Monika woke up tired, she had a bad dream last night. It was not a nightmare per se but more of an unpleasant dream. She dreamt about her high school years when her own sister was bullying her and people around her laughed about something that she's not. But it was all in the past, she never really tries her best to remember them or seek vengeance on the people who harmed her in the past. This is what she's like, a person who doesn't hold grudges. But when people try to harm her or her friends, she will make them remember the hard way.
Monika is going to meet with Noel, Kira, and Justice. Kira wanted to invite Lucie, but she was only there for a day. But she promises Kira that they will meet again soon. Monika is very skeptical about the whole meeting; she insists to believe that Justice has cast some kind of charm spell on Noel that makes her fall in love with her. Even Noel has explained multiple times that she's completely fine.
During the breakfast, it was really quiet for the trio. This perhaps is the first time that happened after a really long time. Because they had a disagreement. Monika believes that the whole Noel and justice thing is ill-mannered and thus should be terminated. Noel is angrier about Monika not being a good friend to support her when she needs it the most. Kira is just a bit scared of what's going to happen between those two.
"I've heard that you are friends with Lucie Morningstar," Monika said while mixing her morning salad.
"Yea, she's really nice and surprisingly down to earth." Kira is glad that Monika decided to talk first because she's always the stubborn one. "I and Noel met her at the bar."
"The same bar Noel met Justice?" Monika is still trying to piece everything together.
"Yea, It's weird right?"
"What did Justice and Noel do?" Monika asks Kira even though Noel is right next to them. Monika is acting as if Noel doesn't exist.
Kira notices the discomfort from Noel's face, but she decides to answer Monika's question, in a way that favors Noel: "Noel and Justice talked for a while and they shared each other's stories, I remember there was a lot of laughter and both of them genuine clicks with each other."
Monika drinks her orange juice and leaves a long sigh: " Kira, are you lying to me?"
"What?..." Kira indeed was lying; Noel fell in love hopelessly two minutes after meeting Justice.
"I know Noel better than anyone, she's not a person who would talk a lot in a relationship," Monika said calmly yet her tone is extremely aggressive.
"Oh really? do you know me better than anyone?" Noel suddenly spoke in a way that Kira never heard before.
"Yea, I do. In fact, I took care of dozens of messes you made with your past relationships, the reason that they are not coming to you again is just because of me!" Monika couldn't keep her cool anymore.
"Did I ask you to do any of those?!" Noel sounded triggered and stood up: " I just wanted you to listen about my problems, now I know why none of those guys came back to me. It was all because of you. I hate you!"
"Alright, I've heard enough. I'll be waiting for you guys in front of the cafe later." Monika bangs her fist on the table and leaves. She tries her best to suppress her anger, but it still leaked out like a water bottle with a hole. Before things escalated, she left the restaurant.
This is the first fight they had after a very long time. Monika doesn't feel good fighting her best friend. She wanted to turn back multiple times, but her instinct told her that she can't go back until both of them chill down. Monika looks at the sky, it is still early morning but there's a lot of people preparing to work already. This reminds her of Nova, every time when Monika is out doing her stuff, it is always Nova who takes care of the work for her. Even though Monika now has a higher rank, she still relies on Nova to do the works for her.
Monika calls Nova but it goes to voice mail. She decides to leave a voicemail for Nova: " Hi, sis. I know it's been a while. So i feel like checking on you at some point… If you have time to call back, then…. You know… call. Bye." She quickly closed her phone, which was embarrassing for her. She feels like her face is burning.
Monika is still hungry because she didn't even start her salad before storming out of the hotel. After wandering around for a few minutes she suddenly spotted a pancake stand.
"One pancake with everything you got, please." Monika is starving.
"Alright, it seems like someone is in a mood for pancakes." The guy who's making it comments on Monika's choice: " What's the occasion?"
"I had a fight with my best friend…." Monika said it while looking down. She feels like talking about it.
"Ouf, that sounds rough. Was it a business fight or a relationship fight?" Surprisingly the pancake guy knows how to chat.
"More of a relationship fight, she likes someone, but I don't like the guy."
"Sounds like your problem then, missy." he chuckles while making the pancake.
"How is that my problem? The guy is bad, and I want what's best for my friend." Monika is stubborn.
"How do you know what's the best for your friend? Did you even meet the guy yet?"
"I…." Monika feels like she doesn't have the moral high ground.
"Here's your pancake." he gives a paper bag to Monika, apparently it is a supersized pancake. "That would be 20 credits please."
"Keep the change." Monika gave him a generous tip, despite not having a good conversation, It made Monika realize what's the problem between her and Noel. Maybe it is her fault to give a conclusion way too early. Monika sits on a long park chair with her pancake, she's sad. The last time was Trazyn who pulled her out of this situation, it gave her purpose again. But now Trazyn is gone, she couldn't help herself but start weeping again.
"Something's wrong?" Nova suddenly appears in front of Monika.
Monika wipes her face quickly with her sleeves and looks away: " What are you doing here?"
"Got a voicemail from you so I figured that you wanna meet up." Nova smiles, she's happy about getting that message so she came all the way from the capital to Lokar with her personal jet: "Something is bothering you?" Nova sits next to Monika; she can tell that Monika is sad. She can read Monika's mind to know what happened, but she decides not to.
"I fought with Noel…" Her tone makes her sound like a child who just broke a family vase.
"You want me to take care of it?" Nova sounds serious.
"No! I mean, friends fight. But this time I feel like it is more complicated than just a simple fight." Monika takes out the gigantic pancake she ordered.
"Damn, that's a big pancake. Are you sure you can finish it yourself?" Nova hasn't eaten yet because she was driving her plane.
Monika cuts the pancake in half with a dagger and gives the other part to Nova: " Have you encountered someone who's with a person that clearly doesn't fit with her but that she is so deeply in love with him that she would even want to fight you about it?"
Nova chuckles: " That's a long question, let me think…. You and Trazyn?"
"What? Why?" Monika sounds not convinced at all.
"I mean… he's an evil alien robot overlord and you are a cutie who lacks a brain. It is amazing that it worked out for you guys, but it does seem unusual if you ask me." Nova replied in a non-insulting way.
"..." Monika remains in silence; she isn't mad at Nova for pointing out the obvious. She just doesn't want to solve the problem the same way Nova did for her and Trazyn. But thinking about what she's doing now to Noel. She couldn't feel but be embarrassed by the fact that Nova handles the situation way better than her.
Nova loves to see Monika's thinking face, she puts her arm on Monika's shoulder and pulls her closer, Monika doesn't really resist as well. She can use some love at this point, even if it's from Nova: " Say… have you ever thought about what would happen if we didn't join the army? You wanted to dance right? You could become a world-renowned dancer by now."
"Never occurred to me. But I kinda like what we are doing…With the position we are in, we can help a lot of people." Monika lays her head on Nova's chest, she needs a nap because of the bad dream from last night.
Nova didn't really expect Monika would give such an answer, she always thought Monika hated her job: " Oh? Why is that?"
"It's kinda silly to still think about the dream you had when you were a kid… I like my current self if you ask me… I can protect myself, my friends, and... Others..." She paused at the last part, she wanted to say the people she loved but she failed.
Nova knows what Monika is thinking about, she gently rubs Monika's shoulder to comfort her. They were like this before all the drama happened. Maybe because of the puberty phase, Nova has done some damage to Monika, that's why they've been fighting for years. But now it seems like their relationship is getting better.
"Sis, I just want you to know that I never hated you for a single moment..." Monika is half-dreaming at this point, her defense mechanism is down while she's comfortable.
Nova however covers her mouth with one of her hands to try not to let out a gasp of happiness, this is something that she always wanted to hear from Monika. Despite being twins, they always had their differences, even from the outside they have different hair colors and eye colors. But at the end of the day, they are still family, they always need to have each other's back no matter what the situation is.
"This pancake is awful." Nova took a bite and threw the rest away in a bush next to her.
"Yea… I didn't know why I even ordered that…" Despite saying that, Monika is still eating her half, apparently, she was really hungry.
"When you come back, I'll make the pancake myself." Nova is proud of her pancake skill.
"Can you try to make the rose cake? I have a list of recipes from Trazyn." She tore out a page from her notebook and handed it over to Nova.
Nova reads the recipe, she can tell Trazyn took some effort for finding the ingredients on the list. At some point she feels sorry about what happened to Trazyn, this is probably why she let Monika come to Lokar in the first place to find a way to bring back Trazyn.
"Anyways." Monika stands up and pats away the dirt on her pants: " I'll be going, for now, it was a nice talk, sis." She sounded relieved.
Nova smirks and waves her hand: "Don't get yourself too deep into these things and it would save you a lot of effort."
Monika looks back and nods, maybe Nova is not the best person to have advice from, but she surely knows how to get a hold of herself as a person.
After a short walk on the street, Monika arrives at the cafe where she is supposed to meet with Kira and Noel. As she entered, she noticed that there's not a lot of people in the cafe even near lunchtime. Monika walks to the counter and orders a small cup of black coffee and sits next to the window. The sun shines on her bangs, making her look more pretty than she already is, most of the customers even some girls stop whatever they were doing and look in Monika's direction.
The coffee in the cafe is good, Monika lays back on her chair and closes her eyes, she hasn't enjoyed anything like this for a long time. Shame this meeting was deemed to have ended in a disaster.
Monika will not back down from her stance, she hates demons to the guts, that's why most of her mission is chaos-related. Even the demon they are currently facing is different from the daemon that's infesting this world, but she couldn't care less. A good demon is a dead demon, is her current battle motto.
Her peace is soon broken because of the noise of people coming in, Kira, Noel, and Justice have arrived. Monika sits on the chair while crossing her arm and legs. She nods to Kira but doesn't do anything to Noel and Justice.
"Hello. My name is Justice, I was also the previous high prosecutor of hell." Justice reaches out her hand.
"A woman, really? Noel, you have reached a new low." Monika isn't impressed with Justice at all.
"You see me as a woman? What's special about you?" Justice is curious why isn't her special trait work against Monika.
"None of your business, the fact you are mentioning this means that you are just playing tricks with us. Give me a reason that I should not eliminate you on sight." Monika is serious, Justice already made a bad impression in front of Monika.
"Monika…. Can you please let us explain to you how it works and then make your judgment? Please?" Noel sounds like she's almost crying, she could never imagine Monika could be cold like this.
Monika turns her gaze to Kira, who is trying to not get affected by this whole incident: " Kira, what do you think about them? You are always the smarter one."
"Ah ? Me?" Kira wasn't prepared for the sudden compliment from Monika: " I think…. They are…" Kira looks around the table, Monika's eyes are piercing which is something that she's scared of, and then there's the gaze of Noel which makes Kira feel very bad as well. In this very dire situation, Kira's phone suddenly rang, she quickly picked it up and ran outside. But it was a trick that was pulled off by Kira, she purposely set up an alarm just about the time Monika involved her into it so she can have an excuse to escape from the cafe.
Seeing Kira leave, Noel however is more relieved, she doesn't want Kira to be involved in this as well: "Monika, we are deeply in love with each other, you also have a boyfriend as well, right? So, I think you can understand it very nicely." Noel picks her word very carefully; she doesn't want to piss off Monika even more.
"Noel, you are my best friend. So as a friend who has been with you for a decade. I say that you are making a serious mistake here. I've seen you with dozens of people in a relationship already. And I can tell you that this is not love." Monika used her calm tone; she doesn't want to hurt Noel as well, but she cared not about Justice.
"But have you thought why I had to have so many relationships? Because clearly none of them worked. This time however it's completely different. I feel like I'm alive for the first time. The night when we first kissed, it was something that I will never forget!" Noel said it while having light in her eyes. Apparently, it's for real.
"If it's something you care so much then why would you care about my opinion?" Monika is not impressed with what Noel described; it however made her hate Justice more.
"Because you are also the person, I care about the most in the world! I want to hang out with you while in a relationship with Justice! I don't want to lose my best friend while finding my true love!" Noel wraps her arm on Justice's arm.
"True love? You met her two days ago!" Monika's voice drew others' attention. But she quickly intimated them off with her stare of death.
"Which proves that this is true love after all!" Noel's voice sounded a bit shaken.
"If I may say anything…" Justice wants to calm the atmosphere a bit.
"NO ! You shut your mouth!" Monika points her finger at Justice: " The fact that we are fighting is all because of you, every word that will come out from your mouth will just piss me off even more. So, be quiet. This is a private matter." She shows no mercy to Justice.
"Monika ! You should apologize to Justice right now! She's done nothing but tried to help!" Noel suddenly stands up; she can't believe Monika would say something so horrible.
"I will not apologize to a demon." Monika crosses her arms again.
"Then apologize to her as a person, a person that I'm in love with." Noel didn't back down, she's serious about this as well.
"Stop saying that you are in love with her! You did not fall in love with a woman and a demon! All of this is just a trick from the demon." Monika said.
"Then what about your relationship with Trazyn! Why is your love any different than mine?!" Noel seems to be not able to understand Monika's problem.
"Wait, you are the one that fell in love with that mechanical monstrosity?" Justice for some reason knows Trazyn.
Noel thought Trazyn was a human all along: " Wait? Trazyn is not a real person?"
"He's real, but he's a Necron…" Justice puts her finger on her chin.
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Monika pointed her sword only two centimeters in front of Justice's face: " If you speak one more word, I will make sure your death will be as painful as it gets."
"Then why can't you understand?" Noel pushes away Monika's sword.
Monika suddenly doesn't have anything to say, Noel is right. Even Nova told Monika about the same thing as well, Nova just ignored their relationship altogether, but Monika isn't Nova, she wants what's best for her friend. She and Trazyn's relationship is wrong but that's probably why Monika doesn't want it to happen to Noel. Because right now Monika's life is full of agony.
Monika however is not in her sense now; she blames the demons that made all of this happen. She suddenly has her sword pierce through Justice's chest. But then she got blasted away by Noel's revolver. Monika blocked the damage, but she could tell that Noel is serious.
"WHY?!" Noel looks at Justice who's now lying in a pool of blood. Her eyes are full of rage: " You are selfish and mean! I can't believe that I was friends with you in the first place!" Noel shoots at Monika with her revolver like a storm of metal.
Monika isn't fighting back; she's just blocking the attack from Noel. She knows what she did is wrong, but It's already been done, maybe in the future Noel will understand but now Monika has to let Noel release her wrath upon her.
Suddenly Noel charges in with her attack, her chain attack from her revolver is not letting Monika have a bit of time to breathe. After a series of attacks, Noel blasts Monika away on the wall and points her revolver at Monika's chin. Noel's face was full of tears, she tried her hardest, but she couldn't pull the trigger. She can have a lot of love, but she only has one friend that has been with her for all these years.
Monika didn't fight back, even though she blocked most of the attack from Noel, but she still got hurt badly. This is her way to solve the same problem, it is not beautiful but at least she made the right choice.
Suddenly Noel hits Monika's head with her revolver and Monika passes out on the ground. The rest Monika could remember is seeing Noel running out of the cafe and Kira rushing over to take care of Monika.
When Monika woke up, Nova was on the chair next to her bed. She's been to the hospital quite often in recent days. Monika wanted to say something, but Nova put a finger on her mouth and shook her head.
"You know why I didn't do anything about your relationship with Trazyn?" Nova crosses her arm: " Because I don't want this to happen between us."
"Where is Noel?" Monika cares not about what Nova said. It is already done.
"MIA. Witnesses said that she ran into the forest in the Lokar outskirt. I sent people to look for her but so far no news." Nova replies, she then moves her chair closer to the bed: "You think you made the right choice? Murdering someone in the middle of a cafe? Now your friend is nowhere to be found."
Monika doesn't want to answer any of it, she knows the answers, but she can't admit it. It is too late. But she wanted to go and find Noel herself, she did all of it. She feels like she bears the responsibility for what's going to happen to Noel.
"Because of your stunt, HQ has sent a punishment note." Nova hands the file to Monika: " I am sorry little sis but this time I can do nothing about it. Murdering a civilian is something even I wouldn't want to touch."
Monika reads the note, it said that Monika has been reranked to captain again. The person who will be taking over her work is Nova Terra due to her well-established honor and her excellent behavior while solving the public image crisis due to the action of Monika Terra.
After reading it, Monika leaves a long sigh and lies on the bed. She kinda saw it coming, maybe it is a good thing that Nova is getting the promotion. Because she's indeed better at doing these kinds of things.
Nova puts her hand on Monika's hand: "Don't worry, you can still continue your quest. I'll take care of the mess. Just make sure you come back in one piece. It is the only request I have from you." Nova knows this is a hard time for Monika as well, so it is not really a good time to be bantering around.
Monika nods, she's truly now hitting her rock bottom. Nova is the only one she has at this point, so she will not lose her family, or she will be truly alone.
It's been five days since Noel has gone missing, despite the effort from the rescuing force of the imperium, somehow, they just couldn't find the life signal of Noel or any form of signal from her. Monika is also part of the rescuing team. It is impossible for anyone to completely disappear from the surface of the planet.
It is another day without any progress. Everyone thinks that Noel is probably eaten by some kind of beast or something similar to that. But the person who's being tortured the most is Monika. It was her doing that caused Noel to run away, she feels like this is her sole fault that Noel is missing.
"Vegas, can you perform a regional scan of a certain individual." Monika takes out the pendant.
"With current access to external technologies: No. local scan requires external technical support."
"For example?"
"Aircraft, satellites, any transport that provides enough height."
Monika checks her access list. Ever since she got reranked, she lost all her privileges to summon any form of vehicle. If she wants one, she needs to submit a request which can take weeks to process. She doesn't have that luxury of time.
"Monika, Think! Who can have access to a plane and can use it anytime you want!" Monika holds her head, a lot of names came across her, but it suddenly stopped at Nova.
Monika doesn't want to ask anything from Nova anymore, she already caused enough trouble for the past few weeks. She just can't bother her anymore. Then she remembered the words from Nova: If you need anything just ask. I'll get it for you unless it's completely ridiculous.
Monika opens her phone; she suddenly sees a message from Noel: Meet me at the place where we found that piggy bank. She suddenly couldn't stop herself from shaking, finally, after so long, Noel decides to contact Monika by herself. She quickly changes her clothes and starts running to the forest.
A long time ago, Monika and Noel found a piggy bank during a school trip not far away from Lokar. She's glad that she still knows the location. There used to be a park, but it was abandoned due to the natural disaster that was hit near Lokar.
Monika runs as fast as she can, the only thing she can think about is to earn her friend back. She spent a week thinking about what she's going to say while facing Noel again. She has lost too many things. She needs Noel. After a few hours of constant running, Monika finally arrives at the abandoned park. She's exhausted to the core, all of that running just drained all her stamina.
While she's resting, she checks around the surroundings and finds nothing. Noel doesn't seem to be here at all. She uses Vegas to scan the area but there's no human signal from Noel. But the text was indeed sent from Noel's phone. Monika checks her phone again and see's there's no reception at all. She suddenly realizes there's something wrong.
She turns back and runs towards the open road, but she suddenly runs into something invisible. Monika touches the invisible wall; it seems like she's trapped into some kind of dome. She hits the edge with her sword, but the strike returns on Monika. This is bad, Monika thought. She was being way too careless.
Suddenly, part of the dome opens, and Noel suddenly walks in. But there are two other scientists accompanying her at the back and start writing something down.
"Hey ! I am an imperial officer. I demand an explanation of this!" Monika yells at the scientist but they are not responding at all. She then looks at Noel, something is off. Noel doesn't look 'alive' at all. Her eyes are lifeless, and her movement is near robotic.
Suddenly, Noel's weapon appeared in her hands. She is on her battle stance. But she's not striking as if she's waiting for the order.
Seeing this, Monika understands what's going on. Apparently, Noel was captured and thus turned into some kind of robot. She's heard something similar before and now she is being used as a lab rat to test the capability of Noel.
"Noel, I'm not sure if you can hear this. But I will save you from this. I promise." Monika pulls out a pair of dual blades. This is the weapon she uses when she's serious.
Noel shoots a barrage of bullets at Monika, but it was dodged flawlessly by Monika's movement, she then quickly closes her distance to Noel with her dash. Monika then throws one of her blades to Noel, Noel shoots it down without having a problem but then Monika appears from the back. Noel noticed that as well, as she turned around to hit Monika with her revolver, she suddenly got hit from the back by Monika and fell on the ground unconscious. Apparently, Monika used illusion to trick Noel thinking that Monika would hit her from the back, but she was actually in front of her then she struck when Noel turned back to hit the illusion.
Monika flips Noel over, she still has a pulse and is breathing just fine. Monika is a bit relieved she thought she might hit too hard on Noel. But the bigger problem also comes: How do they get out from there? She noticed that the two scientists are still writing something down. She quickly dashes in front of them and pulls one of them up by the collar: "What the hell are you doing?"
The scientists don't seem to care, as if their lives are not endangered at all. Suddenly, a dome of light appears on Noel's body and covers it in an instant. The light is so bright that Monika has to cover her eyes from it. Monika throws a plasma bomb on the dome, but it did not harm the dome at all. After half a minute of blazing light, it suddenly stopped.
When the light disappeared, Noel was floating in the air without any external support. Her outfit completely changed, instead of her uniform, it is a full mechanized armor with floating blades around her.
Monika has never seen anything like this, but all of her instinct is telling her that this new Noel is extremely powerful and dangerous.
Monika activates Vegas, she needs all the help she can get while fighting this 'thing'.
Noel suddenly spoke: "Scanning target…. Target acquired…. Crimson Reaper…..Status: Enemy…. Commencing elimination protocol." Suddenly blades fly towards Monika with powerful force.
Monika managed to dodge it, but she knows that if she gets hit even once by the blade, she can say goodbye to this world. For the few more attacks, Monika is just trying her best to dodge all of it. Finally, she sees an opening, a sword with a plasma bomb wrapping on it suddenly flies towards Noel. But it got intercepted by her flying blade.
The following attacks are getting faster and stronger. As if Noel is still learning how to use this new form. Monika realizes that this is not Noel anymore. From the attack and the arsenal of the new Noel, she knows that She needs to fight this with full force or otherwise she won't even walk out here alive.
Suddenly while dashing, Monika disappeared from the dome. Noel stopped her attack; she's scanning the whole area trying to find the trace of Monika. Suddenly a cloud of red lightning storms appears above Noel and within it is Monika holding her magic-infused blade to hit directly on Noel.
Noel tried to block with her sword, but it was broken by the sheer force of Monika's attack, the attack hit directly on Noel's chest, it launched Noel down to earth at an immense speed. Then after a loud noise of metal hitting the ground, Monika also landed on the ground as well.
Just when Monika is about to check on Noel, a series of floating cannons suddenly appear in the sky. And all of them are aiming towards Monika. Monika quickly throws her swords at them and destroys all of them before they can fire.
Just when Monika turned around, she suddenly felt a searing pain coming from her thigh. While Monika was destroying the cannons, Noel stabbed one of her floating swords onto Monika's leg. Due to the size of the floating blade, Monika cannot move at all while having this sword in it. And removing inappropriately means that she will bleed to death.
Monika is laying on the ground while holding the wound, Noel stands up from the ground and floats towards Monika. Monika tries to move back, but Noel controls the sword and pins Monika on the ground. Bean-sized sweat is dropping down from Monika's face due to the pain. She looks into Noel's eyes, unlike before now Noel's eye is sky blue.
"You are not Noel..." Monika squeezes the words out of her mouth.
Noel didn't reply, all of the scattered blades were back with her again. Then the blade starts spinning on top of Monika's head as if it is going to strike anytime.
While facing death, Monika's face shows no fear. This is her pride as a fighter and a friend. Seeing this, Noel moves the blade in Monika's leg, blood pours out from the wound, Monika is screaming in pain, but her eyes are still staring into Noel's lifeless eyes. Apparently, Noel is going to destroy Monika's mind before she can earn her death.
Monika tries to fight back by throwing swords at Noel, but it is all locked away by Noel's floating swords. Then Noel lowers her body so she can reach Monika with her hands. She then grabs Monika by the neck and starts choking her to death.
But suddenly Monika shows a little noticeable smirk on her face, she then sticks Vegas's pendant on Noel's chest. The pendant reaches out a few supporting legs and sticks itself on Noel's chest.
"Commencing hacking …" Vegas's voice is coming out from the pendant.
Noel drops Monika on the ground, she tries to remove Vegas with her hands, but suddenly Vegas disabled the hands from Noel. It already has control of some parts of Noel's body. Monika however is using this time to remove the blade and treat her wound with a compact surgical kit.
When Monika is halfway through stapling her wound with a medical stapler. Noel finally drops to the ground and starts twitching. When Monika was just able to stand again, suddenly Noel spoke again: "Restarting the god slayer program. Adjusting settings. Repelling foreign attachments." It suddenly pushes away Vegas's pendant; Monika manages to catch it before it smashes on the ground.
Monika tries to attack again, but the floating cannon starts to appear from the air again as well. Monika this time runs a bit away while destroying the cannons. Noel seemed to be having some facial expression on her face and the expression shows clear anguish towards what Monika did.
Suddenly dozens of cannons appear from the air and all aim towards Monika. Monika doesn't have near enough time to destroy all the cannons again. She quickly dashes into her pocket dimension which is why she was hidden from Noel. But this time before she didn't get in, Noel suddenly blinks in front of Monika and slams her on the ground.
A bit of blood came out from Monika's mouth, but she then starts to engage Noel in a melee fight, Monika's attack is like a storm of swords, it doesn't give a single moment for Noel to even try to use her other stuff to fight Monika. Both the shards from Monika's blade and Noel's floating blade are constantly flying out from the attacks. Then it suddenly ends with a kick from Monika then Noel gets pushed into the edge of the dome.
Then Monika throws a c-foam grenade to temporarily freeze Noel's movement. Monika runs to Noel's body and tries to take over Noel with Vegas again. Just as she put Vegas on Noel's head, suddenly she heard a stabbing noise coming out from her stomach. It isn't Noel's floating sword but a dagger.
As it got pulled out Monika fell to the ground. Suddenly a person Monika never saw crouches in front of Monika's face. Monika can tell she's a demon from her figure. She smiles and waves at Monika: " Hello there, I have to say you did put up a great fight."
"Who...are… you?" Monika's wound is more severe than the stab from Noel's blade. But she's still conscious about what's happening.
She suddenly walks away and bows herself at Monika: "The name is Beelzebub, the queen crimson. You're really impressive as a human being. You managed to fight head-to-head with a god slayer unit."
"She's not a unit… she's my friend Noel.." Monika spat some blood out of her mouth.
"Maybe before, but not anymore. She will not recognize you anymore and now she will end your life." Beelzebub pointed her finger at Noel.
Noel already got out from the c-foam and was holding the Vegas pendant. Then she smashed it on the ground. Seeing this Monika sees the only gift she's left by Trazyn is smashed on the ground. Tears coming out of her eyes, but she can't cry out loud because of the wound on her stomach.
Suddenly, a man comes out from a portal, he wears a red suit and has some demon features, he smiles at Monika: "We met again."
"Well done, Justice. You have done a great job for Sheoldred, Whispering One." Beelzebub nods at Justice. "You are here to watch the death of this tool?"
"Exactly." Justice's tone has no mercy, apparently, he possessed a woman to seduce Noel and provoke Monika to kill him. So, they can finally take down Monika without alerting the kind like Nova who basically hasn't noticed the operation they are doing.
A floating sword stopped in front of Monika's chin, as Noel raised her hand to slice Monika in half, the ground shook with a loud noise. Suddenly, the indestructible dome starts having cracks on top of it. Then it finally broke, from the top a ray of green laser shines upon Noel pinning her on the ground.
Suddenly a noise of clunky metal sound hits the ground. When the blinding light finally goes off, from the ashes Monika finally can see that man again. The man she's been trying to get back. The man she could not forget after how hard she tries. The man that showed her the world and the man she fell in love with.
Trazyn uses his staff to kill Justice in one hit. The Necron technology can permanently annihilate any immaterial target which includes demons.
Seeing this Beelzebub phases away while Trazyn is focusing on Justice. When Justice disintegrated into the sand, Trazyn turned himself to Noel. He uses his time in prison to put Noel in place, then he turns himself into his human form.
"Is that… really you?" Monika couldn't care more about her wound, she tried to stand up, but the loss of blood made her legs strengthless.
Trazyn nods, but he noticed that Monika has gone through way too much today. He puts his hand on Monika's face then Monika suddenly falls asleep.
When he turns himself at Noel, she's already nowhere to be found. Apparently, for some reason, a god slayer unit can escape from time prison. Seeing this, Trazyn carries Monika in his arms and disappears with a flash of green light.
The next day, Monika woke up somewhere she's familiar with. It is the bed when she was first being rescued by Trazyn. Her wounds are closed but still not fully healed yet. She wants to head out and find Trazyn, but the wound on her stomach isn't allowing her to get up from the bed.
Suddenly, someone knocks on the door. "Come in," Monika said.
Trazyn again wears the maid outfit while pushing a food cart. "Good morning, m'lady~" he spoke in a weird tone.
"Should I also throw the lamp at you again?" Monika said it with a bright smile.
"I don't think that would be necessary." Trazyn transforms himself into his human form and of course a set of proper clothes. Then he sits on the bed next to Monika.
Monika gets up with all of her energy and hugs Trazyn tightly. None of them spoke, they don't need to, they already know what each other is going to say. Unlike before, this time Monika didn't cry. And Trazyn hugs back as well while brushing Monika's hair. After a while, Monika looks at Trazyn in the eyes and starts pinching his face.
"What are you doing?" Trazyn asks.
"To find out if I'm in a dream or not." Monika smiles like she never did for the last whole year.
"Aren't you supposed to pinch your own face?"
"Doesn't feel like it."
"Well, don't mind if I do." Trazyn also starts pinching Monika's face and they start rolling with each other on the bed. Then it ends up on Trazyn holding Monika's arms on the bed while on top of her. Then they started to kiss each other for a really long time, after all this time they both realized how important each other's presence is. And it all ended because Monika's stomach started feeling grumpy.
Monika is enjoying the rose cake Trazyn made bit by bit just like the way she likes. And Trazyn is enjoying looking at Monika at the same time. "So. How did you come back from the banishment?" Monika asks.
"A friend of mine helped me," Trazyn replies.
"I was doing a mission that was given by the demon lord herself…. Which she promised that she will bring you back after finishing it…. did it help?" Monika said the last few words in a voice that's barely audible.
"Emmmm" Trazyn smiles: " Not really, but if I haven't met my friend then you're probably gonna get me back. By the way, which demon lord are you talking about?"
"Lucifer."
"Ohhhh, Lucie, I used to take things from her."
"Yea, from the way they talk, it seems like they know about you." Monika finishes her rose cake and cleans her mouth. But then her expression looks heavy.
"What happened?" Trazyn asks.
"It's about Noel… she doesn't recognize me anymore and she becomes some kind of killing machine. And all of it because it's my fault..." She covers her face with her hands. And start sobbing.
Trazyn sits next to Monika and pulls her closer to him: "We will get her back. But first, you need to stop blaming yourself. It doesn't help anyone while crying on it, huh?" Trazyn thought Monika was becoming more mature, which she did. But it doesn't hurt from time-to-time Monika acts like a little girl who broke a family vase. Sometimes Trazyn finds Monika cuter than usual when she's doing this kind of thing. "What do you want to do?" Trazyn asks.
"Eliminate Sheoldred, and other demon kinds. Then I'll find Noel and bring her home." This is now personal; Monika will not rest until she destroys every single demon that crossed her or lied to her.
Seeing Monika become something like this, Trazyn suddenly feels uneasy. The Monika he knew was simple and cute. But maybe it is inevitable that Monika will eventually become harsher and crueler. Who knows what she has been through during the whole year. Trazyn decides to put down what he's going to do and instead help Monika to go through her hard phase: " Honey, you are in no condition trying to do anything right now. You need rest, and that's from a person like me."
"But it's not fair for the people suffering from my action." She feels like her wound is opened again, and her stubborn personality isn't helping as well.
Trazyn holds Monika's hand: "I will be there for you. I'm back and I have nothing better to do other than help you with this thing you are going to do. But you need to take care of yourself. Can you promise that?"
Monika has been alone for too long; her heart has grown cold during the time. If it's someone like Kira or Noel who told her the same thing, she will definitely ignore it and keep doing whatever she's been doing. But it is Trazyn, the only person she ever loved is telling her that she needs to stop for a while. Monika looks Trazyn into the eyes and nods: " But can I do some investigation while resting?" she compromised but it doesn't mean that she's not going to do anything at all.
"What kind of investigation?" Trazyn feels like Monika is not being honest with him.
"Well…" She looks away. "Fine! I'm not going anywhere until I get better." She's bad at lying already and needless to say facing someone like Trazyn.
Trazyn scoffs, this is why he loves Monika. He gently touches Monika's hair and brushes it up and down. And Monika stands up from her chair and sits on Trazyn's lap. She looks unhappy but her body is more honest than her expression.
"Hey, Traz. Thank you for saving Nova from that banishment attack. Nova would never say that to you but trust me she's glad about what you did" Monika refers to the fight while facing Elesh Norn.
"Glad to be appreciated, what do you wanna do?" Trazyn asks because he kinda feels bored.
"I'm still hungry and if you want to get rid of me faster then you better make me some food!" She playfully turns her head away.
"Why would I want that?" Trazyn is a bit confused about what Monika said.
"Just play along!"
"Well…. I'm off to make some food now, and you better leave when you completely recover!"
Guess time means nothing while facing true love. Maybe their relationship isn't as inappropriate as Monika thought and unreal like what Trazyn thought. Sometimes love can be just as simple as enjoying each other's companionship and doing stupid things together while having a laugh.