure a mandala and have it’s jaw stuck as she would move to the side to allow it to fly by. The third wyvern would have a clear shot for Nymphaea and it did, sinking its jaws into her waist. The Saiyaness screamed in agony as she was dragged away by the wyvern as it flew into a cave to devour its meal. What it didn’t see was the magi appearing before everyone’s eyes as the cave would have a loud explosion come from it.

The Saiyaness would hear a roar from behind her and turning around she saw the wyvern she dodged the first time around coming back with four more followings behind it. The mage would begin to spin her fingers around as she recited a chant. She would begin to funnel a tornado in the air and send it towards the wyverns. The four would dodge it while the centre wyvern was struck by the tornado, it would roar in defence as it tried to break free from the vortex it’s trapped in as it spins uncontrollably towards a mountain, where it would land on it’s back hard against the mountain. The dragon would stick to the rocky wall until it slightly slid down until it finally ploped off, letting out one last roar that would echo out as it plunged into the misty depths below.

Nymphaea watched the dragon fall, frowning. But she didn’t have much time to regret hurting an animal for following its instincts as she heard the four other wyverns were approaching her. She would conjure a platform to stand on and twirl her blades as she took a stance to ready herself.

The first of the four wyverns would descend down upon Nymphaea and as quickly as it dives towards the witch it’s prey would take one leg off and spin around like a ballerina as she brought her blades down at the wyvern as it flew dangerously close to her, slicing through the membrane of its wings. The dragon screamed as it flew off the sky.

Two wyverns would fly towards Nymphaea and as the witch stood on her feet she would crouch down and jump up as they flew by. She would turn her body to face the wyverns and she would unleash bolts of lightning at them. The wyverns would scream as the electrical spell coursed through their bodies, locking up their nerves to make them paralyse as they fell off the sky.

As Nymphaea began to come down she would suddenly feel strong talons sink into her shoulders as she was dragged up into the air. The Saiyaness would hiss in pain as she looked up to see the wyvern that caught her. The witch would begin to chant once more as she pointed her blades at the dragon. Once her chant was done a bolt of energy would fire off the blades and hit the dragon, unleashing a bright flash as well as a loud explosion. The single explosion would produce multiple energy bolts that flew throughout the area and exploded into miniature explosions.

The dragon would let go of Nymphaea as it was now dazed from the attack. As she fell Nymphaea heard a loud ringing in her eyes and what was worse her whole world was in white. As she fell she would not see or hear three more wyverns flying towards her.

After fighting off several of the beasts, Spicer looked over at the larger creature, the apparent leader of the pack.

Maybe if I kill that one, the others will flee, he thought, perhaps optimistically as he dispatched with great difficulty another of the smaller wyverns. Spicer also considered assisting his allies, and he looked over at them fighting their own battles. He bit his lower lip.

I have to hope they can hold out, at least long enough… With a burst of speed, Spicer flew up towards the larger dragon and fired a small energy blast. The dragon’s hide easily protected the beast--and it hardly registered that it was under attack. Spicer frowned and flew further up, trying to dodge the gusts of winds produced by the wyvern’s great leathery wings.

Once Spicer neared the great worm’s eyes, he fired some energy blasts. This time, he attracted the monster’s attention as it let out a terrible roar and turned its long neck towards Spicer. The beast narrowed its eyes and sprayed white-hot fire at the Saiyan. Spicer crossed his arms in front of himself as the fire consumed him and sent him flying into a nearby mountain.

During this fight, the witch would turn around and create a portal with her sling ring and fall through it. As she landed on the damp, hard, rocky ground she would hear a wyvern behind her and she would quickly close the portal, hearing the roar stop suddenly. She would smell cooked flesh close by, a sign that the dragon was most likely decapitated when she closed the portal. The mage felt sorry for what she had done to the creature but knew that it was either her life or its, that was the rule of nature.

Nymphaea crawled to the wall of the cave and turned around to have her back pressed against it. She can’t help anyone now in her current state. She needs to wait for her sight and hearing to return. As she began to rest she would meditate to try to help her kind relax and focus on her current mission to recover, using her powers to use its restorative properties to accelerate her healing to her senses and shoulders. After a few minutes, Nymphaea began to roll her shoulders.

“It feels great to not feel blood squirting out every time I move my shoulders.” the mage cheered. She would jump back up on her feet and punch her palm. “Now it’s time to kick some scaly butt.” she would create a portal and step through, appearing at the entrance of the cave.

The witch would look for more wyverns but found none. “Kami damn it. I missed all of the action didn’t I?” she would begin to fly out to find any remaining dragons to fight. In her search for any wyverns and for her travelling companions, she would find the signs of battle but she would find none signs of the combatants.

“Did they take the fight elsewhere?” she pondered. The mage heard a sound and looked upwards. Nymphaea watched the massive wyvern fly around and she hid behind a rocky pillar.

“That’s the alpha. Looks like the minions were all dispatched, leaving him as the last survivor. Now I need to think of a good strategy to take him out.” she said to herself as she was thinking of what she can do with her magic to take out the dragon.

Meanwhile, Spicer rose out of the snowy rubble he found himself in and shook off the debris that covered his battered body.

“Doesn’t seem like anything is broken,” he muttered, despite his body badly bruised and his armour scorched and jumpsuit torched. The large dragon soon landed on a nearby peak, causing an avalanche to descend the mountain top. The beasts again narrowed its eyes at Spicer as he prepared another fiery attack. This time, however, Spicer used his superior to dodge out of way. He fired a few energy attacks against the wyvern as he flew around, but as before, they seemed to have little effect against the worm save for enraging it.

Its scales are tough, Spicer thought. But what if I…

The Saiyan didn’t have much time to debate himself on the issue, not whilst his allies were still fighting the dragons, and so Spicer flew towards the beast with all available haste and quickly neared the dragon’s mouth. Spicer fired off a few blasts at the creature’s mouth, and the dragon opened its massive maw, and in a swift move, engulfed the Saiyan warrior.

[Naval Monte]

Present: Airceltria, the Earth

Alex was sitting in the elder chamber. Her eyes closed as she appeared to be meditating, which was a half truth. The other one being that she was trying to take a nap and was using the act of meditation to make everyone leave her alone. The angel attacks have been persistent and the grand mistress hasn’t had a chance to sleep for long, sometimes she would be up for incredibly long hours and all through the night.

This break was something she needed. As she was close to dossing off she would suddenly feel a great disturbance. She would get up from her seat and turn around, lifting her hands up to pull up the curtains. Outside the window she would see numerous orbs of lights with some fading to revealing angels descending down from heaven.

As the angelic invaders flew down the witch’s eyes widened in horror. So shocked by the sudden attack that she didn’t sense Jules coming over until he slammed the door open. “The city is under attack!” he cried out. She would turn her back from the window and conjure her staff into her hands. “Prepare the city guards and call back every mage out on a mission. We must defend the city.” she declared as she created a portal and stepped through it.

---

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From the heavens massive angelic entities that were concentric wheels with numerous eyes floated above the city. Magic missiles and alchemical projectiles would be deflected by an unseen barrier as from the many eyes rifts would open, allowing for numerous angelic automatons to pour out and land down to attack the mages.

From another part of the city close to the temple of inferno was being plagued by opilinoid-like entities, with four immensely large legs, and numerous eyes on the body. From the eyes beams of holy magic were being fired as they crawled on the floor and building walls.

Another part of the city was plagued by chariots covered from all sides with armor that had the heads of lions breathing out large blasts of fire. Accompanying them were massive biomechanical locusts with piano wire hairs that fired off metal spikes from their stingers.

As the city turned into a warzone Jules was walking through a massive airfield used to park airships. The flying machines were taking off as Sun ran to his sides. “Are forces are starting to take the fight to the air but there are too many of them. They need help.” Jules knew what must be done even though he wished to keep this solely as Order’s affairs. “Contact the PTO garrison tied with Nymphaea. Tell them the situation here and have someone send them in by a portal. After that deal with the enemy by the Inferno Temple. We can’t allow the enemy to take the armory.”

Jules would create another portal. “We will push back these angels no matter what.” he told Sun before stepping in to engage against the angels in the Inferno temple while Sun went to become the messenger for the PTO garrison. Or well, tried to anyway. When he tried to create a portal to leave the city he found that his portal won’t work. “What? Why can’t I…” he would stop as he and everyone in the city can now feel a much greater disturbance than before.

They can feel reality itself coming undone as the veil between the moral plane and Yggdrasil was torn asunder, an incursion from the plane of magic now upon the world of man, beastmen, and monstermen alike and a threshold from the cosmic nimbus has now manifested itself upon the stronghold of magic on Earth, plunging the Heights into a uncontrollable Nexus Point as the very laws of two realities are being changed drastically.

Sun would soon begin to run away from the airfield, using magical sandals to increase his speed, to find the radios they have stored to try and send out the news to everyone that the portals are no longer working. He hoped that the mages who are returning back use the portals so they will know that something is wrong.

---

Metal golems would fire off a hail of thaumaturgical bullets at the army of angelic knights. The bullets either combust the angels into flames, freeze them, electric them, crush them by intense gravity, or melt them with acid. The variety of effects would dispatch the angels in manners far worse than the last. Some fired acid and poison gases, others fired rockets and enchanted arrows and grenades. The airships and gliders would drop bombs down at the angels at the ground.

Trebuchets, ballistae, and catapults would launch projectiles at the larger rings but like before all of them would fail to hit the beings as the barriers would protect them. From one of the bridges several angels that had massive wheels on the sides with pylons connected to a metal sphere which had an eye bathed in an oragine fluid viewing the world from a glass window would fire missiles from twin launchers on its body.

One of the missiles would strike a building. From the burning rubble the angels would see Elizabeth flying through the fire and smoke. The winged mage looked around as she see the carnage around her. From the ground she saw mechanical pillbugs rolling through the streets and more missiles flying towards other buildings.

She would thrust her hand out and lift the pillbugs up in the air and directly in the path of the missiles, using the bugs as shields as each missile destroyed them. The which would see several massive whale-like creatures floating the sky. Their pale skin blended with the clouds and their fins were massive wings that blot out the sun.

Some of the whales were hovering close to the ground and as they open their mouth more angels began to pour out from the creatures. Bring her hands together and charged an attack. As some angels flew towards her the witch would thrust her hands out and unleash a beam of dark energy, incinerating the angels as the beam tore through the head and body of the whale. The creature made a bellowing cry of agony as it fell down to the canyon below, scraping against the mountain sides and causing a landslide.

Elizabeth close her eyes as from the corner of her eyes she would have spotted an intense flash of light. When the flash was gone she would turn around and saw that an entire block from the city was erased from existence, leaving only the burnt remains of a mountain top. She turn to see the source being one of the many sky wheels.
It’s many eyes stare down at her as it began to charge again. Elizabeth would hear the call of another whale and it gave her an idea. The witch began to chant and rotate her hand multiple times, creating a portal and enlarging it.

When the wheel finally fired it’s beam on her the attack would go through the portal and from a distance another whale would let out it’s death call as the beam through its body. Elizabeth would began to charge her own beam against the angel as it was doing the same.

When the two felt ready the two would unleash both their beams and each one would collide. Heavenly white and golden light clashing against stygian black and fel purple, the power of the divine and demonic struggle for supremacy.

As Elizabeth was engaged with a beam battle against one of the wheels two of them would suddenly feel themselves being pulled towards each other. The wheels tried to stop but felt as though the force held a strong grip on them. The angels would go through each others fields and collide with each other, interrupting their rotation as the wheels began to break apart, causing a torrent of blood to rain down on the city.

On the ground Alex and several mages had their hands stretched out. Alex would look down to see another whale that was deploying more troops on the ground. She would stretched her hand towards the whale and suddenly the forces being dropped would be pushed back into the whale as six legged golems began to fire arcane beams from their dorsal turrets at the whale.

Alex would hear an explosion go off and looking up she saw that it was a wheel that had a dark beam going through it as parts of its body were exploding as it fell apart. Alex would see her daughter flying over. “We’re moving the relics and treasures out along with the children and elderly but the angels are making it difficult for the airships to leave the city.”

Alex would look at her daughter with surprise. “Why aren’t they using portals to flee?” another mage would explain. “The portals aren’t working well mistress. They allow us to move through the city but we can’t use them to escape. We suspected that we are either trapped in a Bound Field but it’s now more likely that the laws of reality are so chaotic it’s interfering with our magic.”

Alex cursed at the news. The two would soon hear from another mage. “Ma’am, It’s Master Barrack. He has an important message for you. ” the mage carried a scrying stone; a polished and glossy stone with a rune etched onto its surface. “Patch him through.” the mage would recite a small chant and the rune would glow blue. The mages would see the ghostly, miniature, image of the mage in question. “Grand Mistress Ashwood! We need reinforcements on the Temple of the Fallen! Our forces are surrounded.”

The two mages can feel the desperation coming from the master even through the spectral projection. “I will arrive shortly. How many angels are in your location.” Elizabeth said. She would see Barrack running around and swing an enchanted sword of frost. “There is hundred of them. No. Thousands. There is a new angelic general is leading this force into the temple. He’s unstoppable! We can’t hold out for much longer! He’s hunting us! We mus--” The witches would see the image turn to static as something appeared and swung something down at Barrack.

“Master Barrack! Come in!” the rune glowed but eventually it’s light would fade. Elizabeth would unleash a burst of dark energy and she would fly towards the temple. Alex tried to stop her but it was too late. “Ma’am we got word that the angels are pouring through the Temple of Paradise. We are working on trying to seal the portals but they have overrun the temple.” Another mage told her. In her mind Alex knew that the situation has become too chaotic for them to achieve any sort of victory, at least not without some divine or alien intervention, and those she doubt would come for them now.

“The temple is lost. Tell everyone to destroy the temple. The portals will fall with the temple and every angel inside of it.” most of the mages were surprised by her order to destroy one of their sacred buildings but none questioned her or opposed the order as they relayed her orders through the scrying stones.

Alex would begin to move towards the temple of the Astral Sea. She know that has a room dedicated for mental magic. She was hoping to use one of the magical devices to send out a telepathic message to ask for help from everyone they know to help them out.

Alex would channel her powers and cause an entire block to have it’s gravity become stronger, crushing the angels that were blocking her way as she walked through impeded due to a ward cast by a talisem she carried.

As one angel aimed a weapon that reminded Alex of the PTO arm cannon she would flung a spear of light that would pierce through the angel’s chest.

From the air magi airships fired from their cannons at massive kite-like creatures and whales. In another district of the city Jules was slicing through several knights when he sensed a threat approaching him. He would turn to see one of the spider-like angels gazing down at him. The angel would fire a thin beam at him. The mystic swordsman would use his sword to block the beam.

He would his blade to redirect the beam back at several angels as he moved the blade around until he moved it back to the angel firing it, severing it in two. The sorcerer would soon dash through the city streets as he quickly sliced through many angels to reach the Shadow Temple.

[Britanania]

Planet Glacia 24601. North-East Quadrant

Empress Glacia sat in one of her drawing rooms reading over a stack of documents. Being the leader of the PTO meant more than just holding meetings and putting down rebellions; much of the work involved plenty of reading and signing documents. For most, this was the sort of work given to subordinates to handle, but Glacia, daughter of Glacies, was not most beings. She poured herself into the work because she could only trust herself to handle most of it.

Of course, she had her help. The Executive Council, for example, helped her with lots of the work. For example, her cousin Ghiaccio, the Chairman of the Executive Council, read off a report to the empress as she signed a document.

“There have been troubling reports of activity along the Maykyan border, ma’am. We caught some of their pirates trying to raid Torha again, and the border worlds are requesting additional support in the event of an invasion.”

Glacia nodded as she put one of the tablets down.

“All right, I have been meaning to go on a tour of the Western Quadrants anyway, seeing as they supported my dear sister during the civil war." The diminutive alien stopped for a moment in thought.

"If our old friends the Maykyans are at it again, ” she said with a hint of a smile on her visage. “Then we best go in person. after all." Ghiaccio nodded in agreement, satisfied with that response. "And what about the situation on the frontier? The rumours of a powerful Saiyan with the GPO?" A twinkle appeared in Glacia's eye as Ghiaccio finished.

"Oh, I am sure he would not wish to be bothered with anything important like this. Let the General have his fun."

[Naval Monte]

Airceltria- Fallen Temple

Bolts of plasma would bombard the imposing gothic structure that served as the courthouse and prison of the city. The temple dedicated to the fallen and sinners was having pieces being blown apart by each plasma bolts. The angels would march on to debris and corpses of fallen mages and angels alike. Much larger variants of the spider angels accompanied the cybernetic knights as they fired from arm cannons attached to their forearms.

The relentless march of the angelic horde would cease in both motion and assault as a golden arm raised in the air. As the angels remain motionless they would hear the battlefield raging around them, covering up the sounds of the structure falling apart and people running away from the angels.

From the debris a few mages used them as cover. The mages would all meet at a massive chamber within the building. One of the mages who was kneeling down as he took deep breaths, a beast mage who resembled panda with his red panda familiar close by. “Unstoppable.” He manage to say in between breaths. “He’s unstoppable,” the mage heard his familiar crying out.

“Never have we faced an angels this powerful before. The strategy of their general is flawless” Noelle said as she lean heavily on her staff as she placed her hand on her right side, using restorative magic to heal from an injury she sustained from one of the angels.

Leaning back on a chair that wasn't crushed by pieces of the ceiling a much younger and scruffier looking mage would cover his face with his hand. “There is no escape from these monsters. This is the end.”

“We’ve faced worse odds before,” one of the masters spoke. “Shinra were just as potent, and we prevailed then.” Another master who was sitting on a debris that came from the wall would jump off and land on the ground. "Master Adrian is right. No matter how dire the situation has been we always found a way to snatch victory. This battle is another test to show that we can still overcome any odds sent our way."

The panda nodded while Noelle smiled. The mages would feel the ground shake as a part of the building collapsed. When the shaking ended they would hear a voice echoing out from outside. "Magi." the mages all became alert and ran for cover as they prepared for their weapons. "You are surrounded, your armies decimated. Make peace with your heathen magic and gods now, for this is your final hour. But now that I, General Gebel, am not without mercy. I will grant you heretics a quick death. Prepare yourselves."

The mages would soon begin to hear the sound of something mechanical, as though gears were whirling. "What is that sound?" the younger and scruffier mage said, fear edging out of his voice. "It's the general. He is coming and he is coming alone." Master Adrian said.

The mages would watch through the holes to find the angel but in the wall that surround them they couldn’t find the one that collarade them into the crumbling castle. “I can’t see him.” the panda muttered. The younger mage was now shaking. “We can’t fight him!” he shouted.

“We must try disciple.” Adrian shouted back. As the mages heard the sounds of the angel approaching they can feel a great power surrounding them but none can pinpoint where it’s coming from. “I can’t feel his aura. He’s masking his presence from us.” Noelle said.

As the noise grew louder the resolve of the younger mage began to crumble. "Steady." he heard the master say but as the grinding and whirring of gears kept droning on the resolve of the mage just snapped. Without warning the mage would conjure his blade from the ether and scream as he charged towards the hole that all of the mages used to enter the building.

"NO! That's what he wants!" Adrian shouted as he summoned his sword and ran after the young mage as he made a mad dash towards the exit. The younger mage would reach the exit and as he ran towards the motionless wall of angels he would suddenly disappear as a golden blur landed on the exact spot he was, creating a massive cloud of dust to be kicked up into the air. Adrian stopped as he saw the dust cloud. As the cloud began to dissipate he would see a golden monstrosity raise up from the ground, on its hands was the sword that it took from the fallen mage as blood and gore covered his talons. "Get back!"

he ordered the others as he can sense the others looking through the hole, one hand towards them while he held his blade at the angel. The angel's golden, fiery, eyes stared deep into the master's own eyes and he felt as though his own soul was burning under the gaze of the angel until the creature suddenly jump high into the air and through a portal. The master would retreat back into the building.

Adrian and the other mages form a circle as they watched from all angels as they moved deeper into the building. Each mage tried to sense for any changes in the magical current to see if the angel would appear from anywhere.

The mages would soon sense a tug in the current. Without saying a word they all jump out of the way as something fell in the center of the circle they made. As they all turn they saw the form of Gebel as he drew two broadswords made of a fiery plasma.

The angel lunged to Adrian with both his blades but the master was able to easily block it with his own. He would see the other master try to strike from the side but Gebel would move his other sword to intercept the strike.

He would sense the panda and Noelle charging from the back and as the two masters pulled back he would quickly blocked the strikes from the two mages with his sword. As the other mages began to surround the general he would begin to spin his torse around like a top to create a vortex as the mages tried to break through the defense.

Gebel would push back Master Adrian as the vortex continue, the other mages following the angel. When Gebel ceased the vortex he would bring down his sword strikes at the master who was able to block each attack. Noelle would conjure a blade of pure energy on her staff and charge in as though she was using a spear. Gebel would see the charge and he would quickly bring his other sword around to strike at the staff to push the arcane blade away from him. Another mage would jump in the air and try to strike down the general from the air but Gebel would quickly duck from the strike, tossing his sword in the air and catching it with his feet, he would bring the blade of the sword down on the other mage but he would block the attack.

Gebel would use the unorthodox technique to block several strikes from both Adrian and Noelle before he pushed himself up with his hands and conjure both blades on his hands while in mid air.

As he landed the angel would quickly block more strikes until he saw a fireball charging towards him in the air. The angel would jump high in the air to dodge the fireball and bring his blades up to bring them down on Noelle. The witch would jump out of the wall as both blades plunged themselves into the ground.

The witch would begin to chant a spell and make a few gestures before pointing her pointer and middle finger to unleash a bolt of lightning at the angel. He would block the bolt with both his blades and as he sensed Adrian and the Panda coming from behind him the angel would summon two extra arms conjure more blades to block their strikes. The other master would began to cast a spell to make the ground that Gebel stand on open up but before the angel was swallowed he would create a platform of holy energy and jump on it and enter another portal.

The mages tried to sense where the angel would appear next when the portal appeared in front of the panda mage and he saw the angel flying towards him. The panda would twirl his blade before trying to stab the angel but Gebel would twist out of the way as he grabbed the spear off the panda. Before the mage can do anything he would be stabbed on the stomach by the angel.

The mage would scream in agony as he can feel his inside his organs being boiled and cook, his wounds producing steam as the flesh was being burned and the water in his body was evaporating.

Gebel would hear the familiar hissing at him as the familiar combust into flames and fly towards the angel. Gebel would reach out and grab the familiar by the neck. As the red panda struggled to break free his master would hear a sickening crack and see his familiar’s fire go out as the familiar was now limp on the angel’s hand.

Seeing the familiar now dead before the angel’s hand the panda master would let out a beastial roar as he would reinforce the claws on his hands and slash at the face of the angel but he would soon see a slash move across the air and his hand flying off as the angel cut it off. As the master screamed in pain he would use his other hand to deliver a punch on the angel was caused the mask it had to crack.

The angel would take a few steps back, pulling out his blade from the panda as he fell on his knees. Gebel would shake his head as he saw the mage was transforming into a much larger, more primal, bear-like creature. The primal bear let out a deafening roar as it charged towards him and raised it’s large claws and swung down at Gebel. The angel would slash two of his blades to severe the paws of the bear in half before jumping high into the air, spinning around as a ball to dodge several icicles sent flying towards his head, and landing on the back on the bear, digging his talons into the hide of the bear.

The angel would stab into the bear and run from the back, shoulders, and stop at the neck before he jump up and brought down the blades into the bear’s head. The bear would let out a roar before falling down to his side.

Noelle would look at the angel with momentary shock before bringing her hand to some of the debris and making them lift up in the ground and fly towards the angel. Gebel was able to easily break down all of the debris with his blades. From the debris he would see a mage dressed similarly to Tooba charge forward with a dagger but the angel would grab him with his foot, lifting the mage up before slamming him on the ground, causing the mage to let go of his weapon. He would see the female master leaping in the air towards him and he would backflip, catching her with his other foot, and fling the two mages over as he got on his feet. The female master would hit the wall hard while the other mage was sent through a stained window. Outside the mage would continue to fly until he hit the ground, bouncing on the ground until he began to slide forward until he stopped. The mage would weakly look up to see the angels all looking down at him. His final sight would be them pointing their cannons at them and the barrels lighting up before they all opened fire on him.


Gebel would take a stance as he eyed the two mages, one a master and the other the elder of the Feywild Temple. The two mages launch spells at him, Noelle an orb of light with Adrian a bolt of dark energy containing a curse. Gebel would deflect both attacks easily as he charged towards them, spinning two of his hands a full 360 degree and making the two blades spin as buzzsaws, creating both a lethal attack and a shield.

Noelle would slam her staff on the ground and from the earth massive roots would burst from the earth to tangle up the angel but the roots were being sliced into pieces from the angels onslaught. Gebel would stop when he felt small roots wrapping themselves around his feet.

Using this as an opportunity Adrian would conjure forth several blades that would float around him and send all of them flying towards the angel. Gebel would cut the roots and begin to deflect most of the blades sent towards him with erratic slashes before he grabbed one blade by the hilt and fling it towards Adrian, the force sending the mage flying as he was impaled by his own weapon on the waist.

The mage would cough out blood as Gabel rushed towards Noelle, delivering erratic and overpowering strikes at her as she reinforce her staff to endure the blows as he used it to defend against the attacks.

“Adrian.” she called out as she was starting to have a hard time tracking the angel’s movement. Adrian was pulling the sword off his body and once it was fully removed he grunted loudly, some blood gushing out of him. He would take a healing potion and drink it to accelerate his healing. “Adrian, please hurry.” he turn to face Noelle just as she was close to hitting against the wall. The angel would deliver a powerful twin strike that would cause the elder to lose grip of her staff as it was sent flying away. As the angel brought his blades above his hand to strike her down he would catch something coming toward him and he would bring his blades down on the white hair master who blocked the strike.

“Your magic has changed you, magi. You are barely human in your current state. You just gave me more of a reason to erase your wretched existence.” Adrian would soon see more arms growing out of the angels body, making it a total of six arms. “But your pilfered powers will always pale compare to the genuine article, you rotten thieves.” He would try to stab the mage with four of his blades but he would see the master turn into smoke. As he reappeared away the angel would be sent flying away from Noelle by a blast of kinetic energy. However he would sink his talons on the ground to slow down his flight and prevent him from flying to the wall.

He would see the witch conjure back her staff on hand. “Good. I was afraid that the self appointed “guardians” of the Earth were softer than I expected.” The angel and mages would suddenly sense a dark presence coming towards them before they heard a loud explosion coming close by.

“Looks like the cambion of terra is about “grace” us with her presence. I was waiting for the day to face her combat.” He boasted as the ground shook again as more explosions can be heard as the angels began to open fire at Elizabeth.

The walls of the room would explode inwards as one of the spiders slide across the ground, making the general jump back and the angels using magic to increase their speeds to run away from the angel. On top of the angel was Elizabeth, now in her demonic form, as he held twin wicked swords.

The half demon was growling at the angel when she noticed the two mages. “Get out of here now!” she shouted as she conjured a dark portal. “This one is mine.” Before any of the mages can object Elizabeth would fly down to the mage and tackle him, making the two fly through the wall.

Outside the two combatants would roll on the ground once Gebel managed to get off the cambion. He would raise his hand up and from the glowing sigil on his palm he would fire a ball of holy plasma at the cambion who responded with firing off an orb of demonic energy, causing the two spheres to collide as the two got up and charged towards each other, clashing their blades.

“The final hour of your Order has come cambion. Soon you and the rest of your kind shall pay for stealing knowledge that is forbidden to you mortals. Your crimes against nature and the divine order will finally be served.” he threaten as he swung with his fifth and sixth blades but barely hit her when the mage sent him back with a telekinetic blast from her hand.

“You talk too much.” she told him as she would unleash a wave of dark energy only for the general to unleash not only one energy of holy energy but five more. Elizabeth would conjure a magic circle to block them before firing a beam through it. The angel would backflip into a portal before the beam hit him and appear behind Elizabeth, stomping on her hand and dragging her face first onto the ground.

The witch would try to push him off but would fall back and let out a muffled scream as Gebel cut off her wings and stab her on the back. “I must say. I’m disappointed in you. Surely one who is favored to one day lead this guild of heathens and heretics would be more powerful?”

The angel would sense Elizabeth charging her magic and he would let her go and jump into another portal as she unleash a blast of dark energy. The blast would hit the building and cause more of it to fall inside and cause major parts of the structure to finally collapse which would start a chain reaction as to make the whole building fall down. The blast would also send many angels flying back and ultimately land on the others that weren’t caught by the blast. Elizabeth would see the castle falling down on her and she would conjure a portal below her and fall in just before the caste feel on top of her.

A massive dust cloud would cover the angels and cause a strong gust to blow against them. As the dust cleared General Gebel would walk away from the ruins, looking at the city as it burn around him, laughing.

“Run Magi, run. You have only prolonged the inevitable.”

[Finland SSR]

Planet Celesta

One and a half years after Fuar's defeat

---

Star Sheriff Cato blitzed through the imposing fortress, his weapon raised before him, ready to fire at any moment. Each turn in his path would instantly turn into a salvo of gunfire and energy blasts - and yet, every single times, the grunts sent to stop him would fall very quickly. Either they learn that it was no ordinary blaster in the Star Sheriff's hand, or get literally blown away by the energy blasts he would release if he needed more firepower. Still, Cato was worried and his three hearts were all racing. It wasn't the literal brigade of bad guys which concerned him, but whatever was leading them.

Planet Celesta was an abandoned frontier world deep in the reaches of the Galaxy nominally controlled by Glacia's Planet Trade Organization, and yet effectively free of any oversight due to how remote these frontiers were. A tale as old as time for the Galactic Frontier, really. Celesta housed a PTO fortress as a base of operations for a military garrison to try to police the local sectors, but its inhabitants left centuries ago as maintaining a firm grip over the barely inhabited frontier turned out to be a pointless money sink.

Emphasis on "was" in "was an abandoned frontier world". A handful of years ago, things changed. The fortress has been taken over and buzzes with life, periodic raids from the world have begun to threaten outposts and frontier worlds as far as 100 lightyears away, and already several colonies in the vicinity of Celesta have been engulfed by an army based there. A new warlord has risen in the Galactic Frontier, nothing the R.I.D.E.R.S. have not dealt with.

It would be routine, had it not been for the fact that several Star Sheriffs have already been sent to investigate this world and none of them returned. These grunts definitely could not have managed, so it must either be something they own... or their leader.

The skirmishes across the fortress ceased and Cato stepped into a large, dark, empty hall. It must have been built to serve as a dining hall for a visiting Arcosian on the off chance that one decided to visit the Frontier, but its original purpose has long since been abandoned. The tables and chairs were gone, the dimly lit walls towered over the young Star Sheriff, and a soothing darkness surrounded him - one which the end of his blaster slowly poked through, ready to fire at any moment.

Then the lights came on. The door behind Cato shut.

On the opposite side of the hall, a throne erected from stone stood upon a pile of rubble - and upon it, sat a man. A mysterious mutant of a man, resembling a Saiyan somewhat, yet with a massive, lizard-like tail springing from his back. His hand held a staff of red thorns, and a beautiful, orange ball with seven stars was forcefully inserted into his chest, clearly rather painfully too.

The hall was completely barren, except for the Star Sheriff and the mysterious warlord. Cato immediately trained his pistol on the mutant and spoke:

"Don't move. This operation is over." However, he heard a soft chuckle in response, followed by the man rising from his throne.

"How quaint, more fresh meat."

---

Star Sheriff Ikki tossed one bag after the other into his spaceship, most of them chock full of food and water, just in time for the vessel to finish refueling - it took him a while to get a hang of the automated process when he first received the ship, but it's become a monotony at this point. Taking an easier breath, the Saiyan turned around to take a glance to the outpost he was about to leave - the local settlers, from an assorted variety of races and species, recently had to suffer a landslide from a nearby mountain, and so he landed to pull all of the rocks out of the way. They provided him with food for the journey for free as thanks, too - so everyone's about to leave with a smile!

But, well...

Is everyone else on Earth still safe? As soon as the thought came to Ikki's mind when he stared at the three stars setting in the horizon, his expression soured. It's been one and a half years and he still knows nothing about what has been going on out there - it wasn't worrying at first, Ikki expected that with Fuar and Scall both gone, there shouldn't really be any threats to Earth left, at least none which his friends could not stop themselves. One and a half years of having zero contact with them was driving some serious anxiety into him, however. The only thing he really knew was that Glacia was still there - at least, that's what he heard from the frontierspeople in sectors nominally under PTO control. Nobody's overthrown her yet. That's... good. Glacia was better than the Floe and Fuar types, at least...

He could only be grateful to the Namekians for saving him and giving him this chance to do good to so many people, but at times, Ikki would wish to finally go back to Earth. At least that would dissuade his worries...

"Eh?"

Casually browsing through the holographic panel summoned by his Patrolman watch, Ikki caught note of a R.I.D.E.R.S. task which had just been elevated to highest priority.

"TO ALL STAR SHERIFFS IN SECTOR AZ-1 AND SURROUNDING SECTORS. A DANGEROUS WARLORD HAS TAKEN CONTROL OF THE PLANET TRADE ORGANIZATION STRONGHOLD ON PLANET CELESTE, ORGANIZING RAIDS THREATENING THE SECTOR. IDENTITY OF THEIR LEADER, ORIGIN AND GOALS ARE INDETERMINATE, BUT REGISTERED TO BE AT HIGHEST POSSIBLE THREAT LEVEL."

Ikki glanced through the rest of the report, which detailed the little information which the Patrol had and a list of warnings.

"That's... right next to this sector, right?" the Saiyan mumbled under his breath, checking the map for good measure, before turning off the watch and hopping back to his spaceship. Whatever was taking place out there... it was at a threat level so high that he was one of the few members of the Patrol who could try to stop it by themselves.

And he did not hesitate to take the burden.

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

Danuja, The Pride of Jinza

Danuja strode down the hallways of the great ship, rubbing her shoulders as she did so. Danu wasn't sure what this trial entailed, but the fact that she needed to be in some highly revealing "traditional" garb consisting of a loin cloth and a chest wrap wasn't boding well. Now she was being escorted to have her "spirit prepared". She was honestly such an idiot. She had trusted her mother this far, but why in all of deep space did she do that? She barely knew the woman and here she was, forced onto a throne and basically kidnapped. She had walked directly into a trap.

At least she thought she had. As Danu was led into a dark room, it was needless to say that she wasn't feeling too confident about herself. A small fire lit up the room suddenly as the door shut behind it. Sitting behind the fire sat a Saiyan woman, wearing garb similar to the rest of the Saiyans Danu had encountered aboard the Pride. Unique to her, not just among this new group but all the Saiyans Danu had met, which was most of their remaining members at this point, was her hair. It was stark grey compared to the almost uniform black, with of course the exception that was Ikki.

The woman looked Danu up and down and laughed. "So this is the 'Queen of all Saiyans'? I only see a scared girl." When Danu hesitated to respond, the Woman shook her head and gestured for her to come over. "Come and sit child, I won't bite, at least I don't anticipate I will. The spirit is a strange thing at times."

Danu went over and sat by the fire. The old saiyaness removed a number of objects from a sack sitting to her side. Danu noticed a number of paints, as well as various herbs within them. As she did so she continued talking "My name is Canta. I'm the Prophet for the sorry bunch of monkeys you met earlier. I don't expect you'd know what that role entails?" Danu shook her head no. Canta laughed "I thought not. Your mother takes her oaths seriously. Anyways, they've given me the job of reading people's spirits and judging their fate from it, because I'm a crafty old hag whose lived long enough to see patterns repeat."

Danu cleared her throat and asked "What patterns?"

Canta narrowed her eyes at Danuja, her grin becoming a more geniune smile of interest. Danu heard her whisper under her breath "Really is her father's daughter" before saying "Certain things. Personalities, actions, body movements. None more so than the eyes and hands though. They give me clues as to who a person really is. From there, I can make educated guesses on how they are going to get themselves killed. The truth is, we are a cruel race, and so are our gods. The average Saiyan, be they Sadalan or Jinza, will die a young but glorious death in combat with little impact on the greater web of fate. Occasionally though, the Gods see fit to send us something interesting."

"Do you mind if I ask which Gods?"

"Were you raised in a barn girl, or has Sadala forgotten all that they once were."

"Both. Most Saiyan mythology was wiped out when Scall" Canta hissed at the mention of the King's name "... when he destroyed Sadala. The Nobles didn't bother to educate themselves and the priests never allowed the data to be uploaded to the greater PTO database."

"The priests were right. Some truths bring nothing but disaster, and contained within the legends of our ancestors, there are terrible, terrible truths. I speak of the Saiyan Gods, beyond number. They watch our actions in whatever realm they reside in, and occasionally bend the strings of fate to manipulate our universe in some ineffable game that they play among themselves. And sometimes, the more inpatient of them smash their fist into the web and shit out an Incarnation."

Canta rubbed her fingers into some purple dye, and began to draw designs onto Danu's skin. She chuckled at Danu's apparent confusion at this. "Our gods are not like those of other peoples. They are not metaphysical beings seperate from us. They are merely other Saiyans further along their journey of power, their legends being so strong that they pass beyond their body and become spirits, fueled by the belief of the living. Some hibernate, hovering in otherworld in a constant coma due to belief in them flagging, while the strongest jostle to further fuel their unintentional experiment into divinity. And sometimes in this jostling, they return to the mortal world for some reason beyond me."

The Prophet set aside her purple die, and moved on to the gold, coating Danu's chest with it. "You've already met one such incarnation. Scall." Canta spat after saying the name. "The King was an incarnation of the highest but most volatile of our gods, Ozaru. The Ape King's dual nature was never more accurately shown. Untrained, he is a force of utter chaos. But from that chaos, we learn, and access greater power for ourselves."

Danu asked quietly "So... was Ikki an Incarnation as well?"

"You speak of the one who tapped into Fennes's power?"

"Yes, my mother called him Fennes reborn."

"Wishful thinking on Arsle's part. Or maybe not. Fennes always has been an oddity in our faith. Even the matter of his godhood was a matter of debate during the height of his worship. Fennes was indeed powerful, and worshiped by his descendants for a number of years. Personally however, I think the old man found a different path. It wasn't like him to fight death like Ozaru or Jinza do."

"You talk like you knew him."

"I'm well read in our histories and Fennes's own testimonies. Not all of us are total savages my dear." Canta painted red under Danu's eyes, completing the designs she had been drawing across Danu's body. Stepping back and looking over her work, Canta nodded and said "I think this trial will be quite interesting to watch. I wish you good luck Chay, though if I'm correct, and I'm never wrong, you won't need it."

---

Danu sat blindfolded in the back of a shuttle, her only senses being from her ears and nose. Her guards wouldn't explain the reason for her blindfolding, save for that she would take it off when the trial began. They had been flying for a while, but now Danu could feel the ship landing. A hand grabbed hers. Arsle said calmly in her daughter's ear "The Trial is yours in terms of pure strength, only Scallion and Scall himself could best you in that regard. What matters is in here." Danu felt her mother tap her temple. "You must be in control the whole time, or else the others will be able to successfuly gang up on you and destroy you."

Danu nodded and said confidently "I understand mother."

"I do not think that you do, but I worry not. You have conquered all other challenges laid before you, this will be child's play for you." The Shuttle's forward momentum suddenly stopped, and began to lower. Danu heard the characteristic click of a Jinza helmet over her mothers head. Arsle continued "I will guide you to your pedastle. From there, just follow the instructions."

Danu heard the door to the shuttle open, and felt her wrist pulled by her mother. She followed, trying to look as strong as she could as she took her first steps on to the world of Aku. This was stopped by her shivering as her feet stepped into ankle deep water, causing goosebumps to rise across her body. Slowly, the mother and daughter made their way to who knows where. Danu felt her mothers rough position rise, and after taking a deep breath, floated up onto rough, warm stone.

Arsle then took her daughter by both hands and said "This is where I leave you. Best of luck Chay."

For a few minutes, all was quiet save for the far off hum of engines. Then, the voice of the Vicar came from above where Danu stood. "Warriors of Jinza, we are here today to witness the trial of Ozaru's Circle. They have selected as their champion the Outsider Chay, who is Queen of the Sadalans. Since she stands trial for four people, she shall face four opponents. Trial members, remove your blindfolds and commence the fight."

Danu remained confident that she could come out on top. She didn't get the feeling that any of the Jinza were stronger than Scall. That changed when she opened her eyes and saw the sky of Aku for the first time. Three moons hung low around the horizon, with the fourth in a ring eclipse of the overhead sun. Danu barely had time to blink before she felt the telltale signs that she was transforming. Then, everything went black.

---

Danu felt her body drop underwater. Pushing off the bottom with her hands, she sat up out of the shallow pool gasping for air. If one thing was clear, she wasn't on Aku anymore. Her clothes and warpaint had vanished. Instead, she had clean skin and was wearing a set of boots, baggy pants, and a new, cleaner chest wrap. Danu stood up a looked around her. She was on top of a cloudy mountain, filled with vegetation similar to Earth's but very different still. It was then that Danu noticed the big rock in the center of the pool, and atop it was... her?

The other Danu leaped off the rock to stand atop the water. Up close Danu began to pick up similar but different details about this other woman. She was more heavily muscled, a decade older at least, with far more wild hair and a look in her eyes like a hungry animal. And above all else, she emenated power. The woman extended her hand to Danu and gave the same smug smirk Danu liked to give. "Danuja, it's about time that you found me."

Danu shook the hand and raised an eyebrow "I guess... sorry who are you?"

The other woman laughed, a clear deep laugh that Danu could probably do but never had before "I'm you dumbass. Or, I suppose more accurately, you are me. As far as names go, you may call me Jinza."