After a scream, Noel woke up from a place that she doesn't recognize at all. She sees the surroundings; it looks like the shack is made of wood and not far away from her room there's a small pit fire warming up the room. She can't remember who she is, or anything related to her past. There's just nothing when she searches her memory but she's sure that there's something there somewhere because she's scared of where she is now, and it is not a pleasant feeling.

She then hears some footsteps coming to the door, instinctively she goes back to the bed and pretends that she's sleeping.

The door opens, and a girl with coral brown hair and emerald, green eyes at some point looks like Monika except for the brownish hair. She enters the room while humming some music with some food and water. And puts it next to the chair which is near Noel's face.

Just as she is about to touch Noel, suddenly Noel grabs her by the wrist and the girl screams in surprise. From the way she acts, Noel can tell that this girl isn't a trained fighter or anything near it. But somehow, she feels like she recognizes her, and she starts to have a rapid heartbeat while looking at her in her eyes.

"You...you woke up?" The girl's voice is a bit shaken due to the sudden act of Noel.

"Where am I?" Noel's tone is cold.

"A village outside of the main city of Lokar, this is a tribe area for the worshipper of Korne." Her hand is still a bit shaking due to the action from Noel, at some point she feels like she's gonna die.

None of those names rings a bell for Noel, she releases the girl's hand and inspects the water the girl brought.

"It's not poisoned or anything like that…" She said it quietly.

Noel doesn't understand why she would even inspect the water before drinking it, she then finishes the whole glass due to thirst. Then she lies back on the bed because her head is still hurting like hell: "Who are you? Why do I feel like I've met you before."

"I a...I am Erin Flax. I don't think we've met before…" This is the first time they talked, and Erin can already tell this girl before she has a dangerous and straight personality. "Would you mind sharing your name?" She asked cautiously.

Noel tried her best to search for any name she knew, the only thing she can remember is an order to kill the crimson reaper: "I don't remember my name."

"Did you have amnesia or anything like that?" Erin asks while carefully touching Noel's forehead, she wants to make sure Noel is not sick.

Suddenly, Noel grabs Erin by the collar and pulls her closer: "Do not touch me like that ever again." her tone is full of anger.

Erin was terrified of Noel's response; she feels like her life is in danger any second as long she stays with Noel. Just about her to leave, Noel dashes in front of the door and closes it: "What… do… you… want?" Erin is almost in tears.

Noel lays her back on the door and scans Erin from head to toe: " I want you to tell me everything you know about this world."

"I...a...am just a village girl, I don't know anything except what's happening in this place." Erin's tone is as if she's begging Noel not to kill her after the questioning.

Despite not having her memory, Noel can still read people. She can tell that Erin is telling the truth, and from the way she dashes Noel can tell that before she lost her memory, she's either a good fighter or at least has some combat experience. "Do you know anyone that may know about the outside world?"

"Maybe my boyfriend, he's a trader of this place so he should know a lot about the outside world." Erin slowly stands up from the ground, the reason she stands up slowly is that she doesn't want to startle Noel again. "By the way, it is pretty hard to refer to you if you don't have a name…"

"Why don't you give me one?" Noel answered without hesitation.

"Me?... In this village only the elders are allowed to name people… and I am not one." Erin apparently is very traditional to their own local customs. Which is rare in the imperial ruled world these days.

"Just give me one." Noel sounds impatient.

"Alice ! Yes ! Alice is a good name." Erin is very scared of Noel.

Noel thinks for a second and nods: "Sounds good."

"And you can call me Erin from now on." She smiles sweetly, unlike Monika's smile of innocence, Erin has a smile of simplicity, which means that she's more of a person that people can trust because she doesn't have a lot of complicated ideas or thoughts in her daily life. She then reaches out her right hand.

For a second Noel didn't understand why she would do that but saw how weak Erin is. Noel drops her cautiousness and also grabs her right hand firmly. The moment their hands touched, Noel suddenly felt her heart beating rapidly and started to have a bit of blush on her face. But she likes it, after holding Erin's hand for 30 seconds she finally let go.

After the release Erin massages her hand, it was really firm for a handshake and Erin is not near being strong: "So... Do you want to eat something? ."

"Lead the way," Noel replies in an emotionless way.

When Erin opens the door, a man is in the living room: " Jackie!" Erin sounds excited and wraps her arm around the neck. Then they shared a kiss.

"I see you brought a new friend." the man called Jack is looking at Noel.

"Hello, I am Alice." Noel waves at him from a distance, she doesn't even know why she would wave in this situation: "I am Erin's… friend." Noel felt uneasy to say the word 'friend' for some reason.

"Great! Anyways… Do you guys want to go out and eat? I don't really feel like cooking for now…" Erin is exhausted from taking care of Noel.

"Sure, let's go to the local food store to pick up something then. I think it's more of a two people's job instead of three..." Jack suggests having one person leave behind: "I think it's good if you can show your friend Alice around a bit while I tidy up the rooms and myself. Had a long day." He scratches the back of his head, apparently, he's a bit lazy.

Erin sees through it directly but why not? Maybe it is a good chance that they can bond with each other more. Erin then picks up a basket and leaves the house with Noel.

"So… do you have any preference?" Erin asks while checking the list Jack gave her.

Noel didn't reply, she's too interested in the village itself, everything is new for her and thus it is a bit distracting. She then notices a candy shop and stops her walking.

"You like sweets? My favorite is something called rose cake when I was in the city. It was really yummy. If you want, we can bring you to Lokar next time." Erin is also checking out the candies from the window.

"Rose cake ? That sounds familiar." Of course, it does, in the past, Noel used to order a big rose cake from the store for Monika's birthday which requires special order because a rose cake is as big as a cupcake. "How does it taste?" Noel looks at Erin with a glance.

Erin feels bad suddenly, only kids and girly girls would ever like something that's similar to rose cake. She can tell that before Noel lost her memory, she was either a kind and cute person or anything that's not remotely similar to what she sees today: "It.. tastes really sweet and sometimes if you are not careful you might smell like a rose for the whole day."

"Sounds interesting." Noel suddenly has a slight unnoticeable grin on her face.

"Did you smile?" Erin can notice these kinds of things fairly well.

"No." Noel turns her head and starts walking away. But for Erin, this means that she's making progress on trying to understand Noel better.

After around an hour of checking things around, they bought a full basket of different kinds of food back to Erin's home. They then enjoyed a fairly peaceful dinner due to Noel feeling kinda hungry as well.

That night, Noel is sleeping with Erin while Jack is sleeping on the couch, he's a good host and a good boyfriend. He had a chance to be extraordinary, but he decided to leave his high-paid job and start to live with his childhood friend, and eventually, they formed a relationship with each other. Maybe people with his intellect prefer to have a quiet and peaceful life rather than a loud but accomplished one.

That night, Noel starts to have some weird dreams again, she dreams about fighting the crimson reaper and a lot of events that are related to her. She suddenly woke up in the middle of the night, seeing Erin is next to her still sleeping, she decides to fall back and try to sleep again. Erin indeed looks very similar to Monika, but Noel can tell that she's definitely not the person who fought her a few nights ago. Right now, Noel can't even tell Erin has the strength to kill a chicken by herself.

Suddenly a series of knocks woke everyone in the house. Jack goes to the door and greets the person, it is a soldier who's dressed in an imperium uniform: "Hello, good morning. I am here to ask if you have ever seen a person that looks like this." He then takes out a poster that has Noel's face.

Jack looks back at the room and says with a calm tone: "No, sorry. I only live with my girlfriend here, but I will report to the local commissar if I see anything that's similar to this girl."

"Great! Have a nice day." The soldier then walks away and starts knocking on another door across the street.

This village is technically not registered under the imperial rules, because it was built by the worshipper of the chaos gods. That's why Jack was a bit alerted when the imperial soldier was asking questions about Noel, there's also the fact that why imperium would even try to come to a small place like this for a single missing person? There are thousands of missing people on the planet every day and no one has ever even bothered to notice at all. He's now a bit suspicious about the origin story of Noel but he doesn't have evidence yet so he can't just confront her about it.

However, it is bad news for the village. Because of the appearance of the imperial soldiers, now they have been put on the list by the imperial guard for potential chaos tainted areas. Soon or later, they will send troopers to cleanse the area. Which is the job Monika had when she was the lieutenant colonel. After seeing the soldier in the village, some of the neighbors start to pack their things and decide to move away.

While Noel is taking a shower, Jack tells Erin about the soldiers and the poster. Jack wants them to leave as soon as possible but Erin is a bit unwilling to move away to another place. She thinks that it's not such a big deal if there's only one imperium soldier in this place. Besides they grew up together in this place, Erin doesn't want to throw their precious memories away as well.

"Something wrong?" Noel finished her shower and walked out completely naked while having water dripping down from her body.

Jack looks away and Erin rushes in front of Noel and gives her a towel: " Didn't you see the towel? You will catch a cold like this!" Erin is a bit worried because Noel doesn't ring her as a strong person like she already forgot the time when Noel woke up for the first time and puts her on the ground easily.

The reason Noel is acting like this is because of the habit, there's a special pile of towels in her house which after every shower, she will jump into the towel and clean herself like swimming in the towels.

When Noel finishes, there are already people standing in line at the village gate because they are trying to leave the place. While looking at them, Erin holds Jack's hand tightly, she's the few people who are going to stay and god knows what kind of fate is awaiting them in this time of cleansing heretic. Even if she dies, she knows that she dies in the place where she grew up and with the man she loves.

Erin was an orphan. She was born in this village; she knew about her parents' story because they used to be the priests in this village. They died while doing a mission years ago by the imperium troopers. When she grew up, she was despised by the other villagers because of her look that's similar to the famous crimson reaper. But that's also the time when she met Jack who had just come back from the city and started trying to settle in this small village.

They managed to have two more peaceful days before the plane started hovering on top of the village. Then imperial guards start to drop from the plane and land on the center square. Seeing this, Erin hugs Jack tightly, this might be the last time they can do so. They told Noel to leave but she insisted to stay, they took her in so it is reasonable that Noel stays and sees what she can do. She doesn't remember who she is but she's sure that from the muscle memory alone, she used to be a fighter.

Suddenly, there's gunshot noise coming all across the village. Scream mixing with gunshots is slowly approaching Erin's house. When it is near Erin's old neighbor. The noise suddenly stopped. Both of them were curious and peeks their heads a bit outside of the house and they saw Noel already killing a squad of soldiers and picking up their weapons.

"Alice?" Erin asks.

"Stay in your basement, I'll take care of this." She picks up a pistol and reloads it with the ammo on the dead soldier.

Suddenly, another squad appeared on the other side of the street, but Noel killed them clean off with headshots.

Across the village on the mountain, a person is looking at Noel with her sniper rifle. She could've killed Noel ages ago but since Noel is requested from the Vermillion family, she needs to take care of it in person. This person is no other than Nova Terra. Ever since Nova took over Monika's operation, she has been cleansing the potential threat for a while now. Now seeing more soldiers dying to a girl on the street with a pistol, she decides to intervene before it makes her report look worse than it already is.

While Noel is picking up more weapons, she suddenly hears a light-dropping noise. But when she turned, she saw nothing then it was a surge of pain on her face and the next thing she knows, she is flying in the air and dropping to the ground.

Nova then decloaks herself and points her sniper rifle at Noel's forehead: "Lieutenant Noel Vermillion, I am requested by your family to take you home. Please do not resist."

"Who the hell is Noel?" She asks, then dashes away and starts shooting her pistol at Nova.

Nova did not expect Noel would respond like this, she quickly dodges and shoots her sniper rifle at Noel's pistol. The bullet hit and turned the pistol into scrap metal: "Noel? What's going on?"

"I am Alice, not Noel," Noel said while pulling out another pistol she took from the bodies. Her eyes are looking straight into Nova's like an angry wolf.

Nova is a bit confused about what's going on, she's sure that this 'Alice' is Noel but from the way she replied, it doesn't seem like she's lying at all. Nova then drops the sniper rifle on the ground: "Noel, Monika is waiting for you at home. We are going to have a small party with just us three." Nova knows exactly what to say to move Noel.

But it doesn't work, the only person she remembers is Monika and she's the target Noel needs to kill. Noel then starts reloading her pistol, because whoever is in front of her is with the crimson reaper.

Seeing this, Nova shakes her head. But she didn't pick up her weapon, she doesn't need to while fighting Noel. This also helps her to release some of her repressed emotions during work.

Noel shoots at Nova, but Nova just dodges it easily and approaches Noel in melee. Noel tries to fight Nova but after three hits from Nova, Noel is already on the ground unable to move. Then Nova kicks Noel in her guts just because of how much she hated Noel when they were working together.

Suddenly, a small piece of rock hits Nova on the back. Erin comes out of her house and sees Noel on the ground, she could already guess what this blond-looking devil is going to do to her.

Nova steps Noel on the face and smiles at Erin mockingly: "New friend of yours? You know she looks surprisingly similar to Monika. Ghosh, what kind of sick fantasy do you have with Monika?" Nova chuckles, she laughs because of how small the world is, even on this planet there are people who would look like her family member and she just happens to befriend your stupid subordinate.

"Erin run!" Noel tries her best to scream, but Nova steps her harder.

"I won't!" Erin said it loudly while trying to pick up the weapon on the ground.

Just about when Nova takes out her pistol and ends Erin's life, suddenly she hears a noise of a car engine starting up and rushing towards them. Nova kicks away Noel and gets hit by the car. It was Jack who saved Noel from Nova. He quickly lifts Noel to the ground and starts running away with Erin.

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Nova is pissed, she was being careless and now she got hit by a car. But the impact was reduced to almost nothing because of her strong psychic ability. Nova then picks up her sniper rifle and starts to find where they went. She signals the rest of the squad to search for a brown-haired woman that looks like Monika, a black-haired man, and Lieutenant Noel Vermillion, she wants them all alive.

Jack and Erin run into a local store and find some medicine for Noel. Apparently, the kick from Nova is so hard that it broke Noel's rib. Noel is sweating badly from the pain, she noticed how much the difference in strength between her and Nova.

"You ok Alice?" Erin wipes away the pain sweat from Noel's forehead while Jack is finding some pain killer.

Noel nods, she wants to get up, but the pain is so great that it almost made her pass out. Suddenly, a part of the store suddenly got ripped away by some kind of strong force, Nova has found them already.

Two soldiers quickly put handcuffs on Noel and Erin while the rest is finding Jack. Seeing this, Noel starts talking to Nova: "Please, do not harm those two, you want me, and I will follow you. But these two are innocent!" She puts both of her knees on the ground and starts begging Nova.

Nova looks at Noel coldly and picks Erin up by grabbing her hair. Even from close up, Erin still looks like Monika in similar ways. Erin is struggling but her presence is like an ant compared to the kind like Nova. Nova has been mad at Monika for ages but since she's her sister she can't really do a lot besides forgiving her constantly. But now seeing a doppelganger of Monika, her long-repressed rage suddenly comes up. Maybe killing Erin will not change Monika but it surely will make Nova feel better. But Nova is gonna take her time.

Nova holds up Erin's face and puts one of her hands on her rib then presses it hard. After a breaking noise, Nova broke one of Erin's ribs then she proceeded to do the second one. Noel tried to stand up, but she got pressed to the ground by two other soldiers.

"STOP! YOU MONSTER!" Noel screams at Nova.

Nova drops the unconscious Erin on the ground and crouches in front of Noel: "You know I never liked you before. Even in school, you were the one that protects Monika from everything."

"I don't understand what you are talking about," Noel responded with a tone that's trying to tear Nova apart.

"Interesting seems like you have lost your memory somehow. I think your family can fix it up, but it is out of my hand." Nova then walks away because she sees the other soldiers bringing Jack back: " In the name of the god-emperor I condemn your death, heretic." Nova then takes out her pistol and shoots Jack on his forehead. There's no miracle or anything similar to that. All worshippers of the chaos shall be eradicated by the mightiest of the imperium.

"NO!" Noel's scream is ear piercing and full of sadness.

Just when Nova is walking towards Erin, Noel's head hits the ground and around her, the air can have visible heat waves coming from her body. Suddenly, light again wraps around Noel's body. Everyone except Nova starts covering their eyes.

After dozens of seconds, the light stopped and suddenly the blade flew towards every soldier on the scene, but Nova blocked it with a bullet that's shot from her gun. Nova did not expect this would happen; she doesn't even know how she would tell her superior that she lost dozens of soldiers from a simple cleansing mission. But this also means that Nova starts to take being in front of her more seriously than usual.

Noel changed her form but even after the change tears are coming out from her eyes and she's looking at Nova with a look full of hatred: " I HATE YOU!" Suddenly a floating cannon emerges from thin air and starts charging its shots while Noel starts rushing towards Nova with her flying blade accompanying her.

But this is Nova Terra, the perfect soldier who will accomplish every single task that's given. Nova uses a bullet that can penetrate the thickest tank armor from her gun and aims right at the eye of Noel. The shot fired, but Noel took the bullet head-on, she uses her flying blade to try to intercept the bullet, after a series of metal bursting noises, Noel arrives in front of Nova and starts attacking her head-on.

Noel thought Nova was bad at melee engagement because of her fighting style, but she's wrong. Just when Noel tries to kick Nova with her bladed legs, Nova suddenly dashes back and grabs Noel by the arms and slams her on the ground. The sheer force almost made Noel have a concussion on her head, but just as Nova tried to attack Noel with her fist, the floating cannon finished charging up.

White laser blazes towards Nova's location but she just has a simple smug on her face and just before it reaches Nova all of the cannon is destroyed. The reason Nova had a smirk is that finally, she found an opponent that allows her to fight with full force.

Noel climbs up and starts floating on the air again, she doesn't understand how all of the floating cannon got instantly blown up. But she couldn't care more, the only thing she wants is Nova dead. Her blades are flying towards Nova but all of them suddenly stop in midair and Noel cannot control it anymore.

Nova simply points her finger at Noel and all of the blades start flying towards her with a speed that she cannot imagine. Noel tries her best at dodging but suddenly a blade turns around in the air and stabs her at the back. It did not hurt Noel's body but the armor at the back is badly damaged.

Noel cannot fly anymore, but she can still fight, she charges a plasma attack with both of her hands while having a floating cannon charging up as well. But suddenly, she feels some static in the air and her hair starts flying up to the air. Just as she is confused and looks up, a bolt of lightning strikes towards Noel and she couldn't dodge after a loud scream Noel falls on the floor while constantly twitching.

Just when Nova is walking towards Noel to check on her, a blast of laser cannon hits directly on Nova, and she flys away into a building. It was all the plan Noel had to hit Nova. That laser cannon shot would disintegrate any human in the path. But how wrong is she, suddenly Noel couldn't move her body and started floating by herself. Then she got slammed on the ground with immense force.

Nova comes out of the house while staggering walking, her eyes are sky blue, and her armor is completely destroyed. Nova walks towards Noel and picks up a metal pipe from the floor. She's really pissed off; out of everyone, she did not expect Noel would pull out a trick like this.

Noel couldn't move at all, the only thing she can do is see Nova stab the metal pipe into her unarmored stomach while not even being able to scream for help because of Nova's psychic power, just as Noel thought she's done for. A shot of red laser from a lasgun hit Nova on the back and wounded her badly because she had no armor on. It was Erin who tried her best at trying to shoot a gun. Just when Nova turns back and smashes Erin into pieces, Noel kicks Nova away.

Nova has flown into another building; Noel pulls out the pipe on her stomach and holds Erin's hand and starts running away. They cannot stay here any longer because the moment when Nova wakes up is the time when both of them die. She tightens her wounds with her jacket and kept running until they can't see the village anymore.

Nova however was later rescued by the backups she called when Noel killed dozens of soldiers. She was sent to the emergency room because of her wound that was done by both Noel and Erin.

It didn't take long until Nova woke up from her sleep, the first thing she felt was the warm feeling on her hand. When she finally opens up her eyes, she sees Monika sleeping while having her head on the side of the bed and holding Nova by the hands.

Nova has a small grin on her face, it is good to know that the few people you care about have the same feeling back at you. Then she sees Maverick sleeping on the chair at the back and Trazyn looking outside of the window. But her good feeling got instantly ruined because of the return of Trazyn.

Trazyn also noticed Nova has already woken up, he smugly looks at her across the room and nods politely, then he puts his index finger on his lips to sign Nova not to speak at all, because he's also enjoying this little moment between Monika and Nova.

Nova just gives him an intimidating look and puts her hand on Monika's head and starts patting her hair. Then Monika's eyelids started moving and eventually she woke up: "Nova!" Monika says loudly then hugs Nova and puts her chin on Nova's shoulder: "I was so worried about you." She said while having a choked voice.

Nova looks down while hugging Monika, this moment almost made her burst into tears, but she can't do that, because she's Nova Terra the perfect soldier that has no feeling. She's done way too many bad things to reach her position and she can't lose it now. She just gently brushes Monika's silky hair while hugging her back tightly.

"Who did this?!" Monika sounded mad, she never thought Nova would get hurt badly like this, and she cannot let the person responsible walk away. Despite them having their differences, the Terra sisters will always have each other's backs no matter what.

Nova's mind is running in hyper speed to try to give an answer to Monika, but she can't. This is now personal; Noel has defeated Nova. The lieutenant colonel will now kill Noel for this: " I was ambushed by some people." She scratches the back of her head: "That was really careless of me, sorry about worrying you." Then she looks at Maverick on the back, he's still sleeping. Nova just shakes her head and smiles a bit.

"Nova, please." Monika looks at Nova with her beautiful emerald eyes: "I know you are not telling me the truth, remember, you promised to not hide any more secrets from me. Whoever did this, I will track him down and I will get your payback."

This is exactly what Nova doesn't want, she can't endanger Monika to try to take on Noel by herself, but she also doesn't want Monika to be upset from this. Just as she is struggling to come up with an answer, Trazyn notices the little changes in Nova's expression, he decides to give a hand to Nova: "Hey, Monika honey. Why don't you let your sister spend some time with his boyfriend for a bit? The doctor said she must not be disturbed, remember?" He puts his hand on Monika's shoulder.

Monika looks at Trazyn then looks at Nova: "Fine, but Nova, let's work on this together. Can you at least promise me that?" Monika gets up from the chair and starts walking out with Trayzn.

Nova just nods silently, she's glad that Trazyn gave her some time to come up with a solution, but it also means that she's in debt with Trazyn as well. Thinking about this, she had some cracking sound from her already fisted hand. Maverick has woken up by the noise of the door closing, he sees Nova woke up already and sits on the chair where Monika was sitting: "Feeling better now?" He asks.

"My back still hurts like hell…" Nova refers to the gunshot wound from Erin.

"Did red help a little bit?" Maverick refers to Monika.

"She made it a bit worse… Now I have to lie to my sister about the person who attacked me." Nova let out a long sigh.

"Or… you can just tell her and work the case together." Maverick lays back on the chair.

"I can't… she defeated me and now she will pay for her action regardless of who she is." Nova sounds mad.

"Wait… do you actually know the person who attacked you?" Maverick is no idiot.

"i... " Nova looks at Maverick in the eyes, she can't lie to him as well or she will have no one left in her life: " I found Noel Vermillion, but she has become something else."

"What do you mean by 'something else?" Maverick emphasizes the last part.

Then Nova proceeds to tell Maverick about the whole fight with Noel and a girl that looks similar to Monika. After hearing it, Maverick couldn't help himself but take a cold deep breath. He couldn't imagine a good girl like Noel will become a machine that can take on the legendary Nova Terra.

"Red will be really upset if you hide this from her, they are best friends after all." Maverick is with Monika on this one.

This is the battle between Nova's own pride and everything that she ever loved in her life. Maybe not long ago, Nova wouldn't even tell this to Maverick, but after being wounded badly her personality sort of changed as well, she realized that she's not that invincible as she thought she is. She decided to at least talk to Monika first before deciding the whole thing.

Monika is looking at Trazyn in a slightly mad way, she just keeps eating the dessert instead of looking at Trazyn even once. She wants to confront Nova about the whole thing, but it was ruined by him.

Trazyn slides over a small piece of fruit candy across the table, he knows what caused Monika to get mad but this time he can't really do anything about it, it is really up to Nova to do everything else.

Monika glances at the candy and looks at Trazyn while crossing her arm: "What?"

"Thought you'd like it," Trazyn said it in a light tone instead of his usual sassy tone.

Monika squinted her eyes at Trazyn: "You think you can make me feel better by just giving me a piece of candy?" But then she puts the fruit candy in her mouth: "I am not really mad at you… I'm more worried about Nova and myself as well."

"Why yourself?" Trazyn asks.

"I don't want to tell Nova about Noel being something else because Nova would get mad and kill Noel. But I want Noel to come back, not to seek vengeance." The terra sisters sometimes have magical moments like this, they don't want to hurt each other due to the same reason.

Monika has really grown up, Trazyn is glad to see the change of Monika's personality when proceeding to a problem like this. He holds Monika's hand firmly: "Honey, I will always be there for you no matter what your choice is."

Monika's nose feels sour, this is something that she wanted to hear from someone for a long time, the only person who ever said that to her was Nova. She moves her seat next to Trazyn and gives him a kiss on his lips. Monika is glad that she can have someone she can finally rely on.

Suddenly Nova enters the coffee shop and sits across the couple who's deeply in love with each other. She told Maverick to go home and prepare a nice dinner after she's done with this.

Nova sees Monika laying her head in Trazyn's arm. Then Trazyn gives Nova a smirk. Nova doesn't like Trazyn at all, but she has no choice but to accept the fact that Trazyn is back and her sister's love for Trazyn hasn't changed even after a year. Nova ordered a cup of black coffee and asked Trazyn: "How did you come back?"

"I got lucky and met a friend while I was in the void." Trazyn is purposely smirking at Nova to make her feel jealous.

"I supposed I should say 'welcome back.'" This is the nicest thing Nova can say to Trazyn.

"Sis, why did you leave the hospital? You should rest more." Monika said in a concerning tone.

Nova sips her coffee and leaves out a long sigh: " I'm here to tell you about my wound... It was done by Noel, but it was different. She becomes some kind of half mech being that contains unimaginable power. I was being careless and got hurt."

Hearing this Monika and Trazyn both had not really surprised faces, but it is easily recognized by Nova. Nova gives a dirty look to Trazyn: "So, you guys know it already huh?"

"No… sis, I also encountered Noel not long ago and it seems like she lost her memory…" Then Monika proceeds to tell Nova about the fight against Noel and the more Nova hears the more she's frowning.

Eventually, the Terra sisters have gone into silence while Trazyn is sipping on his hot chocolate. Then the awkward silence is broken by the noise when Trazyn is sipping on his last sip. Nova then shakes her head in a helpless way: " Well, I guess it's settled, I will try to find where Noel went after the fight and both of you better prepare for the incoming fight." She then leaves the coffee shop, leaving Monika and Trazyn sitting on the spots.

"What do you think?" Trazyn asks Monika.

"I never expected Noel would even beat Nova…" What's worse is that Monika is sure Nova will take this fight personally and eventually end up with one of them dead, which is something that Monika is trying to prevent in the first place: "Traz, I am scared that I would lose either of them…" Monika holds Trazyn's arm firmly.

Trazyn knows what Monika wants, she wants him to find a way to fix Noel and thus making Nova stop her pursuit of vengeance. But bringing back memories is not something he's good at: "Do you have names that I can work with?"

Monika looks at the ceiling while she's thinking: "Emmm, the demons from hell, Justice, Lucifer, and the others…" She can't really remember the rest

"Them? I know what you are talking about, don't worry about it." Trazyn taps Monika's shoulder assuredly, he knows exactly where to find the corporate behind the whole Noel incident, but today he's also here to talk about the deal he made with Orikan while he was banished: " Honey, I need to talk to you about something serious."

"Oh? What's that?" Monika sounded surprised because Trazyn doesn't really talk about serious things with Monika.

"It's about your power… the power of the crimson daemon… at some point, I might need to take it away…" Trazyn said it while pausing because he wanted to look at the expression on Monika.

But surprisingly Monika is taking this very well, too well that it kind of scares Trazyn a bit: "Oh? Sure. I don't want it anyway." Monika grins, she's not lying as well because of that meeting with the daemon in her head, even though she had it under control, but she still feels uncomfortable about having another being living in her body.

"But.. you would lose your power and I thought you wouldn't want it." Trazyn is a bit worried about Monika's condition because she's not acting very Monika-like.

"Hey ! Who do you take me for? I never wanted the power in the first place and most of my power came from my actual skill. I only use the crimson daemon power to store my items after all…. And besides." She lays her index finger on Trazyn's chin while making a seducing face: " You always have a backup plan anyways… So, I would trust you on that!" Monika is having a seducing smirk which she never did to Trazyn.

Trazyn puts his hand on Monika's forehead to make sure she's not sick.

Monika is a bit unhappy about the way Trazyn responds: " Hey! I am just trying to be a cool girlfriend, you should say something like: by the silent king, you are the best thing that happened in my life!" She said the last part while pretending to have the sassy voice Trazyn had.

"Best. Girlfriend. Ever." He kisses Monika's mouth in a way that makes the rest of the coffee shop feel uncomfortable, Trazyn is glad that in his long endless life, he would meet Monika this amazing being, and form a relationship with her. When the day is getting dark, they go to a corner that cannot be seen by anyone and teleport back to the Solemnace Galleries. That night they made out and completed each other both physically and mentally.

When Nova got home, she was welcomed by a warm hug from Maverick: "So… the food and the hot bath is almost ready, what do you want first? Food ? Bath ? Or me…?" He does an intimate pose at the door.

This little stunt pulled out by Maverick made Nova's Day, she tilted her head sideways and pulled Maverick close by holding his collar then they shared a deep kiss.

"My, my. You are really eager for love, isn't it?" Maverick said it jokingly.

"I'll take the warm bath first… because I just came out of the hospital. But save the rest of you for me later." Nova said while putting her hand on Maverick's chest then she's off to the bathroom.

Erin is not a strong person but thankfully Noel is not some fully grown man, she managed to leave the imperium search area after a night of running while having Noel on her back.

Noel was wounded by Nova badly, but most people would just die while facing Nova. In the end, Noel is the extremely lucky one. Before she leaves, Erin packed up some supplies for the run while the imperium soldier was in the village. She regrets that she didn't leave the village when she had a chance. Now she's helpless and worst of all she lost the love of her life.

This winter is not as cold as it used to be but might be just because they haven't snowed yet. Erin leaves Noel under a tree while she's going to find a spot for refilling the water bottle. Sun shines in Erin making her look more like Monika but the innocent expression and non-threatening aura projecting out from Erin make her a special beautiful view in this cruel world.

While Erin was gone, Noel suddenly woke up. This time she didn't really dream or remember anything. She woke up because of the sudden surge of pain from her stomach. Even after changing back to her normal form, some of the wound still remains. She tries to stand up, but the pain forces her to stay down, her vision is still unclear until she sees the human figure that's towards her. For no reason, she said: "Monika?"

"Who's Monika?" Erin asks. Even though the name of the crimson reaper is spread across the planet, people still don't know the real name of Monika.

"I… don't really know why I said that name... I just felt that name is important or something like that." Noel lays her head on the tree, she's still very tired and strengthless.

"Oh?" Erin sits beside Noel and gives the water bottle to Noel: " I bet she's very important if you mention her even after major amnesia." Erin looks towards the sun, but she looks away immediately because it hurts her eyes.

Noel suddenly feels a surge of dizziness, she then slips her head on Erin's lap. Noel closes her eyes and starts coughing.

Erin was a bit surprised but soon, she started to take care of Noel. Both of them are the only people that they can depend on at this moment, so they can't let each other down even though the time is hard. Noel saved Erin's life, now it's up to Erin to keep Noel's.

When Noel falls asleep again, Erin stands up and starts looking for food. It is not really hard for her because she used to go to the forest with Jack to hunt for small animals for both food and fun before. This is also why she could hit her shot at Nova because Jack taught her how to use a hunting rifle before.

Erin sees a pool and not for long she already got some fish that can refill both her and Noel's empty stomach. However, one lesson that she didn't learn is how to start a small campfire. But before Noel woke up, she already gathered some dry wood while waiting for Noel. The reason Erin is constantly keeping herself busy is that she doesn't want to have to think idly because it would just bring her pain about losing Jack and everything she used to have. She's smart but she's not a strong person.

Erin sits under the tree while putting her chin on her knees. She hugs her legs tightly to try to feel strong, but the emptiness and sadness still creep up on her like the night demons that used to hunt her village before they converted themselves to chaos.

Suddenly she hears Noel make a noise, and Erin immediately pulls out the water bottle and pours a cup to Noel: "How do you feel now?" Erin asks.

"Tired but thanks for taking care of me." Noel tried her best to say as many words as possible.

"You're welcome, by the way… do you have a way to set up a campfire? I have the dry woods prepared but I have no idea how to do it." Erin puts away the finished cup from Noel.

Noel nods and suddenly a small floating cannon appears out of thin air and fires at the pile of wood. Then Noel lays down again while leaving Erin shocked on the ground. She did not expect Noel would set up fire like this. But one thing is for sure that Noel can use the power of her alter form without even changing to the whole set. Every day she's getting more control of her power and of course her destiny.