Karito choked Kyuuto with his metal grip claw, keeping him suffocated to weaken him to further his plans. But then from behind them, extreme heat emanated from Ishigaki's aurics. Aotori saw his face with brightly glowing irises. They knew it was Natsuki who controlled his body at that time.

She then jolted from her position near the others, directly to Karito who managed to let Kyuuto loose and he fell into the ground, while Karito and Natsuki tumbled into one of his metal cage's walls which was made from random scraps of metals. The burning flame from Natsuki's aurics melted Karito's metals even faster.

Natsuki pressed him even stronger, even with one hand she was able to pin him down, "I will not let you hurt him again!!" she continued to press him even stronger against the wall, even making him hard to even breathe. Karito struggled with Natsuki then counter her by curving the metal scraps above her to form a sharp claw towards her back.

"You always seem to have something going on, but in the end, it's just never enough!!" Karito then controlled the claw to stab Natsuki's back, and through his chest. Seeing Ishigaki's blood dripping down, Natsuki gradually lost control of her descendant's body. Karito then swiftly grabbed Ishigaki by the neck, raising his feet.

"See? You're always trying to do something that you believe would change the world, but in the end, it's just hurting yourself and the one you loved," Karito then aimed his appendages towards ishigaki's face, and turning all of them into blades, "this is how your story will end..."

With his chest bleeding, Ishigaki did not want to surrender so easily. He forced himself to grab Karito's arm with both his hands, and radiate his heat onto him. "That phrase... I don't want to hear it again!!" the hole on Ishigaki's chest started to glow and emanate even more heat. While Karito was trying to get away from him, he gripped and squeezed Karito's arm until his metal-bones melted.

After the struggle, Ishigaki's chest finally exploded, throwing Karito through one of his own metal cage walls, and reduced him into multiple pieces. The rest of Aotori behind Ishigaki saw it all, and Hikiri then approached him to see what happened beyond the smoke. The two men heard cracking noises amidst the smoke and rubble, a few dozen meters from where they were standing. They only saw Karito's head seemingly half buried on the ground.

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He looked at them with blank stares, then he started to laugh, all the while the scrap metals around him started to shake as if controlled by an unstable magnetic field. But slowly but surely, he started to sob and cry. He was reminded of the tales of how his clan was eradicated, and the rage and hunger of power that has been brewing for millenia.

Karito started to cry and laugh at the same time, looking more desperate than he had ever been. "I will not stop now... I have to revive-- my clan..." Karito then grasped the earth with one of his severed mechanical hands. The metal cage started to shake violently, and parts of it were shifting and falling down. The rest of Aotori near Kyuuto gathered closely, but still kept an eye on Anrui near Kanata above, while Karito slowly rose again with even more metal parts attached to his body than before.

Not long after, Karito transformed himself into a gigantic mech-human hybrid with all the metal scraps from his metal cage providing him protection. While Karito was getting bigger, the metal cage fell apart, but at the same time, the metal pole Kanata was held onto was getting taller. Kanata screamed for help, and Rin quickly passed Kyuuto to Aosuke to try and save her.

As Rin jumped around any platform she could find to get to Kanata who was elevated at a terrifying rate, she suddenly stopped by someone she knew. Rin's eyes widened as the person in front of her was her own brother who died in the Great Search. "It's me," said her brother softly, Rin could not believe her eyes, but then her brother clenched his left fist, and punched her in the face, making her fall back down to earth.

Turns out it was Anrui again, manipulating his subjects' minds with his shapeshifting ability. After punching Rin, he reverted back to his original form, sneering at his enemies, and fled the area. Aosuke saw Rin falling down, he swiftly jumped upwards and caught her, and they both landed back to safety.

"We need to get out of here!!" Aosuke then shouted to Hikiri and Ishigaki who were farther away. The two nodded, then gathered with the others to get a better vantage point of the situation. Karito was getting bigger, touching nearly one hundred meters, he alerted the bases of the warriors nearby. For a moment, Aotori was lost from Karito's vision.

----

"What do we do?" Yusuke asked his brother in the other part of the city with a towering skyscraper, overlooking every corner of it.

Yamisuke was watching from one of the building's windows, he then turned his head around slowly, turning his body towards his right-hand, then answered coldly, "This is the time. Prepare for war... it's time to properly meet our little brother," and with that, Yusuke smiled and went away.

"And for you--" Yamisuke changed his focus towards Yamato in the corner of the room, "you know what to do,"