"Can you hear me? Dante!", a faint voice echoed at the back of his head.

"About time you made a comeback.", Dante realized who it was, "You know, one thing about you is that you obviously adore going on and off whenever the chance presents itself."

"Not like I had a choice. The midget is stuck here too now?"

"Hey, watch it. It's the first time I'm working this much overtime to regulate this guy's Obsulyte levels.", Yuno echoed as well.

"With this many voices in my head, I can't even blame Isabella and the others for treating me like crazy.", Dante got annoyed.

"Interesting. It's the first time Yuno took over like this.", Mellistar wondered.

"And turns out my abilities are of use, since I'm actually the proactive plan, not the plan that drops in when all hell breaks loose."

"Could you both shut up?", he got fed up.

Trying his best to focus, Dante used his small blade to rapidly close the distance between a group of Corrupted onto him and very heavy enemy backlines quickly. Finding himself at the front of them all, he tried to penetrate the skin of the lizard Corrupted, only to quickly find his attack being ineffective due to it being enhanced by a Watcher. Quickly drawing out Excelsior, fully powered in the presence of Mellistar, he scraped it across the floor with the tip of its edge, both dirt and sparks flying around as he brought it behind his right shoulder with a wide stance.

"Checkmate!"

He unleashed a frontal slash so powerful that it cut the lizard's gaping mouth even deeper in the middle, until the base of its neck. The slash left behind a wide ion flash that took with it all surrounding enemies before detonating and unleashing an extremely wide barrage of lighting dropping right from above, decimating the enemy.

"You seem to have gotten things figured out, if even for my weapon.", Mellistar was awed.

"Like I told her. I learn to swim in the deep or I drown in it.", he sheathed his blade, "In around 15 minutes with this pace, I'll be within the big lizard's range."

"The others are not that far behind either. If I recall correctly, this must definitely be Tiki's doing.", Yuno informed.

Meanwhile, at the top of the high ground near the city, Reina, Wallace and Magi all saw themselves relaxing more and more as their enemies not only fell easier than before, but because of their constant retreating. Taking a moment to examine what was actually happening, it was Magi who first came to understand why they could celebrate their small victory.

"One of them, presumably Dante, must have unleashed their full power.", she looked down at the main battlefield.

"These things can understand that?", Reina was surprised.

"As you saw them form before, they can do much more than that. The lizard bastard down there must have definitely realized that there's an immanent threat he's redirecting all his attention to. Well, at least his army's.", she looked at Makaro pressing towards Gardard.

"Our only chance is to fire with the same Obsulyte cannons it consists of.", Wallace signaled his men.

"Truly, that's all we can do. The others though will have to finish the job.", Magi fortified the front and activated her comms, "Whatever you guys are doing has put a skyscraper-sized target on your backs. Our front is almost completely clear, they're rerouting down there."

With that information at hand, a rush of desperation loomed over the others at the main front, wanting them to quickly finish the fight at one front before the enemy reinforcements arrived from the other. To their dismay, however, Tiki had been able to reach up to a certain point, despite her empowered form. The war mechs themselves had started being completely overwhelmed by the environment around them, causing them to stick behind, while after hours of non-stop fighting, the Obsulyte demi-human front they had assembled began to dwindle.

With all hands still on deck and very much unable to be off of that deck, they had locked themselves in. A last resort yet again came through the comms, in fear of the front falling, the sender being Isabella and the receiver being Luna, once again calling her near the deep position they had found themselves in.

"I am listening.", Luna fought alongside Isabella.

"That matrix of yours connects to the abnormal space, right?"

"Yes."

"Alright then, do exactly what you did with Dante. I'm done trying any form of babysitting on him. I tried my best to be as understanding as possible for Hikari, but I can't do this. I need her for this. This can quickly turn into another liability we can definitely not afford right now."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Luna nodded, "Understood. Though you will need the same ability to be used in order to switch back from Hikari. Will that be ok with you? Because note that I may not be able to provide that service with how the performance of our frontlines is deteriorating due to a mix of factors."

"Perfectly fine with me. Let her come out!"

Doing as told again, Luna held her position as Isabella protected her from oncoming enemies, taking one hit after the other as she swiped them away with wide attacks of her lance. Focusing enough just on her matrix alone, the same abnormal circumstances started to surround the area to a much higher degree, allowing right in that instant for Hikari to be able to come out of Isabella almost instantaneously. Realizing that the swap happened, Luna once again lowered her power output, rapidly attacking surrounding enemies once more to give Hikari some breathing space with her scythe, decimating enemies and flying backward at her. A mere nod later, she had quickly returned to the frontlines to reinforce them once more, leaving her behind to get better situated at the ongoing crisis. Not that she would need much time to.

Still, with a massive burst of energy emitting from her body, blowing away enemy forces and incinerating those caught within its initial blast radius, Hikari performed the exact same move as with the first monster raid back in Insinia. Now able to see further ahead, she realized exactly the scale of how everything had become with her own eyes. The massive monster seeking energy to sustain itself looking at Gardard, the soldiers struggling to keep up behind her, the earth being infertile after the horrors it was forced to go through.

It was one moment after so, so long ago where she got herself the chance to see with her own two eyes how the world had become. Her will enforced to change everything, even the names despite the similarities of every place, her suppression of any and all dangers to humanity and all other forms of life bottling up until blowing in such a horrid explosion. A calamity that despite already getting accustomed to it via the battle of her other half, still had her frozen among gazing at it.

Isabella scoffed, "Told him that we could do the exact same. How's that for 'outclassing' them?"

Hikari looked around, "So...this is what Makaro would look like. At least...one of many he could. It's different seeing it with your own eyes. that's for sure.", she got reminded of the past.

"We had to face the big moron once before. Surely different, but he can put on a hundred dresses and still be the same. Your lover and the psycho are both deeper in enemy lines, might I add. Dante won't last that much. Sure he does more with every activation of his abilities, but he's pruned to overestimation, I can already see what will happen.", Isabella informed her.

Hikari very tightly gripped her lance, "A psycho is one thing he's not! I lied to get him confused because I wanted something else out of him and I caught you in that confusion. I tried my best, absolute best, to make everything right, and that only ended up in horror."

"Hikari, what's around you right now doesn't really give you time-", Isabella was interrupted.

"What's around me is all that I did! Ever since I saw you happy for once after all those years, through your memories, it also reminded me of Dante, your Dante, smiling too. Something he can no longer do. And now that I remember what you do...those nights he spent praying in the Temple, where you'd comfort him, don't you remember those too?"

Isabella briefly paused, "I do. And I confused him for the other one back then too. But despite all the differences I saw in him, that child that I once came close to seeing as a friend is gone. I mean, look at him."

"Many things we seal away are gone, 'Belle. As I did, as you did, when we helped one another from sealing our memories. Maybe Drima caught onto that fact when he saw us change for the first time. Created Dante's condition, then that creation was stolen and reused on Luna and Lina...it's so easy to forget. So hard wanting to forget..."

"There's no point, Hikari. That bridge was burned long ago. Right there with whatever life we had in Dirunon.

"What about everyone else?"

Isabella got fed up, "Alright, alright fine! God, you pick the worst places to analyze me. Here.", she took a long breath, "I stopped seeing them as friends long ago...for my stupid reasons. It felt like there was a task that was greater, that didn't require anyone but myself to do it. Dante specifically, I made an enemy out of and tormented him for no reason at all, and that was to protect you. I kid you not that in the bathroom up in our room is when I realized this. My shortcomings...being Dante, or literally anyone else, that was unjust of me. I can admit this to you, but not to anyone else, if it will make you feel better to get back into the fight. I always wanted to be with everyone back then, Hikari. Including Dante, before he betrayed us in the Temple. I understand you're racing to make things right between us, all of us, and especially where the dude you're after is locked behind. Even now...I can slaughter anything that comes my way, but this? I have never explored this. I don't...I don't know if I can use my words to fix any of this. Since those too, I turned into a weapon. I'm begging though, please let things settle. I can't run after him on your behalf when all that'll do is stroke the flames. I am really getting somewhere, but let me figure it out."

For the first time in what seemed like ages, for a person she held dear to her heart, Hikari happily nodded, "So you understand. You really do."

"I...I kind of did way earlier than this. But I lacked the power to admit it. Now go at it. We have your world to save."

Hikari psyched herself up, "Right. I'll let you take the backseat, it's been awhile since you could do that too.", she focused fully, "I won't let any second chances go to waste. None!"

Tremendous energy gathered around Hikari, her body instantly clad in the exact same armor that Isabella almost engaged in battle with back in Dirunon. The radiant light around her amassed enough power for her to finally and yet again be able to create weapons like how she used to, engraved with the ability of the Abnormal Space in her hands. One light, translucent spear in one hand and Cecilia's lance on the other, she was back in the field, facing her past with a brand new self.

With the frontlines crumbling and the future resting in her every choice from that point onward, she fearlessly jumped into the fray in a way no different than Isabella's herself. Darting for Dante to prevent another issue that was to be dealt with, her every step was followed by a different enemy she cut down each time, and her presence and power both announced and acknowledged as the big monster up front roared once more.

Completely disregarding Gardard, the monster turned around to face both Dante and Hikari, surprising everyone in the fields below. It too knew that with both of those presences, the only way out and the only way to complete any plan going forward was to end it all right then and there.