Hikari dashed right in front of a Corrupted general, thrusting her lance in it's chest before backing up, "He-eah!"

She kicked her lance at the tip of it's handle with her foot, shattering the monster into bits and sending it flying through it at the back of a large group of enemies, before she recalled it in her hand.

"Not good, there's way too many of the higher ranking monsters here! We're being slowed down!", she worried.

Terna dashed right by her, flute at hand, "I'm doing...my best!"

Targeting another group of enemies with another Corrupted general at it's center, Terna swiftly dashed left and right six times in a circular formation, managing to strike multiple of them at once and cause a cast of purple flashes to be marked on them. As she finished her mover, flute-sword at hand, she began rapidly retracing every single move to a tea, running backwards all she did up until she ended next to Hikari, where all the purple flashes unleashed at double their strength and finishing the group off.

"Very good!", Hikari applauded.

Terna panted, "Thanks, but...there's way too many of them! Every strong move we make in order to take down just one group of them is a commitment in itself, but their strong one's number is just too much!"

"Watch out!", Hikari placed herself in front of Terna, barely blocking a laser bullet coming from the enemy side as she saw them targeting her, it merely bouncing off her thick armor, "Phew..."

"Thanks! Quite amazing you can move so well with that thick armor of yours!"

"Doesn't matter, it's still a battle of attrition...we can defend all we want, but we're running a risk for us while Luna is in danger!"

"They are smarter than they look. Judging off what I see, they slowly turned the battleground on you. You're not surrounded, but they moved their front on your side, placing themselves between a route directly to Luna. Attempt to rush to her with all these monsters in between, and you are sure to wake up missing a leg or two...if you wake up at all.", Enemy echoed as she tried to study their movements and find a breakthrough.

"That ability you used back in Dirunon, the one that annihilated all of those monsters! Please!", Hikari suggested.

"Yeah, right. That would only work on a massive hoard of weaklings. There's way too many high ranking monsters here for me to make a move to that large an area with strength enough to kill all of them."

"I can focus down the remaining strong numbers, but their strength with the masses of normal Shadowers and Enmities, that's able to be dealt with, right?!", Hikari suggested again.

"Hikari, again, you're asking me too much. I know my limits, and my limits exist where you tell me to single out multiple key targets at a massive area while dealing with the small ones. Even Kikaro would have a problem here...unless he killed them all at once to begin with."

"You guys getting anywhere? Haya!", Terna swiftly dashed back and forth, killing several Shadowers as she reset back, "They're not particularly active...unless I get close!", she pointed out.

"Yeah, I noticed.", Hikari looked at the monsters in front of her.

"Body blocking? What the hell? A last ditch effort of such an extend to kill Luna specifically?", Enemy also pointed out.

"But...why Luna, when someone the likes of Dante exist, with Excelsior? Shouldn't they prioritize killing him instead?"

"Please, Dante, Dante, Dante, who cares about Dante all the time?! He's another Obsulyte user, surely stronger, and he wields a Gate. You are also a strong Obsulyte user, and you wield two Gates as we're speaking, the Gauntlets Of Creation and the inactive Key Of The Gate. Adding Terna's flute which she only knows off, which is definitely a Gate considering how she suddenly gained such abilities while ditching the four elements, that makes three total gates and two extremely powerful Obsulyte users to feed off of. Wanting to either kill you or conceal your Gate to decrease your level as a threat would be much more preferable to act upon with their numbers...but this? This means Luna has something that we don't."

"Or...Luna is strong enough but weakened to the point it's actually worth going for her instead? Even animals know when there's easy prey.", Hikari realized.

Coming right at them, Yuno soared above the crowd, turning sideways as he plunged the summoned blade into the ground, driving it across a straight line as he slid across the battlefield and killing numerous monsters, before the blade eventually broke and crumbled away as he reached Hikari and Terna.

"Alright, I'm here, let's hurry! I left Luna with a really bad one, and I have no idea how she's doing!", Yuno worried.

"I don't know what to do either! The monsters aren't even bothering to attack, to maximize stalling!", Hikari showed him.

"Can't you carry us across with flight? You have Obsulyte strength, don't you?", Terna suggested.

"I can't carry an entire person, when my individual strength for what my body can take only takes me that far! Especially someone like Hikari wearing all that armor!"

"Dang it...I thought you were one to one proportionate to Dante.", Terna panted as she took down more monsters.

"I am, but there's no way we won't run into any issues! They've got guns and I'm no airplane! They will shoot us down when I get dragged back with your weight and worry of dropping you all the time! Plus, proportionate strength doesn't mean equal to, when there's limitations such as my body and all the Obsulyte I can process at once!", Yuno said.

"Should've worded it better, I guess.", Terna was somewhat let down.

"Hey, I'm a Guardian, now a 'Link' as people call it! I'm a part of the thing I'm linked to, not able to completely be on it's level!"

"We need a plan. Even if Terna keeps going alone and killing monsters, it won't be enough to waltz through all this!", Hikari started to panic.

"Hmm. Alright. Hikari, I can't use your armor unless you disperse it. You've been fighting for a straight hour, so I'll take it from here.", Enemy devised a plan.

"Ok. Please, hurry."

Hikari proceeded to put all of her faith to Enemy as her armor crumbled away at her will, with Enemy stepping on the field as she took lead and beginning to reassemble the same jet-black armor ever present in Dante's mind, from his nightmares before his collapse at Dirunon. The lance itself followed as it was taken hold off from Enemy, her wasting no time in pulling the blade present inside the lance itself as she drew back the handle, the sheath too disappearing, her eyes lit with the confidence of a seasoned soldier, ready to make it a battle of one versus many.

"Right. Terna, with what you've got right now, can you use the same boosting abilities you once did on others?", Enemy approached the front slowly.

"I think so? I haven't tried it since I got this, but even then, I will have to sustain the power surge at you and leave you to fight on your own!"

"With how the boost worked last time Hikari remembers it, it'll be more than enough, especially now that it's a solo target, rather than an entire rebel army. Try it!"

"O-Ok!", Terna jumped back.

As she sheathed the blade back into her flute, she softly placed the instrument on her lips. As if the lights dimmed and the wind settled, a beautiful melody echoed on the battlefield, reaching the ears of many. The tone was low and relaxing, in complete contrast to the feelings produced by the hectic situation, taking a far greater than average talent to be able to suppress given emotions in favor of another melody with which to send a message and set the tone to that of serenity, relaxing mind and muscle as they left their uprising from their attained autonomy due to stress and fear. Still yet, although Terna, along with the others, managed to regain composure from their emotions taking over in front of a field of unimpressed and standstill monsters, the same feeling of power, with which they'd be light on their feet and strengthened on the muscles, did not follow, causing Enemy to signal her to stop as she stopped approaching the ever large barricade of mindless bodies.

"Something's off. I don't feel a thing.", Enemy looked at her blade.

"Wrong? But...I felt it. I don't know why, but this feeling...is this how it always felt?", Terna looked at her flute.

"Wait, you were boosted just now?", Yuno asked.

"I think so, yeah? That melody certainly made me feel as if I could run a marathon and lift a planet, all the while it looked as if I could move and see the world faster than what it moved. I've never felt this before, as no matter how hard I tried, I could never appreciate the same music that came out of either my voice or instrument as the others did when I gave them this upbeat feeling. Now I feel...relaxed? Even though the power surge only lasted as I tried playing the song for you."

"In short, it doesn't work anymore. Great. First time I see a Gate actively throwing abilities and bearers under the bus.", Enemy angrily said.

"I-I'm sorry, I don't know what this is."

"Not on you, but we should've practiced with new abilities before getting here. New plan, right now. Terna, take care of the Corrupted generals, and I'll pave the wave through the normal one's. We are left with no choice, as our only option is to literally take all of them on ourselves, up until the point where we can safely disengage and run towards Luna. She must already be struggling.", using Hikari's Gate, she summoned a bunch of smaller blades like a feathered fan behind the blade, ready to brute force it.

"Got it! Last resort!", Terna prepared herself.

"Alright then. What do I do?", Yuno asked.

"You're a quick flier, so make sure you round the edges of the enemies before they escape, to keep in line with our original mission. We have to balance us, the souls depending on our success and the military not getting the wrong idea and complicating this further. Although, with good enough surveillance, they might already know about the mystery vigilantes. Now go. I'll lead the charge since I'm suited for the occasion, so let me take most of the hits for this one.", she looked at Terna with her casual wears, as opposed to her heavy armor, "Can't believe I'm bending again to satisfy you.", she whispered.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"You don't have to if you don't want to.", Hikari politely echoed.

"Sometimes not wanting something doesn't corelate to not doing something. You are capable, but...", Enemy hesitated.

"But?"

"'But'. That's that.", she firmly repeated, avoiding further comments.

Charging right at the monsters without a second though, she jumped the initial Corrupted general as she plunged her sword into it's heart, turning at her side before bashing it back and away from the honed edge with her armored elbow. The summoned blades followed her movement as they all directly plunged into the monster while in flight, killing it instantly as they pierced it's skin on multiple parts. Proceeding yet again, now with the monsters being active, she summoned another lance in her other hand as she charged directly ahead. Lesser monsters whined as they crumbled before her entire mass running across and pulverizing them along the way, Enemy trying her best to ignore the higher threat monsters as she trusted Terna that followed behind her.

"Terna!", Enemy yelled.

"No worries!", she followed behind Enemy, targeting a Corrupted that was after her friend in the deeper monster lines.

Directly attacking the Corrupted general with a considerable part of her strength, Terna began by using her flute as a rapier and mimicking the move of an initial, gap closing pierce as she almost slid across the floor with her swift footwork as she came in. Finding herself actually hitting the target right at the center of it's back, the moment after she realized it was a hit, she made three consecutive strikes in quick motion before jumping with a flip over the Corrupted's head, landing a clean strike yet again on it's face as she swiped her sword while twisting upside down in mid air with grace that of a talented dancer. Landing right on her feet afterwards while the monster briefly stuttered from the hit on it's head, Terna used the forward momentum she had gathered from her jumping to quickly twist and kick jump one more time as she performed the same finishing blow she did in the theater, landing on seemingly nothing before gaining a massive forward boost mid-air, dashing full force and unleashing a powerful purple flash right on top of the Corrupted as she simultaneously stopped all forward momentum with the slash. With grace and skill completely unexpected for someone as untrained as she was thought to be, Yuno and Enemy, who briefly glanced at her during her close combat, couldn't help but be left in awe.

"I'm starting to really like this new style regardless of whether some abilities were gone, that was cool!", Yuno briefly lost himself in amazement.

"I guess this sort of justifies showing up like you're downtown shopping in the middle of a battlefield.", Enemy kept her focus primarily in battle.

"Still a long way to go guys!", she followed up with Enemy, "What the-"

"Watch it!", Enemy rushed back at her.

Without realizing it, two nearby Shadowers, one holding what looked like an anti-Obsulyte gun and another with glowing sharp nails ready to strike jumped at Terna as the rest of the group funneled in, directly attacking her. Not before long, the first in line made a swiping motion with it's claws as the second pulled the trigger on the gun, a laser preparing to fire on top of her as well, Enemy, panicking enough, only managed to make a long jump after her dash between Terna and the Shadower holding the gun. As a result, Enemy was briefly blinded as she tumbled on the ground after, kneeling and covering her eyes as the shot directly hit her in the head, kneeling while holding her eyes with one hand and the blade pinned against the ground in the other, while the other monster directly made contact with Terna and landing a hit.

All seemed to freeze and slow down. Terna, though contracting and preparing to receive the hit, stood there waiting as nothing happened. Eyes closed from her natural instinct of fear as the dark was all that she could tuck away in. But then, with time almost to her will, she opened them as she felt something was wrong. Not fields. No hoard of monsters. No sky. The same endless expanse of darkness she had witnessed with her closed eyes was now revisited with them wide open. She stood in front of the same monster that had attacked her, claws still glowing and an attacking expression on it's abnormal face, stuck there frozen in it's motions as she moved away. Confusion set in as did fear, the human instinct of both something lurking in the unknown or being lost and stuck alone indeed in darkness set in as she moved around the only other object she could see. Strangely enough, though wanting her life, she herself could not bring her body to move away from the monster, even if it could move at a moments notice, treating it as an anchor and a beacon in the expanse of darkness.

"H-Hello? Is anyone here? Where am I?", she called out, lost in what she should do, "This place...I know it? Excitement and fear...something lying beyond here for me to see. What is this place exactly? How did I get here?"

She vocalized her thoughts as the mere echo of a voice, even hers, calmed her mind as it fooled it for company while it entered her ears. Answering her call, as she looked beyond the frozen monster, a figure appeared right before her. The figure, initially the same purple as that of the discharge her Obsulyte powers emitted, quickly changed to the image of a field, full of monsters. Quickly realizing exactly what it was, without a shred of a doubt, the figure was a one to one copy of Terna without her key details such as eyes or nose, until the figure turned to the side and showed that it actually did have faint features as such, walking towards Terna, As if it was a shadow silhouette similar to that of other monsters that failed to recreate the look of humans, this one even had faint accessories and clothes worn despite it all, being like an improper mirror. No fear set in Terna upon the phantom's arrival, instead watching it slowly coming around the monster to face her. However, to her immense surprise, after a brief moment of inspecting her, the phantom formally addressed her as it spoke in perfect sentences with proper wording, voice even echoed in the darkness.

"I see. For such time to pass and for your body to have aged to adulthood, the regression of age must have been incomplete. Yet, without being properly reborn and passing the critical steps of youth to be properly used to, you have already been able to get accustomed to what this world calls 'Obsulyte' powers.", the phantom spoke.

"Hmm.", Terna nodded, "I remember a lot of things since those fields Viola found me at. Even this flute-sword. But even then...who are you? You are so...familiar? And yet, despite it all, I struggle to remember you, or this place with the feeling of familiarity that I've got."

"You must have stumbled on the notebook again. It's hard remembering a thousand worlds and to contain a thousand songs representing them all at your age. As for familiarities, I will waste no time revealing them to you as your existence here speaks of nothing but readiness. I am Serena. You are a part of me that my curiosity forced me to detach in this world in order to chase a girl that came from my own birthplace. At least, the place I remember first writing a song where my consciousness allows me to remember."

"Serena turned to...Terna?"

"A funny play on words, wouldn't you agree? But no, as Melistar is to be a part of Dante, the true Dante, I am to you. A separation, caused by my being, my atoms, my Obsulyte separating from my body and leaving my form ethereal, while creating another, which only serves to make it unfair for me to merge rather than only acknowledging a correlation between us. This place, as I call it, is The Void. A stepping stone before the Abnormal String, where I used to pass into different worlds...except this one where I was forced into creating another form to explore, the curiosity of my mortal soul taking over. I have longed to explore this world by myself, but my powers and this domain that I used to once explore and visit other worlds has ironically entrapped me here."

"Like the monster, right? Obsulyte deficiency being the reason it's stuck while The Void demands it to move around to?", Terna got a revelation.

"Much how this Dante, separated from the original bearer of the Key Of The Gate, remembered upon gazing his mother's, the Overseer Of Beginnings, Cecilia. Though still lacking, once sufficient, you will be able to reawaken your true abilities to even mold this realm to whatever you please, if only to be viewed and stepped by those you, and only you, deem fit."

"I see. But how did I end up here?"

"Normally, by will. Now, by desperation."

"This isn't at all normal, is it? For Obsulyte user standards? I don't need to take too many guesses to understand that, when I witnessed some of the rebels in Delpha, them being Obsulyte users, in battle."

"Power, Obsulyte, dark matter. Whatever word you may choose to describe it with in this world, it is indeed, far beyond average. Although that by proxy, you do not belong in this world."

"Then where do I belong?"

"The same place of origin I did, back in my world, my universe. A world once thought mostly devoid of the same powers in it's endless expanse of a universe, in it's bubble across the Abnormal String, where many across the pages of history, including me and the girl who accidentally molded this world as a mirror of mine did. I once had her wondering the darkness without being able to absorb enough Obsulyte to appear before her from The Void. Such suffering...and tears enough to fill an ocean. Before an evil destined to walk the point zero of creation came forth."

"This is getting too out of hand...but me sitting here only makes it worse for my friend! Luna!"

"Hmm. You must be talking about humanity's weapon against the beings they once proclaimed omnipotent? Fear not, as time in The Void moves separately. Mere milliseconds in the current one. Yet, as my phantom shadow shows, we are being dragged towards her. This Luna...seems like something far out the ordinary, to almost act as a singularity that drags even space and time to it."

"I have to save her, somehow. Please, if there are any powers you can lend me, I'll be eternally grateful!", Terna pleaded.

"Lend you? These powers, this Obsulyte, is yours. Much like my weapon, the thing I called the Gate Of Echoes, is yours."

"So is this realm?"

"A realm without subjects to rule over, yes. But do keep in mind that control over it doesn't mean it's yours alone. Many, like the monsters seeping through it, are able to abuse it."

"Shadowers."

"I once had monsters like those working under a flag of a false leader, said to be chosen by their god. To you, insignificant but memorable, given our link across worlds. After centuries, however, even the greatest bodies of power, such as the one called the Holy Roman Empire, fall to corrosion of time."

"Wouldn't destroying this realm be the best action then? To stop the monsters?"

Serena briefly chuckled, "As young as ever. Often, violence will help to momentarily suppress lesser violence, reason being used to keep it at bay before eventually succumbing to humanity's nature again. But I assure you, punching and slashing against the walls of a negative infinite is obsolete. The Void and the Abnormal String, both beneath the Quantum Irregularity, are three layers of which every universe, cosmos and all lesser or greater is forced to based and eventually transition between before setting to exist. The human mind never did like to comprehend infinity, even mine, however, my travels only pushed me towards it's force understanding of it."

"Back in your world then, before you traveled towards other universes, what were you?"

"We share a common profession and interest. Music. My words, my songs and memories written in that diary of yours from the few memories you had left of my mind while at youth, after your 'reincarnation'. However, to my dismay, I too only remember my parents as those who raised but did not bring me to life. Like a universe being reset upon it's eventual death and decay, before bursting again to restart an endless cycle...it's weird. Much like Gates are able to be carried throughout other worlds in sync with their respective Obsulyte owners, as you call it. However, whereas similarities exist between those who once wielded them and those wielding them now, the mystery of my own absence from other worlds visited only further makes it more difficult to understand. Likewise, with rare instances such as mine, seeking out some only made it futile in the realization of their absence from another world hidden in the Abnormal String. And the absence of theirs only led back to the point where most of their being gathered to make a collective, powerful whole, in the point of origin."

"I remember your songs though. They were like a tragedy, starting off with anger and anguish that which I never once felt here, and written in different languages."

"I was declared a defective to normality from my origins, appointed a title I will admit only to you. The 'Witch Of Madrigal'. It was only through my travels and my eventual growth out of my young age that I realized that there was much more to every world, including mine, than omnipotent beings or figures of grand authority needed to be dealt with, needed to be experienced. As such, the figures most a stranger to you, followed me here after I was attracted to reveal my presence and forming deep bonds with them. Through The Void, to the point of origin. Even now, through here, I feel them. I would be ashamed to call myself a being capable of witnessing and observing a sandbox of desperation that was the same as a god...but eventually, all grows beyond the skies and mortal coil, beyond the tower once build to reach the sky enough to make omnipotent beings tremble into finally acting, and Overseers clashing.", the phantom form of Serena passed through what appeared like a brick wall, "Hmm...I see. Not long before we are forced out of this realm. Most intriguing, honestly. But this world specifically has been in no shortage of surprises. Shall you wish to truly become one with your past and for the first time walk upon a solid foundation unlike what I ever did, the Elysian Meadow where you appeared should give you a good enough entry to The Void, this time intentionally. For now, as I disappear, make the most of the short time you've got left while crossing space to your friend and finish off this monster, before you have to face many more. I'll see to it that we meet again, Terna Matune.", Serena faded away into The Void.