Author's note: A new theme is made for Before Light - Remastered, now on Youtube. Feel free to have a listen while reading, cheers! Youtube URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM4-lv7N4rQ

Art source: Me, https://www.pixiv.net/artworks/103574884

Light infiltrated his sight as horizontal slits seared the dry surface of his eyes.

Vernui’s senses returned, stagnantly, but sure, erupting in the unblockable stimulants of torment to which he bore witness through his foggy vision yet recalibrated to the radiant environment of his enclosure, of the large gaping aperture upon his physical form, opening chest down barely reaching his groin.

Dark blood smothered across the white; ash, and particles swaying without lead, above his agape chest and abdomen, in which morbid blotted organs reflect.

Never have Vernui thought to behold his inner contents so vividly, yet the resurfacing of his perception, his mind, his yearnings, all but facilitated the unfathomable truth of his severed flesh and the suffering it ensues. With torsos locked into place, paralyzed only to watch as a silver metallic claw dug deep with brute forth from the upper beyond, ripping a piece of his tarnished body parts out as it ruthlessly headed back to the higher lights.

Light, that dawned mercilessly upon him.

Screaming without sound, covered were his nasals and oral cavities with gears and tubes, only able to squirm awardlessly under the relentless restraints locking him onto solid ground.

Unable to escape from his current dread, Vernui sent his mind across the plane of the subconscious, trying to cling to his one last haven, his memories.

Yuri.

The struggles did subside the moment he yielded before the acceptance, of the retribution he had yet to pay for the sins he had done to her.

The organ, traveling among the grip of iron claws, found its way up to the platforms full of tall pale-armored surgical androids aiding in the excavation process. Collecting samples, cutting edges of the rotten flesh, and scanning the residues within their operators, the androids hustled side to side as the results were revealed at the main screens hovering before one Starbreaker robed in white, cloaked by garbs under the subtle armor acquired not for combat usage but disinfection purposes, prominently shown through the sharp back-slanting helm that sat over the visage of the one staring at the screen jammed with results and readings of his subject.

“ Intriguing …” The white researcher Starbreaker remarked as the readings flashed across the visor of his hook-beaked helm, grasping all there were for him to absorb.

Never would he imagine such dramatic speed of the Demons’ evolution, from mere beasts of smog to reconstructing sophisticated organisms that serve purposes within a fully compact body of a mimic, heralding a grave threat that is sprouting to the surface of their knowledge.

Who knows what else the Demons are capable of generating in the future…?

“ Send these results along with the readings to his Highness immediately.” The tall garbed figure ordained his bustling droids around his feet.

“ Keep our subject alive. We can’t afford to lose such a precious specimen.”

The extermination of Demon kind depends on it.

Sending his androids off with a wave of sovereignty, the Analyst Starbreaker stepped out of his lab, striding forth to examine his other patient, subject of surveillance more so, located at the high tower across the sky bridge, planning on the procedures for his next experiments.

Starbreaker researcher Austriuss had seen many unusual happenings in his time in the capital research halls, viewing the evolution of the Demon race firsthand in his expeditions and conquests under the Skylord’s allegiance, documenting the species' details and weaknesses for the society of Light to prevail against this overwhelming unyielding threat that had persisted long before the rise of the civilization of Light.

But none of them had made the close effort to swell his excitement such as this he now kept in his tower of scrutiny, where Austrius harbors the most precious of artifacts and specimens across the forlorn lands, and undoubtedly, the one subject that had arrived just the day before proved to be most valuable among all his perception and experience in the field of Demon and Light science.

The Herunis Carna.

Lore of the promised land varies in detail but all point to one specific diction, the Origin of all Light. A gift to all existence that the Skylord had once used a minuscule portion that is enough to give rise to the grand city and elevate them to the advanced level they are now.

It was a place, a blessed realm harboring powers that are considered to be of pure Miraclulous elements, able to bend reality, stretch and recoil time, and forge Fate through its sheer will. And now, sleeping on one of his prized seminal hospital beds is the One genetically linked to the Grand Innovator, the chosen subject to open the gates to Miracles for them to transcend.

Entering gleefully, Austriuss approached the young one lay before him, strapped to the surgical stretcher by the waist and legs, sight obstructed by the sensory monitors and nerve gears helmeted all over her head, trapping the bright blue hair of the patient within iron-tight grips, sucking out knowledge and memory out of her slumber, bit by bit.

Austriuss wondered what the subject was dreaming.

No matter what it is, it shall serve a great purpose to Sky World, to the Skylord,

To the whole of Light.

“ Dream on…my child.” Austriuss chuckled in a snide sneer, glancing at the fine readings and shimmering Light essence extracted out of the slumbering poor girl in captivity.

Yuri, child of the Maker, shall illuminate the path.

For Light, for the grand transcendence,

It is all worth it.

…

………

From where All Starbreakers and Emissaries of Light cometh, it all originated from the center of Illumination, hovering high above in the sea of clouds,

SkyWorld.

Towers and stations of splendor perched upon its basis, resembling an elliptical silver platter of golden turrets traveling across the skies, overlooking all underneath its eye at the bottom, the circular engines and spheric rotors merging and swirling to infinity, powered by the Light hidden deep amongst the constructs and foundations that goody bestowed the whole flying city its prominent glow.

Light giveth to all, strength and need,

and asks for nothing but Faith in return.

So were the Runes written upon the main turrets of the Palace nested in the center of the Land of Sky, symbols, and drawings of power circled around the citadel like emblems of gold swaying slowly like flags in motion.

More like Propaganda,

Starbreaker knight Yuno thought to herself as she took a sip of sparkling water from her ceramic tea cup emblazoned also with Runes of power of her governing, dazzling upon her cherished collection and activity of leisure while she was not out on the field slaying Demons in the name of the Skylord.

Though cliche the advertisements hovering upon the castle walls may seem, this city sure does provide her adequately, with login, food, and resource, more so many collectibles, delicate trinkets, and ornaments that she is fond of their fragile nature which handling them itself is a task to her sometimes. But elegance in posture and attitude never is a nuisance to her, adding to the flavor of the enjoyment.

Something that the other two sharing a glass table with her on the balcony would definitely disagree with.

“ I am bored. ”

The one sitting at Yuno's right grumbled, kicking her legs as she slumped on the table, playing with the empty tall chocolate sundae flask, her tanned fair complexion reflected upon the hexagonal-sided glass.

Though disinterested in spending good morning time at the outdoor lounge, the mundane circumstances dimmed not the curious glow in the teenage girl's childlike wide eyes, examining the tall sundae flask inventively, having nothing else to do.

“ We should be cutting down Demons with my new designs. Not sitting here doing nothing and play elegant games. That's lame, sister. ”

Yuno sipped from her ornate teacup elegantly, not answering immediately to the teenage girl that called her sister. Often Yuno had questioned how she share the same Light genes with her two...unusual younger sisters.

“ You would have known why we are here if you'd cared to listen to me yester eve instead of building that cannon sitting in our living room, Yuka.”

Yuno replied amiably, putting her utensils gently down, her thin slanting eyes gazing in a benign yet dismayed fashion.

Yuka, the tanned one with the spiky short unarranged hair and wide deep blue eyes, put the opulent sundae flask down and looked her older sister and team leader seriously in the eye.

“ That's a Proliferating Photon Projector.”

“ I don't care. ”

Yuno replied with a genial smile but cold answer.

“ Get it out of the dorm before sundown. ”

“ But its abbreviation is literally PPP—”

“ I don't care. ”

Yuno's smile hardened and her expression fearful though welcoming at first glance.

“ Yuka, be like your younger sister. She knows the gravity of the mission. See how she scouts the perimeter with such precision?”

Yuno nodded proudly as the other high school-aged girl sitting at her left scanned the area and buildings over the balcony silently with her Starbreaker binoculars, huddled and cowed to the side, staring at the bright reflecting glass buildings without response.

“ No. Yun is looking at children. Can't you see?” Yuka snapped as the silent girl jolted in a sudden adjustment of her binoculars looking in the other direction, trying hard to act contained

“ Yeah. So much for knowing the gravity of the mission.” The middle sister Yuka scoffed, laying back on her curved metal bench.

“ Besides, we are a strike team, not a spying agency. We fight, not look around behind corners and shadow box in the dark!”

Though not addressing her sister’s dismayed remarks, Yuno's teacup shook faintly in her two gripping fingers.

Her thin slanted eyes opened slightly in foreboding.

……Children…?

“ Is it true, Yun?"

Yuno, eldest of the sisters asked in a silky whisper gently, to which the timid one at the lookout nodded uneasily at length, unable to lie to her older sister and team leader.

So… they are here also.

This complicates things slightly…

Yuno brooded, closing her thin slanted eyes back with a smile masking her thoughts.

“ Well done, Yun.”

Stroking the short dark ultramarine hair of her younger sibling affectionately, Yuno praised tenderly her fearful skittish sister.

“ I knew you were capable of any mission I give you. ”

“ No fare! Yun is not focused on the mission and still, she gets praised!”

Yuka the second sister pouted in chagrin.

“ And I got nothing for building a Proliferating Photon Projector…”

Heeding not her sister and teammate's qualms, placing her eyes by at the bubbles sparkling from beneath her half-filled cup, Yuno dived deeply into mesmerized thought,

in Reminiscence.

…

………

Long had Neo sensed their presence being monitored by cold eyes, watching him and his kin of brave children’s every move in the shadows, within and out of their current residence. Behind every droid, every glass monoeye he came across, Neo could feel the cold dim reflection upon his defenseless self. Some of his mates call it paranoia, but Neo preferred vigilance, for it is due to the woeful untimely vandalism of Sensei’s book that had led Neo to raise his guard once more towards the Starbreakers and their schemes.

“ It must be another droid!” Kai cried in reason and anguish before the ripped sliced pages scattered all over the children’s dorm, where Kai and Neliya had last studied the tales hidden within its runes, drawings, and secret language before the battle at the North Line.

“ Like the one that attempted to snatch it days before! There must be another droid! We must find it and seek the person behind it!!”

Neo agreed wholeheartedly to Kai’s assumptions and seeing Neliya weeping her light heart out with extreme grief pained Neo so that he vouched to have the perpetrator pay for his unscrupulous deed.

So as the child leader of the pack, Neo headed straight to Captain Bradson to ask for aid in the search for the rogue villainized android responsible, and the old captain showed Neo and the children the surveillance systems and recorded movements of all the droids on ship, only to face the truth that no android got near the room, nor any intruder android ever to board the ship that fateful night.

“ If it is no android…then it can be anyone…!” Neo deducted with his trusted group consisting of Kai his advisor, Tricia the silent observer, Rio his brother, and Oullo, Neo’s trusty partner in battles against Demons, a boy of few words and more action, skilled in the obscure ways of ambush and tactics of surprise.

Feira would have joined the meeting but she decided to tend to her sickened younger brother Finnir who was in a crucial state drifting between consciousness and slumber.

“...It can be anyone…?!” Rio hollered in terror.

“ It can be you…it can be me…it can be anyone in this room…! Who are we to find the traitor, the destroyer of Sensei’s teachings?!”

“ Rio, there are no traitors in our ranks. We are family.” Neo spoke earnestly and lowered his voice as he ushered for his trusted folk to listen close.

“ Sensei had warned us to not trust the Starbreakers and the Emissaries of Light since day one of our assembly. And this Captain Bradson…He might be hiding the truth from us!”

“ But Neo, Captain Bradson provided us safe passing and agrees to assist our cause to find our Sensei and the Lost Child!” Kai persuaded.

“ The Captain can’t possibly pull off such a heinous act!”

Tricia too shook her head at Neo’s assumptions and the leader had to believe Bradson’s innocence.

“ Then Tricia, what should be done? How do we seek vengeance upon the assailant that dare damage Neliya’s precious book?!” Neo implored for answers to the child that could not speak, but she sure would lead the way.

By shaking her head.

“ You mean…No?!” Neo uttered at Tricia’s solemn reaction.

“ Not to seek the perpetrator?! But Tricia, that person had to pay!!”

But adamantly Tricia shook her head in silent offense.

Reluctantly, Neo abided with clenched fists.

“ If it is so…”

Neo sighed, standing up slowly.

“ That the criminal is impossible to seek, then we shall delve into the thought no more.”

Relinquishing his anger, Neo bade his trusty helpers to rest and left to seek Neliya alone.

There she was, tears all spent, silently locking herself up in her dorm in punishment for her failed task to protect Sensei’s teachings and memories bestowed onto them all. Guilt was the last thing Neo wished Neliya bear alone and wished to console her with his company which the saddened girl had denied any, and as he gingerly entered after gentle knockings upon her door, Neo beheld across the room, pieces of the torn pages of Sensei’s volumes lain out before him all over the floor and Neliya, knelt in the middle of the kaleidoscope of parchment, fixed each and every page like mending a shattered rune of greatness with paramount care, piecing together the puzzle of Sensei’s knowledge.

Silently, Neo joined her albeit with her refusal, and the two children, tirelessly through the night and a couple of nights before they arrived at the Capital SkyWorld, put together half of the sacred texts.

Just the night before harboring to the City in the skies, Lucky, the redhead with her dazzling crown came to Neo in the dead of the night with someone behind her dressed under a hoodie.

“ What is it, Lucky…Neruko?” Neo answered the door to Neliya’s dorm while the girl continued piercing the pages back.

“ Neo…Neruko knows something that…I think you must know.”

Lucky whispered, perturbed and fearing that Neliya might hear her, which Neo found odd at first.

“ Alright. Neruko, what is it?” Neo asked as he closed the door behind him quietly.

Neruko, the sleepy one, pale of skin and messy of dark calico hair shadowed under the hood nodded in answer.

“ I was sleeping under Neliya’s bed all the time, including that day the book was destroyed.”

“ !!” Neo gapped in astonishment.

“ Neruko! You know who did it?!?!”

Neruko’s expression darkened as her thin luminant pupils narrowed ominously.

“ …I do.”

“ Then why do you not speak of it?! Up until now??” Neo hissed to keep his fervor from passing through the door into Neliya’s ears, or any ears hiding behind the walls of the Betelgeuse corridors.

“ Neo, the truth…it is not what you think.” Lucky whispered in a slight tremor.

“ It must be known only to your ears.”

Neo was puzzled by the grim secrecy of their tremulous attitude but still accepted the news with all ears.

So Neruko began to recite her tale gravely in the dark.

“ That night, while I was napping as usual under Neliya’s bed, I heard her and Kai examining the weird writings at the back of the book. Not soon after, they were called off by Lucky to join the Android driving thingy to fight Demons or so I vaguely remember…but not soon after when I thought I was about to have a good’o nap, someone else barged into Neliya’s room.”

“ Who?!” Neo questioned.

“ Kai. He returned early.”

Neo froze at Neruko’s words, fearing what she had in store.

“ No…” Neo forced out a whisper of denial.

“ It can’t be…Kai is trustworthy!!”

But from Lucky and Neruko’s dread glances, Neo knew his understanding of his most trusted sworn brother is challenged.

“ I saw it, under my bed.” Neruko finished her tale in a minuscule whisper whistly like the autumn night breeze.

“ Kai did it, with a knife.”

“ And I saw it this morning… that knife…was in Kai’s pouch…” Lucky whispered, trembling all over.

Neo too was trembling in agony, in sorrow, in anger.

Heeding not the nighttime rules of silent rest, Neo bashed Kai’s doors open, lit the room bright with Light, and hurled Kai up to his feet.

The awakened boy wobbled with his yet-woken legs in sheer astonishment. The other boys sharing with Kai at the same dorm jolted up also at the violent travesty.

“ Neo?! What be this utter intrusion?!” Treize, the chubby kid and staunch supporter of Kai inquired of the midnight violence that had all the children now wide awake, gathered at the door of the dorm.

Many tried to stop Neo, but the child lead was adamant and blinded by anger.

“ Treize, step aside.” Neo bade with a snarl, grabbing tightly Kai’s pajama collar as he yanked his advisor close.

“ Which is your pouch?!” Neo roared demandingly and Kai obeyed, pointing at his rough woven pouch slumped at the side of his bed.

“ Oullo!!” Neo shouted out to his trusty battle mate.

“ Search the Pouch!!!”

A wave of uneasy whispers swept across the dumbfounded children as the boy of few words took the pouch and rummaged its insides before pausing with an abrupt jolt.

A second later,

Oullo produced a curved jagged dagger out of Kai’s pouch,

along with some wrinkled crushed pages of Sensei’s book.

Neliya, following Neo and his commotion, gave out a sharp gasp before fainting into Lucky’s arms!!

“ Wait, Neo—”

“ KAAAAIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

If the bystanding children had not stopped Neo, the child leader would have bashed Kai so hard that not even Treize would recognize him.

Captain Bradson, called by Tricia, impeded the conflict before any more violence would have ensued and hurt the masses, but without a doubt, the friendship between Neo and Kai had been shattered that very night.

And that was just yester eve from now that Neo stood at the lounge situated within the luxurious lodging skyscraper that the ‘Lord of the Capital’, The Skylord generously bestowed onto them for their arduous travels.

The children had a fun time and ample relaxation and enough foodings to assure their past anxieties wandering in the wild, but Neo still was troubled, angered, and eager to know of the reason,

Why would Kai do such a thing to Neliya???

Traitors are everywhere, Neo thought to himself as he noticed the glint of light flashing from atop a building not far at the other side opposite them across the watery clear river lane boulevard down below their resting establishment.

Is Kai heeding someone else’s orders?

Who is he working for?

What are his motives?

That was when Neo suddenly realized,

He barely knew anything about his friend.

Kai had been there, alongside him, helping him lead the pack. But how do they meet? What are the days before? Where was he before he met Kai?

What is…his first memory…???

Who…am I…???

“...Neo…?”

Neo spun around, as his mind was cleared of the disconcerting thoughts by that one tender voice calling out to him from behind.

“ Neliya…what is it?” Neo sighed in relief to see Neliya. Only when she was around could Neo lay his burdens of leadership down and put his responsible strong image aside. It was Neliya who he felt he could ultimately trust, for she reminded him eminently of Nia, his younger sister lost to the Starbreakers who took her light.

Of course…Nia.

Protecting Nia and Rio was his first memory…

It all started there…

“ Neo...Neo are you listening…?” Neliya realized halfway when Neo quickly shook his head back to reality with a content smile.

“ Sorry, Neliya. Just thinking of the past. What is it you were saying?”

Neliya puffed her cheeks in dismay for being ignored.

“ I was saying,” Neliya rephrased once more patiently.

“ You should talk to Kai. We should ask Kai what made him do it. He may be threatened by the same power behind the droid that snatched Sensei’s book.”

Nodding with a heavy sigh, Neo complied.

“ And promise me you won’t resort to violence.” Neliya forcefully admonished, pulling Neo by the hand.

Their faces close, merely inches apart.

“ I promise.” Neo vowed sincerely.

Anything from Neliya, he swore to always fulfill.

So the two children went forth to meet Kai, hand in hand,

to all ends.

Yet the troubling happenings between him and his friend had clouded Neo’s initial judgment, for they, the children all gathered in this luxurious lounge flat, were indeed been under heavy scrutiny hidden in and out of the building. And though Neo may be too occupied to realize, someone else was present on the children’s side to protect the pack.

And that is Lima, The child blessed by Sunlight.

She too, with a keen vigilance and sharp perception had deducted the possible positions of hidden eyes that were watching them in the shadows. Whatever the watcher has planned to do to them children Lima hadn’t fully grasped yet, but from her experiences, her Memories of the past, Lima was sure the one behind the illusive veil meant only ill omens.

For the watcher behind all these obscure eyes, seeing through each and every droid moving and hovering down and above, is the one and only Skylord of the Capital of Light.

Many things Lima had heard and known of this Skylord, and none of them bade well results.

“ Beware the Demons,” the Old Sensei that had saved them children had warned before his unreturning leave.

“ But also stay as far away from the Starbreakers as possible. For they are all ruled under the ruthless Lord of Sky’s supremacy. You must stay together, hand in hand. Never to break apart in these trying times…”

Most of the children heeded their beloved Sensei’s teachings without a doubt.

Lima agreed as well to never come across the Lord of Light, for her own reasons. For the past that she had been involved with deeply…that concerns Yuri’s existence.

“ Lima…you alright?”

Feira’s voice pulled Lima back from her disconcerting flashbacks. Staying close and helping the weapons manufacturing girl carry and take care of her repair tools while Feira carried sick Finnir, Lima never expected to be the one being asked if she was well, especially from Feira.

“ I am fine.” Lima replied shortly, her hand resuming action polishing the weapons Feira carried all this time on her own.

“ Just…thinking. How about you? You…okay?”

“ Sure.” Feira chuckled, squeezing a reassuring smile upon the fatigued face, the dark under her eyes indicating nights of sleep deprived by unease and constant caring for her brother, still trapped in uncertainty.

“ It’s nothing. I have been taking care of Finnir longer than I could remember. Everything will turn out fine…But enough of me. Something’s been ailing you lately after the battle in the North. Something you would like to share?”

Feira asked, placing a new wet towel over Finnir’s feverous forehead.

“ Yeah.” agreed Rio, also sitting nearby, fixing the weapons he had broken per his promise, and also staying company by Finnir his best friend in times of need.

“ You were cool silent way back. But now, you are angry silent, like Neo before he fell for Neliya. Who knew…”

“ You would never know considering the way you speak to girls.” Feira jeered.

“ But Lima, I heard you didn’t drive an Android but wore a suit and stepped onto the battlefield yourself! It’s a miracle you made it back!”

“ True, true.” Lucky and some curious children nodded also, coming along to join in on the chatting. “ You had us freaking out when we saw you and Yuri on top of that wall!” Lucky admonished.

“ And we thought we lost you when Seito did that…that bomb thing.”

“ An Astra!” Rio and his other friends, a pair of twin boys cheered enthusiastically.

“ He did it by shouting—Termeter Seito Crashura!! Or something like that and threw lightning out like this!” Rio nearly tossed the weapon he was fixing out to the open had the twin brothers Thok and Thoka not stopped him.

“ But Astra aside, we also saw you and Yuri with someone else.” another child added curiously.

“ Another Starbreaker that we have not met before, who can fly so fast outrunning winged Demons and even Lightning! Who was she?”

That was Momo, Lima thought to herself, wondering how to explain that her body had undergone drastic changes to become a Starbreaker and keep her from perishing.

So Lima tried her best recollecting all that had occurred on her side of the battle, of how she and Yuri met Momo, rode in an air pather across the heavy snow, and attempt to seize Vitas who turned out to be a Dark Unerva in disguise. Retelling such as this, from ear to ear, generations down the line, that form tales, into epics, legends, remembered throughout time.

The same way Sensei once told of his teachings in the ways of stories he would tell them before bedtime. Stories that carry weight, sinking down across the ages to the ears of the future.

That was what their Sensei believed. The power of the Future.

The power to go on.

…

……..

And to go on, to believe, to yearn, for something to remember. And luckily, be remembered.

That was what Bradson Captain had in mind as he was led down the golden emblazoned marble hallway of the main citadel of Skyworld. With his first mate and commander of his forces Firren and secretary Reina following behind, the three of the Betelgeuse crew headed down the extravagant path guided by an elite capital herald droid, tall and slender, sharp and soulless, with four arms, two clasped together and the other pair horizontally placed above the position of the womb, exclusive only in Skyword the close attendants that serve directly the Skylord’s needs. And here, now, it brought the three prominent members of the prestigious Betelgeuse airship.

Stopping at the grand foyer before the white-pillared door, the herald android turned around, facing them with its thin beak-like cranium.

“ The Lord requests only the Captain to enter.” The elite droid spoke in an eerie toneless delivery.

Bradson complied, despite Firren and Reina’s silent disapproval, none of them had the power or leverage to go against the Lord’s orders now. And the Lord, with his reach all over them far and wide, has in its palm what Bradson Captain concerns the most.

“ Wait here.” Bradson bade his commander and secretary and entered.

Darkness enveloped his presence as the ceilings and floors all seemed to vanish, replaced by a grand void extending throughout the galaxies. Miles ahead, was Light.

A thin pillar of sheer white beamed down onto the top of a slanting pyramid towering up to a throne at its tip, where the one bathed in luminescence sat. Bradson couldn’t make out the actual appearances save the glowing silhouette seated in glory, but the captain was sure the eyes veiled in brightness gazed down upon him as he neared.

Two other shadows not of light but darker shapes of armored beings, Starbreakers, Knights of Light of the paramount order of Skyworld, there stood at the Lord’s sides.

General Solo, Bradson recognized from the sinewy broad appearance, was standing to the throne’s left, with only his usual armor, not the one he brought out from the Northern snow.

On to the right of the throne, stood gracefully, intimidatingly, a figure of empiric blaze, donning a set of dazzling breathtaking armor with runes wrought upon its surface of the utmost power. The splendid curves of the gold and purplish armor tightly wrapped ornamentally close to the wearer’s slender yet stalwart form, with Starrim metal of sheer impressiveness clad upon this Grand Starbreaker; two remarkable antlers stretching a quarter of her full excellent height curling up her helm, where from underneath long straight pale blond hair flowed front and behind the intricately carved chest plates like streams of glowing moonlight; three pairs of blade armors strikingly piercing out her delicate waist where the symmetrical lengthed legging began, clasped close to each other, posing the being’s whole physique up to its full splendor.

But aside from the intimidating outlooks that the Exalted Starbreaker seared to Bradson’s senses, what truly ensued fear and reverence toward this incredible being was her bursting Starbreaking aura, the advance of a Grand Astra nearly shimmering brighter than the beam of light from high above and even the throne, like ominous superpowers of telekinesis holding high six crooked long lance rifles that hovered around the Exalted one’s presence.

No doubt, that the One standing before him was the champion Starbreaker of the Skylord that banished the impossible waves of Dark up to the North years eons ago.

Gulping once, hiding his distress under his stern frown, Bradson Captain went forth toward the obelisk throne, sweeping his long coat back as he made wide traversing steps forward with charisma.

“ Ca…Bradson…”

The Lord on the throne was pleased to see the old captain approaching.

“ Long have I awaited…for your return.”

Leaning forward, his thin smile widening.

…

……….

Rise

Rise, Vernui.

Gasping for air between soundless screams of agony, the hollow voice echoed as a faint smog emerged slowly from within his exposed plucked insides. Spec by spec, ash after ash, coming together into an ominous shade looming by his torture bed, looking down with round beady eyes and its long down-hooked beak.

Archdemon Plague looked down closely over Vernui’s pulverized torn organs and with a wave of its wings, the Archdemon conjured with the dark particles, lungs, intestines, liver, and all that the droids had snatched away, new body pitch-black body parts back into Vernui’s husk.

Vernui looked up startled, feeling the pain ceasing gradually as the large aperture upon his chest slowly sealed back, leaving a dreadful scar running down from the base of his throat.

“ Ho…How…?” Vernui breathed deeply and stressed out.

“ How was never the point. It is what you do next that matters.” The Archdemon replied illusively, gaining more and more in mass and density of blackness.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Darting his glance side to side, in fear the androids of Light would round up and assault them, but to Vernui’s surprise, the surgical androids just stood idly, their mono-eyes shrouded by dust and Nano ash of the Archdemon.

“ I told you, how I do it is not of grave import.” Archdemon Plague hollered impatiently.

“ Boy, I need you. No, WE need you to join us back out there. The Demons North and South, East and West had all answered my call. We await thee, our chosen Prince to lead the way…to the blessed Herunis Carna!”

Vernui nodded in thought, sitting up as the restraints were pulverized from the inside by Nano ash.

“ What are you waiting for? Have you not heard what I said?! Get moving!” The demon carrion ushered.

“ You are wrong.” Vernui spoke in silent realization at the demon lord.

“ How you do it is actually what matters. This place, this fortress of Light is supposedly guarded behind cloaks of Light that should repel you in an instant. But you are here. You even fixed my body and insides that were destroyed. But here we are. How do you do it?”

“ Why do you so desperately need to know?” Archdemon Plague asked suspiciously.

“ So that I can plan my next move.” Vernui answered, swift and candidly.

“ Your next move is to get out of here to rally the Demons. No matter what.”

“ Not before I get Yuri out of here. Out of this place.” steady and firm was Vernui’s answer which made the Archdemon chuckle snidely.

“ I will not leave without her.”

“ Bold move.” Plague hummed with a sigh.

“ But she is out of your reach. Kept at the high tower under the Skylord’s direct scrutiny. It is too risky. Even our chatting now is a risk that may doom the whole picture. Time is of the essence, boy!”

But Vernui adamantly refused to follow.

“ I have let Yuri down more than once. Leaving her at the most crucial moments of need, and being reunited with her yet without my senses and Memories, hurting her under your treachery…!”

“ That is, the essential step for the Rise of the Demons.” Plague reasoned.

“ See? Through intercoursing with her, you have parts of her code. You too have the ability to open the gates to the Herunis Carna, all thanks to me!”

“ Which makes you and I inseparable.” Vernui volleyed back coldly.

“ Which also makes you, My servant. Not the other way round.”

“ Na…Nani…?!” The Archdemon uttered in a forlorn elden tongue to express his distraught.

“ Insolent fool, I Made You!! Out of the wrath and despair, out of the Nano Scourge and dwindling Light, I forged you a New Body! I Am Your Master!!!”

“ Which doesn’t change the fact that you need me to seek what you want. And now that I have regained my Memories, My Mind is my true Master. You can do nothing to me but yield to my call, that is to save Yuri, who you have wrongfully hurt!!!!”

Archdemon Plague snarled and beat its shadowy chest with its winged fist angrily, knowing that this young fellow had a point to which the Demon had no choice but to comply.

“ It is suicide to linger any longer, especially this deep into the Light.” Plague tried hard to persuade the stubborn young man to follow him away.

“ That is why HOW you do it matters, Demon Bird.” Vernui inquired seriously.

“ How you are able to sneak past the barriers of Light and get into this very room is paramount. I need to know. If so, then…”

Vernui whispered quickly to the Archdemon’s carrion-beaked skull.

“ Hoh……” Plague hummed wryly.

“ Coming to think of it……”

…

………

Rising up the clear alabaster staircase up to the throne, Bradson Captain fastened his steps.

“ I come back only for Yuri’s sake.” Bradson stated calmly, striding up the slanting stairs up the monolithic pedestal.

“ For her to regain health…from the damage that was caused.”

“ Of course…of course…” The Skylord agreed in a breathy chuckle.

“ To return only when your folly has constructed unchangeable failures...Only then would you finally give in...”

“ I did what I believed was the right thing to do!” Bradson argued, his steps quickening into stomps.

“ From what you have done, and planned to initiate—”

The hovering lance rifles adjusted and aimed all their humming tips at the old captain’s chest, under the Exalted Starbreaker’s command, but the Lord with a wave assured her that violence won’t be needed.

“ Your Highness.” The Exalted one of the six lance rifles snapped vigilantly.

“ It is fine.” The King of the Starbreakers sniggered.

“ My Words alone are able to bring him down.”

Old Bradson puffed, rising to the highest tier, panting as he neared the throne.

“ It was you who forced us away. You forced me to take her as far away from you…”

The Skylord’s sneer widened as the old Captain marched closer and closer.

The two Elite Starbreakers have stanced their combat poses now.

“ Yuri would have been safe under my protection.” spake the Lord confidently, calm and benign.

“ Under my works and knowledge, you, Reina, the children and all…will Transcend—”

“ Your lies work on me No More—Caesar !!!”

Bradson Captain boomed, his growl echoing across the spacious void.

Dumbfounded were the two Starbreaker Knights except for their Lord, who lay back smoothly onto his throne.

There the old man stood, panting, fuming at the monarch’s presence. The ruler’s cold glance of disdain met the eyes of searing fury.

“ You wish for me to recover Her, from the hurt your negligence had caused.” Skylord Caesar Skyman mused majestically, resting his chin upon his thin bent knuckles.

“ Yet refuse to let me harness and secure Her Power, for the Greater Good?”

“ It is not great if it is centered only for your own good.” Old Bradson replied adamantly.

“ Her Blessings are for this world, this Earth, Our Home! I can’t let you take it and squander it in—”

“ I’ve seen your fellow crewmembers waiting outside my throneroom.” Caesar Skylord suddenly spoke, cutting the old man’s speech nonchalantly.

“ I’ve seen their eyes, the light in their gazes through my omnipresent visions, Captain. And I must say, the spark within them is quite…different from the others. How is it so…Cas?”

The old man froze and didn’t reply, couldn’t reply before the Lord’s inquisitions.

“ It seems that…Like you, They remember. They know what happened and what you, and I have done for them. But the question is…How?”

Shuddering, ever so slightly, the old man backend as the Lord of Light leaned forward, rising from his sitting, beaming his Halo-wired mechanic crown upon those that bore witness to his splendor.

“ I have my assumptions on how they broke out of the System Memory I myself installed to all…to hide the dreadful reality from them. After all, there is only one thing that could override the System I created. And it lies deep within Her…Inside of Yuri…am I right,

Castiel Bradson?”

Old Castiel Bradson turned away from the blinding halo of the nearing crown.

But the man, this deranged face of the Lord pressed onward with sinister glee.

“ You yourself that had preached of the holiness of the Miracles of this Power, that has used it first on those you dear, For Your Own Good! And yet here you deny my usage?!?! Have a good look at your own place, CAS!!!!!”

Lo, with but that one shout, the Skylord and his extreme power of the Light he gathered, pushed the old man far down, off the top tier of the pyramid and down flying to the depth of the void where soft runes of magnificence caught the terrified old captain and broke his fall.

Steadily, Caesar Skylord levitated down without moving his muscles and reappeared before Castiel’s presence.

“ Don’t be afraid, old friend. You know me. I am not ruthless, nor evil by nature.” The Skylord reached out his hand to the old man to show his benevolence.

“ What you have done, smuggling Grand Asset out of my grasp and accidentally letting Demons taint her…It will all be forgiven. I forgive you, Cas. I will harm no one, not Firren, nor your daughter Reina. Not even you. No. I will punish No one.

“ But…but listen well, Cas. Listen to what I am about to say…

I spare you and all those you dear for an Accord, an Agreement that from now on, you will never stop me from whatever I plan to do. Never shall you thwart my works and foil my plans, because if you do, I Will Erase Both Firren and Reina’s Memories, Once Again!!!! And I’ll make you suffer while letting them Pull The Trigger Onto Your Head!!! Do you Understand?! Do You Not Answer to me, CAESAR SKY LORD?!?!?!?!?!”

“ I…I…do…” once taut and stern, firm and incorruptible, now but a helpless old man cowed upon the threats upon his loved ones by the overlord that rules all under Sky.

Again, like the wrong choice he had made years before, Castiel Bradson knew this is the retribution that he had to pay for his folly.

“ And one more thing.” Caesar Skylord remembered, before turning away back to his throne.

“ Those Children you have also smuggled away under your poor disguise as their Sensei…I’ll have their Light Hearts pulled out to power the lamp in my study too if you ever dare stop me again…Understood…?”

Seeing the trembling nods of the poor old man was enough to rest Caesar’s worries.

With a soft leap, he flew back to his throne, ready to show his failed old friend out when suddenly—

“ You…Your Highness…!!!”

A virtual screen popped out before Caesar Skylord’s eyes.

The face of the helmed white Starbreaker researcher Austriuss came to view, gripping the edges of the screen frantically as the analyst’s surroundings shuddered violently, deep cracks running down the pale marble walls.

Caesar rose his lowered body back up from his throne as his eyes widened with unfathomable glare.

Castiel Bradson too heard of the loud rumbling sounds coming out of the screen and listened carefully at the doorway.

“ Alert…Demons…Demons…like Vapor…WE ARE UNDER ATTACK—!!!!!!”

…

………

Ash, ash, ash everywhere!

A second ago there was nothing and the air was yet pristine as usual. But a second later Dark Demon matter swarmed in particles now roaming the internal sections of the tower, all over the room where the precious subject is kept!!!

Starbreaker researcher Austriuss left the room confining Yuri immediately and activated the Light rays from the ceiling tiles of extermination that decimated the Demon vapor in an instant.

But one second after, there it was, wafting all over now scattered all across the hallway, the entire tower of scrutiny! Everywhere he goes, anything he does, the Demon residues would return and double in multitudes.

“ We are Under serious Attack!!!!” Austriuss resourcefully uttered to the droids standing guard.

“ Send out the alarm! Call in the backup!! And send in the Elites—”

But before he could finish his orders, a shockwave, a severing blade made of wind and Nano dust, sliced through the tower where the Starbreaker researcher stood, bringing down the whole establishment and shattering the veil of Light securing the construct.

…

………

Like moaning, like whispering, high and low, hollow and rich, the different notes linking into a saddening tone blown out of Kai’s ivory-pale flute, a gift from Sensei among many blessings to the children, a fine constructed instrument slightly curved with ornate protrusions sprouting near the pressing holes that added more depth to the sound in its own mysterious ways. Whenever Kai was feeling sublime or low, he would express his thoughts through the echoey whistles of the intricate pipe, either to cheer himself up or soothe others in need of reclination.

Now, it works both ways, a sound to reconcile his wronged agony, and to call out to Neo for him to remember their once unbreakable friendship.

Neo listened with Neliya in silence a few steps away, shutting his eyes as to barge the tears welling up when suddenly the sobbing tune came to an abrupt stop.

The floor rumbled and grew violent without signs of stopping.

And before Neo could turn around to see what was going on from the wide window behind him, an explosion shook them, children, all to the ground asunder with sudden extreme force, clashing of matter thundering their eardrums into their heads.

Up front, the building before them started to teeter.

…

……….

“ Seito! Seito!!”

The big Starbreaker hero man, resting on a bench at the top of a lone flat, basking under the Lights of the capital he had longed longer than he could remember, opened his eyes from his afternoon nap to see Momo, the young and curious, new and yet experienced Starbreaker leaning above him as the young girl shook his divan with much haste.

“ Demons, Seito! Demons! Blowing up skyscrapers !!” Momo exclaimed, pointing at the smoke and ash rising up from the horizons not far off.

“ Chill. It's the capital. No Demon would survive more than five minutes. ”

But young Momo wasn't convinced.

“ Fine, fine…” Seito muttered, summoning his lightning greatsword to his side.

“ But you have to stay behind me at all times. Per Reina's, understand?!”

“ Understood!!”

The energetic Star girl replied, already dashing off into the air at the front in full speed towards the erupted sight, eager to help within and beyond even her power.

…

………

Out of the research center couple of miles apart from the crumbling tower of scrutiny, wings of dark sprouting out of the smog, amassing into one large silhouette of the horrendous skeletal form of the carrion Archdemon, wings like fangs gnawing down at the glassy turrets as its large clawed limbs crushing the celestial foundations, wreaking havoc all over the capital of light. Starbreakers of the city fought back with all their arsenals, firing photon missiles and harpoons chained with light pinning the ever-growing Archdemon down to no avail as the grave beast broke through all the restraints halting its wake.

Watching the conflict ensue into a bigger war amongst the capital city, Bradson rushed forth with quickened steps, Reina and Firren both racing behind to catch up.

“ Isn’t that where Yuri was?!” Firren uttered, running next to the grave captain.

“ How did that Demon…?!”

“ It’s The Archdemon.” Reina figured out quickly. “ It’s the one linked to Vitas…or Vernui. It must have found a way to bypass the light barriers into this city.”

“ That’s impossible! How can a Demon—”

“ It’s not just a Demon.” Bradson Captain grunted in his deep morose answer.

“ It’s…something in between.”

From the disturbed voice of their old captain, both Firren and Reina soon realized something was astir in this troubled man’s heart.

“ What did He say to you?” Reina seriously asked.

“ Not now, Reina.”

“ What did Caesar Skyman say?!”

“ Not Now, Reina!!” Captain Bradson boomed, stopping to a halt in the curved hallway. They all looked at each other uneasily, with the muffled explosions resounding in the background.

“...You two do as I say, as always. As it has been.” Captain Bradson gave out his orders sternly after the momentary silence.

“ Firren, assist the others and subdue the Archdemon. You too, Reina.”

“ But how about Yuri?” Firren asked incredulously.

The captain shook his head heavily.

“ That’s not of your concern.”

“ It Is!!” Firren shouted, fuming with rage.

“ It’s Yuri, Captain!!! We can’t just let the Skylord have her! We have to—!”

“ Enough, Firren.” Reina suddenly spoke, calming the fiery Starbreaker commander with a solemn gaze.

“ It’s the Captain’s orders.”

Reluctantly, Firren could but follow the secretary down the hallway, donning their armor as they headed towards the center of the battle.

Bradson let Reina leave in silence. Without looking each other in the eye, they still managed to see through each other’s eyes, and acknowledge the conflict within their hearts. Only to deal for now in silence.

…

………

With her Starbreaker knight instincts, Yuno had already sensed a disturbance seconds before the explosion at the tower of scrutiny actually erupted, telling her sisters to get ready and don their own Starbreaker armor of each different hue of blue before the wind attack sliced the edifice through.

“ Damn, you are right!” Yuka the tanned energetic one gasped gleefully, her cobalt nano armor swirling upon her lean well-trained physique. “ Something is afoot! The game is on, sisters!”

“ Wait, Yuka.” Yuno glanced with her thin eyes that were half opened now in grave urgence, observing the whole situation as the sirens howled all over the city boulevards.

The other Starbreakers nearby had quickly sprung to action with their armor of many colors enveloping their bodies in splits of a second.

But what caught Yuno’s observant eye, is the upper portion of the tower that toppled down by its own weight, rolling down like a loose tire and crushing the lower half of the monolith, dragging the whole tower to a teetering fall, collapsing directly at the lounge building where the children were all gathered by the window, staring in terror.

Yun gasped silently in outright distraught at the sight of the children’s imminent demise. But her older sister pulled her back from rushing out to save the infants.

“ No, Yun.” Yuno calmly ordered, her thin slanted eyes that seemed closed but already discerned completely the whole situation.

“ You head straight to Her and get her out to safety.”

(But sister—)

Yun the youngest of the sisters tried to object through her hushed unsettled voice, eager to save the children first, but Yuno insisted.

“ Yun, my dear. Your abilities are most suitable to save her now. For the mission, Yun. For our task. Our Salvation, it means everything. Don’t let us down, Yun. ”

Coaxed by her older sister’s words, the silent one vanished into a ball of mist that swirled up to the crumbling tower in no time.

“ But seriously, though, how about those children?” Yuka asked, wringing her bracelet launchers loaded with sharp thin bullets circling around her wrist.

“ They will likely perish in seconds here. This world is cruel, and its nature ruthless.”

“ They’ll find a way.”

Yuno replied callously with a wave of her hand of swift elegance, conjuring to her side arsenals, swarms of circular sky pods and air drones that were once hovering across the Capital skylines transporting resources and constructing frameworks, now gathered all around her, heeding her every command.

Even the balcony they had been resting on was in fact a larger disk-shaped sky pod perched on a building top that slowly rose up to the air, sailing towards the crumbling tower of Scrutiny.

“ Like we all did.”

With a shrug, Yuka complied as they rode the platform up high, sky pods and droids shooting a path out of the crumbling buildings above.

Navigating through the tremulous sky, Yuno, with the side of her slanted eye, however, glanced downward at the children within the building way back. Something about their struggle seemed wrong to Yuno’s sharp eyes.

Why are they not fleeing?

Muttering to herself, Yuno turned her flying sky pod pedestal the other way, back towards the lounge building where the children reside.

“ Hey! The demons are that way!” Yuka pointed to the opposite side.

“ I know.” Yuno snapped unwillingly. “ You go and do your thing, I’ll catch up later. ”

But her energetic Starbreaker sister didn’t leave right away as Yuno thought she would.

“ What?” Yuno glared at her sheepish grinning sister.

“ Nothing. Oh, wait! Can I borrow a sky pod? I don’t want to run all the way up there.”

Then build yourself a jetpack, Yuka! Yuno rolled her eyes as she swiftly summoned a hovering droid in the air that came whooshing past at excellent speed, grabbing Yuka at the back like an eagle snatching its prey and her sister was off, screaming all the way in shock.

“ Now then…” Turning back, Yuno summoned out more large aerial disc-shaped sky pods, weaponized surveillance droids, and all sorts of technological instruments at her disposal, forming a levitating barricade that grasped the falling debris of the crumbling tower from cascading into the children’s building. She then focused her visor detectors on the children huddled together in the lounge hall of the skyscraper, observing their unnatural movements within the glass hall.

“ What’s stopping them from moving…??”

The main portion of the severed edifice is nearing and yet the children were still present, scrambling in the room without any sense of leaving.

That was when it dawned on Yuno.

Can it be…that they couldn’t flee?

…

………

“ This door won’t open!” Bashing on the door did Neo hear another cry coming from the other side of the wide room where the other entrance was, forcing his strength to pull the gates aside as the pressure of the high ivory tower a boulevard away tumbling all down towards them weighed down onto him.

“ Try the other doors!!!” Neo shouted back, diving his weapon, a shield he used to defend his folk from Demon assault, at the slit between the fringes, yanking hard to no avail.

All the doors were locked and the exits were all sealed. They were trapped, possibly deliberately, without their knowing. The Skylord had them kept in his grasp, a devastating grab that would pull them all to their woeful end!

Lima quickly pulled out from her necklace her saber of Light and struck the still-shut entrance, shocked to see the Light field upon the surface of the door repelling her energy blade, dimming her weapon useless.

Lima cut and slashed the walls and glass, only to meet with the same results.

Neo cursed for not realizing they were had by the Starbreakers all along. As Rio, his brother tried with his brute force to break the doors down with any weapon he could wield, Lima too, pierced her lightsaber deep into the metal, yet both with no results. The rumbling and clashes of the towers outside added only the disparity and fear of impending doom.

Neo quickly thought of an alternative route that could save their lives. At first, Neo thought of climbing the vents atop the ceiling, but it was quite high, and to reach it they would need three tall boys to top up above each other. Still, it might work!

But just as Neo was about to assemble himself, Treize the big chubby kid, and Rio to top up to reach the vent, a new voice, a foreign bright call of sublime at the side of the wide hall, calling to them, not just through the sound to their ears, but also by the resonating force vibrating with all their light hearts.

One person that could not be ignored, beaming a blue radiant glow before their desperate eyes.

“ Everyone! This way!”

The clear chiming voice called out once more welcomingly to them and immediately the children gathered and rushed force, without doubt, without suspicion, trusting the soothing rallying wholeheartedly.

Even Neo, the most doubtful and suspicious of all the children gave in as he followed the glow standing at the opening of a small secret passage that had emerged from the side of the wall.

“ Rio?! What are you standing there for? Come on!” The kids shouted at the dumbstruck boy who, with his eyes riveted to the figure that had just called to them, the one leading them out of peril and away from jeopardy, in the blue radiance that the small figure seemed to give rise through her plain existence. Long curly blue hair combed elegantly in majestic fashion did Rio bear witness and a face, such a countenance so charming and blissfully out of this world that meddled with Rio’s perception and his understanding of the world and the true definition of beauty.

Surely, Rio’s mind flashed with the one remaining sane thought in his simple brain, This girl is the fairest among all the things that have existed and ever will be.

And better yet, his idleness had lured the one girl of blue shimmering hair to his presence and pulled Rio by the hand, with her gentle yet firm grip, her clean hands clenching at his dirty sweaty palms, her swaying curls of lively blue brushing inches away from his stupified face. The comforting fragrance of royalty he did cherish with all his senses as the girl led him out into the path, any path Rio vowed in his Light heart, into fire or storm he would follow. If only he could stay longer with her, this unchallenged embodiment of beauty itself, the reincarnation of all the sweet marvelous things in the world, he would ask no more and forever be content.

While the children followed the mysterious girl down the secret path for a few steps, Neo suddenly realized through his keen observation that someone was not with them.

“ Kai!!!” Neo uttered, turning around to see the boy still sitting in his corner in the crumbling lounge hall, stranded in melancholy!!

“ Wait!! Neo!!!!” Neliya cried but Neo was already rushing backward, to seek his friend that had refused to join.

Is it guilt?! Or retribution for what he had done?!?!

Neo could not come up with any other speculation as he dashed back to the lounge, dodging the falling tiles from the ceiling as he leapt closer.

“ Kai!!” Neo shouted, reaching out his hand to grab his former advisor, slumped still in his corner.

“ Kai! Grab my hand!”

“ No.” Kai refused calmly, speaking in a sour depressed cadence.

“ I was framed. But you wouldn’t listen.”

“ Kai, for crying out loud!!! Grab My Hand!!!!!”

“ No, I will not!” Kai adamantly refused, as the glass shattered and boulders from the neighboring tower crushed in towards them. But before the one large boulder struck the two boys, a hovering sky pod, shaped as a flower-petal disk, utilized merely in transportation and ranged combat, flew in out of nowhere and stopped the huge marble megalith in its path before both Neo and Kai’s eyes, saving both of them startled boys.

But still, Kai would not go along with Neo.

“ Neo, deep down you still think it was me that vandalized Sensei’s book, and there’s nothing that would change your mind. And that is what pains me the most. With lies that seem true in your eyes, you would forsake the trust of a fellow bro that had never doubted you once in his life. Neo, the fact that you did not trust me at all has proven that I am no more your friend, and there is only one way I know of proving my innocence—Through my own demise!”

“ KAI !!!!!!!!”

Neo made one last leap.

Before the ceiling collapsed.

…

………..

Raising his face to the lights above, with a sigh that consisted of disappointment, annoyance, and impatience, Lord Caesar Skyman sat straight as he massaged his temples under his maximum wired crown of red rubies, fuming with his eyes closed as he slowly stood up from his throne, ready to adjourn when he paused his sick frame before turning around.

“ Where is the Princess?” The Skylord asked the Courier droid standing by his presence.

“ There is a Demon assault. Where is My Princess?!” shouted the king in deranged fury.

“ South to the Citadel, My lord.” The android servant replied monotonously, showing a telegraphic map in its robotic palm.

“ Shall we bring her back, My lord?”

Caesar Skylord mused the location on the map carefully.

“ So do.”

The King of the skies then turned to his two trusted Starbreaker Elites.

“ Do all you can…” He voiced in a hollow menacing cadence.

“ … to keep this city…Dustless. And make sure…Our Guest is unharmed.

“ Rest assured, Your highness.” General Solo and the one with the six rifle lances bowed

before exiting the throne room from above, levitating to the top of the citadel where the armies of Starbreakers were already at their posts, firing long-ranged star flare projectiles at the rampaging Archdemon.

“ Well, I’ll go get the Asset—” Solo planned to seek the ‘Weapon’ he brought back from the North, but the Exalted one stopped him with but a glance.

A powerful proud glance.

“ That wouldn’t be necessary.”

The young woman spoke, waving to her six hovering glamorous lance rifles covered in runes and glows as the crooked poles gathered before her, spreading out obediently as to let her Exaltedness choose which ones to use.

True, Solo thought to himself.

Her alone with one lance rifle is equal in power as the Asset armor that Solo had brought back from the North, not to mention six of them. At the time when nearly all of the first Generation Starbreakers have either perished or lost contact, it was Her who single-handedly banished the vile invading Demons back to oblivion for centuries; it was under Her sovereign that SkyWorld could prosper without the hindrance of dark, and her generous governing that the people and their Light hearts could be blessed and escorted to the Land of Light overall.

Hence, the title of the Exalted One, instead of Grand Generalissimo, which sounded less sublime, to Her ears, of course.

Surely, decimating one more Archdemon wouldn’t be much trouble, Solo mused, stepping back from his post. Perhaps there’s no need for me here…

“ Say, Solo.”

The Exalted one suddenly spoke before Solo could turn away and slack off in the corner.

“ Yes?” Solo stepped forth, feigning fervorous participance.

“ …Which one do you think suits this occasion better?” The young lady generalissimo, light gold of hair in her late twenties, asked nonchalantly, showing her six threatening lance rifles to Solo, who just blinked blankly.

Indeed, Solo reminded himself quickly. Being one of the strongest beings on earth, it may lighten the gravity of an Archdemon rampage before her presence.

“ Whatever you like, Caerlia.” Solo chuckled, hiding his aloofness.

“ Which reminds me, I have to go check on our Guest. You know, the one linked to the Herunis Carna—”

“ If She surely is as powerful as everyone says and believes,” Her voice changed from leisured to life-threatening in an instant, still choosing which lance to bring with her graceful tracing fingers.

“ Then a Demon or two won’t cause her too much trouble, am I right, Solo?”

I see. Solo mused in silence. She never intended to help.

“ Imagine the Lord’s expression if he learns that the girl has got even a scratch in this debacle.” Solo decided to persuade the Exalted Starbreaker Lancer in his own way.

“ Let’s not test the Lord’s benignity, am I right?”

“ Does it not irritate you, Solo?” Her Exaltedness Caerlia asked, arching her nape backward with her body tilted toward him, turning half around to face Solo with her cold glance and imperious sneer, a prideful grin that only a being of her caliber could possibly harness to its full bloom.

“ That for all that you’ve achieved, all that you’ve done, there is still something, someone higher than you in ways you never ever expected?”

“ I wouldn’t describe it as irritation.” Solo scratched his brow casually in answer.

“ Acceptance, maybe. Or perhaps…I see it as a chance.”

“ A chance to defeat what you already cannot defeat?”

“ No. I don’t need to defeat what is stronger.” Solo shook his head.

“ I simply Become them. Surely, when two are the same, the uniquity diminishes.”

Caerlia frowned at the General’s quick-witted answer.

“ You mean, to get This Individual’s Power to Link with the Herunis Carna myself…?”

“ I don’t see why not.” Solo shrugged sheepishly.

“ Isn’t she right there for the taking? That’s why the Demons are here, are they not? Whoever gets her…Gets the Code to the Origin of Light.”

The two Starbreaker Generals stared at each other in a long silence.

The resounding explosions and crashes of the Archdemon felling the city turrets far away, echoing through their ears.

“ Hoh. Showing off your eloquence are you?” Her Exaltedness sniggered with pride, finally pulling two of her lance rifles out of the fray and tossing them high as the two lances sped up at speeds of light as if shooting up to the stars.

Solo nodded back humbly, glad that his words have yet again ushered the tide to his favor.

Yuri must stay.

The Codes to the Herunis Carna must stay.

…

…………

As the Starbreaker knights of the city hustled through the boulevards and building tops, launching their lasers and missiles at the towering Demon, Vernui sneaked behind their backs, catching glimpse of familiar faces such as Seito and Firren battling the Archdemon’s shade, while he swooped under all their notice as he neared, just a few miles away from the tower he had just severed with his reforged ashen gale katana where Yuri was imprisoned by the Skylord.

“ There is not much time, my essence to conjure my body is running low!” Archdemon Plague crooned grimacingly, now but a wisp lingering next to Vernui’s visor.

“ If you leave now, there is yet a chance to survive. Turn back and flee, boy!”

But no matter how the Archdemon persuades, Vernui’s mind was set.

To bring Yuri out, out of captivity, out of this cage of Light made by the Skylord, and also away from the grip of the craving Demons.

They shall escape, fly out of the yearnings of others, and be free of their own will.

Build their own world, and forge Memories anew that belong only to themselves.

A new home.

That was his one and only wish since the beginning, his first memory,

with Yuri.

…

……….

“ ATTENTION! !”

“ ATTENTION, STARBREAKERS! !”

“ SKYWORLD IS UNDER ATTACK ! ! !”

“ REPEAT, ALL STARBREAKERS, SKYWORLD IS UNDER ATTACK ! !

TO COMBAT POSITION IMMEDIATELY ———! ! ! ! !”

Shaken by the fall of her room, confused by the world outside the pulverized walls, Yuri tried again to free herself of the metal cuffs around her belly, yet her strength and will power, all but diminished and negated by that one piercing sheer pain erupting within her, like a blade of fire cutting her open from the inside.

The tiles of the floor sank as the bed dragged Yuri along with her, sliding down to a lone edge before one high free fall to the shattered boulevard below.

I must…

Yuri struggled to break free, only to succumb again to the excruciating pain.

What has happened to me…?! Is it the devices the scientists put all over me…?

Is it…the memories that I have been seeing in my dreams…the flashes of the past…The school…My friends…everyone…Vernui…Lima…!

Her hands, gripping at the iron straps numbed and loosened as her consciousness, like the teetering bed, tilted downward to a straight fall—

— when inevitably, the bed slid. Yet the iron cuffs were no longer clasped, cracked open without Yuri realizing as her vague vision saw it cascade down, shattering to pieces while she floated still over the edge of the crumbled tower.

Floated…?

At first, Yuri thought it was the tears that obscured her sight, yet the more she discerned, the more fog she perceived swirling and enveloping her like a force field resembling a bubble shielding her from the crumbling bricks.

Curiously, still in pain, Yuri reached out to the gaseous barriers around her, feeling its soothing chill and soft tender touch that felt as if someone else was there reaching their palm to hers. And Yuri was right.

There, out of the mist and fog, a figure surfaced, forming shape out of the cool air. It was a girl, in a faint blue-hued Starbreaking armor that seemed like Yuri’s own, even the one donning the armor looked just like herself, feeling as if staring at a mirror, with but slight differences upon closer inspection.

The shorter, more purplish hair polished in a smooth short bob cut; her countenance was close to Yuri’s own, yet her temperament serene, and her maturity lacking confidence. Timidly, the one before Yuri led her out of the collapsing wreck, ushering the bubble of mist out as their hovered slowly out of ruin.

Ceased temporarily was the pain within Yuri the longer she stayed within the bubble, giving her the strength to finally ask this familiar person rescuing her in a weak whisper.

“ Who…Who are you?”

Pausing for but a split second, venturing onward without turning back even slightly, the Starbreaker of the mist replied timidly in a hollow whisper that Yuri could hear not through the ears, but in her light heart.

(...Yun…is my name.)

“ Yun……” Yuri whispered back, trying to recall from her dream, her stream of memory if she had met or ever known a girl called Yun before, but remembered nothing.

“ Thank you, Yun…for saving me.”

Yuri smiled, but the nervous girl refused to make eye contact, even though Yuri could sense the girl’s eagerness to know more about her.

“ Your Starbreaker ability is remarkable, Yun. This barrier…it blocks everything, right—”

At that exact moment, a spear-like Demon residue flew out from the battle miles behind and sailed down towards them, as Yuri tried to dock, shielding her face through pure instinct from impact, the Starbreaker of the fog simply stared at the sharp incoming force, grabbing tightly to Yuri’s arm. Before Yuri saw what happened, the Demon arrow whooshed past through them like they were but thin air, stopping not until the residue soared down, piercing deep into the marble roads below.

Yuri blinked, astounded by the abilities that had just happened in seconds before her eyes.

“ How…how did that…”

( …hurry…)

The serene Starbreaker whispered, reluctant to address Yuri’s curiosity, turning faintly transparent as she piloted the bubble over Yuri close behind.

( We need you…to stay safe.)

“ We??” Yuri thought for a second or two.

“ Did Grandpapa Bradson send you here? Is he alright? Is he safe? Is sister Reina, Commander Firren—”

Feeling pressured by questions she did not know the answers to, and terrified by the fervor of this half-stranger, Yun declined any more contact as she slowly vaporized out of visibility, raising nothing but more curiosity from Yuri.

“ Yun? Are you there?? Yun???”

But someone else of a familiar voice called out to Yuri at that exact moment.

A voice that sent out a wave of remembrance, a spark that lit up the once long-lost memories that slowly gave light, a clenching grasp in her light heart that halted Yuri’s every move, to center her gaze on that one figure soaring down from behind her.

“ YURI—!!!”

She froze.

As the soothed piercing pain within her lower abdomen started to churn and resurge.

“ …Vernui…?!”

Wings wide spread, donned in armor glowing half with emerald blaze while the other side tarnished in Demon shade, Veruni dashed down toward her under the sun. His grey eyes glowed with resolve.

“ Yuri, I am sorry…I Am Sorry for what I did!” His wings fluttered violently to slow his pace, as he reached his hand far out to her.

His hand,

like before, always reaching out to her.

But this time, Yuri was hesitant.

“ We have to go, Yuri. Let’s leave this fake city toge—”

Before Vernui could finish, his mouth suddenly filled with liquid and dark blood burst out of his lips.

Both Vernui and Yuri gasped as faintly out from between them, the armored figure of a Starbreaker slowly emerged out of the mist that was now cold and chilling, freezing and cruel.

( NO……)

Yun hissed, planting a multi-edged crooked laser patta blade right through Vernui’s half Starbreaker half-Dark Unerva armor, stabbing through his chest without sentiment.

What was once a timid tender whisper, was now a wrathful hiss of sheer animosity, pushing the searing laser blade deeper into the young man’s insides.

Vernui tried to pull the assaulting Starbreaker’s arm away, but his gauntlets touched nothing but cold frosty mist as if the one before him was but a vengeful apparition staring with a wide intimidating gaze that reflected what seemed like a lifetime’s hatred.

Looking carefully past the gradually forming visor of his assailant, Vernui saw that it was a young girl of the same age as he and Yuri, with a frighteningly striking resemblance in appearance to Yuri herself, as if it was Yuri in a different set of armor and shorted hair plunging that blade down his chest.

“ Fool! Fight back or die!” The voice of the Archdemon pulled Vernui out of his shocked trance as he quickly summoned his round shield, reflecting any damage upon him whatsoever with repelling force, finally able to push the Starbreaker of the mist away temporarily off him as his other hand tried to summon his katana, which he refused.

“ Summon your sword!!” Archdemon Plague boomed but Vernui declined.

( Pull out your sword.)

Vernui thought he heard Yuri’s voice, which seemed silenced in amplitude and topped with utter enmity, as thick freezing fog swarmed all over him, swallowing him whole into a pallid void.

The searing laser patta pierced out from under, and Vernui barely deflected the blow if he had hesitated a split second more. But the patta blade returned from the opposite side, again and again, aiming at his vitals from nowhere he could trace but deflect with his shield, unable to counter.

“ Stop…!” Seeing the two entwined in the dance of macabre intent, Yuri thought of nothing but to stop them.

Yet, the sudden pain, the excruciating eruption inside her, forced Yuri to succumb to her senses as she collapsed within the bubble, right before Vernui’s eyes.

No! Vernui’s fists clenched hard onto his shield handle. Time is running out. Archdemon Plague is close to his limit, and so was he. Vernui had to act fast and save Yuri from this—Holding his shield up facing its round surface high above his head, Vernui whispered a quick incantation of his Dark Unerva Astra. “ Nay Loitar!!”

Instantly, dark gales swirled out like cyclones with his shield as the eye of the storm, a tornado that denied the powers of light and cleared the field, pushing Yun miles away before vanishing once again for another comeback. But that is all the time Vernui needed.

Dashing with a leap, Vernui soared forth, using his shield to break the mist bubble and grab Yuri out as fast as he could.

“ Yuri—”

Yuri managed to look up albeit in her crouched suffering state.

That hand.

Vernui.

Half in light, half in dark.

Reaching out again to her, the way she dreamed of, knew of, remembered of—

But Yuri hesitated.

As Vernui’s shield was upon the soft surface, ready to break the film, when suddenly—

— Like the speed of a dart arrow, a large shadow zoomed passed.

And Vernui was gone.

…

………

It took five girls including Lucky and many others to pull Neliya back from the crumbling entrance to the lounge hall, and even after the crumbling had subsided, Neliya refused to go, to leave Neo behind.

Staying in the safe secret passage, the blue-haired girl decided to wait also for them.

And to their utter surprise and rejoicing gasps,

as the dust cleared,

there came out Neo, carrying Kai on his right shoulder, while to all the children’s awe, Tricia the speechless child helped carry Kai also on her left shoulder.

It was Tricia, who managed to pull Kai out of depressed stubbornness at the last moment and got the three of them safely to the hidden path.

“ There they go,” Yuno muttered as she let go of all the sky pods, large and small, round and of all kinds of shapes, as they all dispersed, letting the lounge building crumble down after the long irritating support for the children inside to get out.

“ Why am I doing this…?” Yuno questioned herself, knowing pretty well deep down she always had a thing for fragile weak things in heart, a sentiment that she strongly denies to bear.

Seeing that the children finally reunited once more, traversing down the path to safety, hand in hand, behind the lead of a familiar child with that unmistakable glow of blue hair.

“ Is that…?” Yuno moved her hovering platform inward curiously to see if the one she saw of blue hair was really who she thought to be, gliding high above as the children came across a long pass. A bridge of glass reaching far to the turrets of the central citadel of the capital. But the clashing of the Starbreakers against the Archdemon, along with the bricks and falling debris, had caused much damage to the long glass infrastructure, drawing long cracks up and below the long thin drawbridge.

“ No. Don’t cross that bridge. You won’t make it…And they still did.” But despite Yuno’s complaints, the children treaded forth bravely across the breaking glass.

“ Why can’t they just stay put…??” Groaning to herself, Yuno still stirred her legions of sky pods down to shield the bridge from further damage.

…

………

“ Let go!!” Vernui uttered as he kicked the person pushing him at dashing speeds downward, throwing punch after punch embedded with sharp needles at his visor, as they crashed through the cement pavements and running streams at the ground level of the splendid city.

But his kick was sabotaged by his opponent’s fast reflexes, turning his attack into his weakness as the unknown Starbreaker in cobalt blue bent his leg effortlessly in an anatomically improbable way.

Vernui let out a scream of utter pain, finally summoning his ashen gale Katana to his hand and piercing the roads to break his crash to little effect. It was a lamp post that stood sturdily on the sidewalk that hit Vernui’s pursuer in the head that helped him break free from the unpleasant landing.

“ We are all spent, boy.” Archdemon Plague crooned powerlessly.

“ Spare us both and run for it now! We can still make a return…”

“ No…!!” Vernui insisted, supporting his body with his katana.

“ I am not leaving…without Yuri!!!”

There, not far from where he stood, was the unknown Starbreaker that emerged out of the dust and debris.

“ Ouchies…Stupid lamp post…!!” Cursed Yuka, holding her cracked visor painfully as she stood up, swaying side to side dizzily.

“ You!!”

Yuka growled, pointing at Vernui with an accusing finger.

“ I don’t know why you got both Starbreaker and Dark Unerva armor on you, cool coating by the way, but I assume that you are Bad!! Bring it on, villain!!”

Vernui wasn’t sure, but something in this young teenage girl Starbreaker’s voice reminded him of Yuri, but a pretty unhinged Yuri.

“ She sounds like a fool. Finish her with your sword, boy!” Archdemon Plague hissed impatiently, but Vernui again refused to use his katana, sheathing it quickly.

“ A misunderstanding, fellow Starbreaker!” Vernui called out to Yuka in a calm exhausted tone.

“ These are stains from the Demon! I am also a Starbreaker, like you!”

Both Vernui and Plague waited in anticipating silence, praying for the lie to work miracles.

“ Huh?! No way! Geez…Sorry, man.” Yuka scratched the back of her head, backing off.

“ You know…sometimes I got carried away in battles…”

It worked?! Vernui and Plague gapped in disbelief.

Hurry, Vernui thought, spreading his wings to get back to Yuri when the Starbreaker suddenly appeared before his presence with but an agile leap that startled both the young man and his Demon bird.

“ Oh hey, you’ve got wings! Would you mind if I hitch a ride back to the battlefield with you? Pretty please~?”

Yuka begged with a wink.

Oh, shoot. Vernui was stumped.

But before he could give out another lie or answer, a thrumming low moan from afar started to moan, louder and louder, louder and louder until all sound was swallowed in by the now shrieking shout of a coming force in the form of a devastating beam of red and white, combined with a trillion bolts of searing energy, cutting the skies in half as the torrent traveled far and wide without end.

“ NO!!” Archdemon Plague uttered in defeat, revealing his dusted form before Vernui and Yuka’s eyes.

“ My shadow…My essence and Scourge…That blow…It is HER…!!!”

“ Is that yours?!” Yuka pointed at the croaking smog of the Archdemon, greatly startled.

“ No! It’s a Demon I caught!” Vernui clarified with another lie.

“ Cut the crap, Boy!! We must leave!!!” Plague uttered furiously, swarming all over Vernui in an attempt to control his body.

“ You have no idea of that Power, the fear it harbors…!! It is too late…Must Go…Must Go…boy…!!!”

Never had Vernui heard the Archdemon beg in such a desperate fashion, and neither had Yuka ever heard an Archdemon before.

“ What is he talking about…?” Yuka asked, her playful tone downing to a serious inquiry.

“ Hey! Say something! What is the Demon talking about…”

Before Vernui could make up another sound reasoning to slither his way out of questioning, even the blue Starbreaker all of a sudden was silent, looking up at the echoing skies with much trepidation in her eyes.

“...Oh…this is not good…” Yuka, though her intellect may not be able to provide her much, her instincts were still as keen as her other sisters, and with that obvious a foreboding that even she could immediately grasp.

“ Wa…Wait…!” Vernui called out to the girl who began to flee on foot as fast as she could.

“ Why are you—”

“ It’s coming for you!!!” Yuka shouted back, running further and further away in haste.

“ It’s…Coming…!!!!!”

Then Vernui heard the hummings growing louder above.

…

………..

“ Fe-Pilias!! Ag-Likhan!!!”

Caerlia the Exalted let go now two of her prized lance rifles, setting them out soaring to the air above as she stared with her wide eyes into the void, runes of Power running across the surface of her sclera and iris.

Finally, her eyes saw them.

Standing at the far end of the city.

“ Perish them.” The Starbreaker queen ordered in a short whisper. Her two hovering rifles immediately sprang to action, each shooting out one zigzagging bolt of light dancing across the grey sky.

Then the beams each doubled, four bolts piercing the clouds. Then they doubled again. Eight searing streams of utter power dived down as they doubled again and again with each second passing, until the sky was pale and red, filled with nothing but cascading spears of light and destruction, cascading all down onto one designated point.

Onto Vernui.

…

………

The children paused their steps upon the fragile glass bridge, eyes riveted by the sheer magnificence of the diving rays spread out like a cloak over the lands.

Rio, however, had his eyes focused still on the blissful girl of blue hair that led them out to safety.

“ Run…”

Feira and the others gasped in shock and wonder.

“ Finnir!!!” Feira burst into tears of joy. “ You are awake!!”

“ The Light…!” Finnir croaked, fully awake and terrified by the blinding rays reflected upon his eyes.

“ Lights…of Caesar…Skyman…!!!! Lights of Treachory…!”

No one understood a word the woken sick boy said, but they were glad that he is finally awake, and in time to witness a Grand Astra.

Yuno silently traced her eyes accordingly to the light rays’ trajectory.

It’s over now, for whoever stood against these lances is as well as perished.

…

………..

“ So…Beautiful…” Momo breathed, awed by the extreme sight.

“ Beautiful, and Devastatingly so.” Seito murmured, recalling the early days of his Starbreaker career. Those Lights were the cornerstones of this city, this Civilization of Light.

…

……….

Eyes at the bursting sky, Castiel Bradson leaned his one side to teh glass corridor, contemplating still.

Incomparable are the forces of Caesar Skylord and his armies of Starbreakers and Light, but still, he cannot accept defeat. Not now, No. Caesar must be stopped, his derangement and woeful anger have led him down the uncouth path. One that will doom their World, their sole remaining Home…

He is too powerful, and Bradson himself too old, and dragged by the baggage of his own actions.

Yuri…Yuri is our only Hope—!

…

………

“ Yun…Yun…!” Yuri cried out as the Starbreaker of the mist quickly brought the bubble force field down on a building top where Yuri could lay down and rest on Yun’s lap.

But rest is the last thing on Yuri’s mind.

“ Yun…where did Vernui go…?! Where is he now?!”

( Don’t look for him, Yuri.)

The one with the fog answered candidly.

( He deserves this end. He deserves to suffer, and rote in despair.)

“ What…?? But he is Vernui!! He…He was someone to Me! He was My friend—My Family Before!!!”

But with a cry of pain, Yuri fell back into Yun’s arms, unable to rise as she lay on the silent girl’s lap, resting her eyes on the trillions of shooting stars flaring their path across the outer heavens.

“ …What are those…Yun…?” Yuri managed to ask in a weak breathy whisper.

( Caerlia Lansara Suprima.)

Yun answered, clear and sound through Yuri’s light heart.

( She governs all Starbreakers. The Exalted one. She who guides the Light, and brings those to the Blessed Realm. She is most powerful, Yuri, and there is no way He could ever escape…)

“ No…” Yuri sobbed, trying hard to sit up, in vain.

“ I…I should have…I should have taken his—”

( You did the right thing.)

Yun placed her chilling palm over Yuri’s feverous forehead, soothing the saddened girl to a deep painless slumber.

( You are free from him…Yuri…that’s all you could ever wish for…

…That’s all I ever wanted……

……to be free……)

…

……….

Dashing with his wings swept back, Vernui pushed his way forth with his shield against the last barrier of Light in his way.

But he was a second too late,

When the merciless Light spears all plunged down upon him,

ripping him into nothing but thin Nano dust.

He felt the everlasting searing pain evaporating his sole existence.

[......to be continued]