Before Light - Remastered - Chapter 11 - part 2

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<Ⅺ> - II

Before Lima could make any protests, Yuri stepped forth, weapon in hand, while her six grappling hooks she left behind hovered next to Lima to protect her friends, as she approached the Dark Unerva who she knew was Vernui alone.

" Very well…" The shadow's voice crooned underneath Vernui as he steadied his footing.

" You could defeat her… subdue her with your words! Show her the Truth! Make her yield!"

The shadow then presented Vernui with his katana and round shield like humble arms of black nanoparticles, but the young man took them weapons not.

" I will not hurt her again, neither will I tell her about your lies…!" Vernui snarled, refusing to take the sword and shield.

" She needs to know…the Real Truth…!"

" You fool…we ARE the Truth…to this World!"

" Why are you not taking your weapons?!" Yuri asked incredulously, her sword rifle raised, pointing at Vernui's face.

" Are you not fighting back…for what I am about to do to you?!"

" No," Vernui replied, straightening his body.

" I want to talk."

" I don't want to talk!" Yuri cried out in refusal.

" I Just want My Memories back. The Ones you have Taken!!"

" That…I cannot Vernui replied grimly after seconds of hesitation.

" I need them. I need to know where your powers come from, Yuri. I need them!"

" Then I Will Stop You, and Your Demon Kind!!!!" Yuri cried, charging forth at the man who refused to wield his saber but took his shield of wind and barriers up, receiving the blow from Yuri's sword, halting her strike as he tried to explain.

" Yuri, there is much you don't know—"

" I don't care!!!" Yuri shouted, twisted her blade to a side, catching it mid-way before swinging it back up from a different angle, only to be blocked again by Veruni's agile moves.

" I don't care…I DON'T CARE!!!!"

Clashing nonstop, her Sword rifle swung down and up, left to right, seemingly hitting only the shield which was glued to its pace, appearing one step ahead of her blade.

With a dash forward, Vernui pushed forth, sending a gust of wind like a wall pressuring Yuri back steps away.

They both panted, on both sides, ending the first round in a tie.

Slightly lowering his shield, Vernui let out a quiet long sigh.

" I am sorry…Yuri…"

The young man spoke with utmost earnestness, regret emanating out of his voice.

" But…The Light, The Starbreakers…they are not what you think they are. They manipulated you, to believe in the lies they create."

" The only lie I know is yours…" Yuri panted, raising her sword once more.

" You took something precious away from me…You pretended to be a Starbreaker, You pretended to know me, to share the same pain, same Memories…!"

" I didn't know back then!" Vernui explained quickly to clarify himself.

" I don't remember who I was when we first met!"

" Then do you remember…" Yuri's voice turned cold, simmering with contained anger.

" Who you were, When you did what you did to me…? Do you Remember who you were, and still took My Memories away?!"

Vernui didn't reply. His gaze of agony at the snow gathered on the glaciers they stood upon.

Yuri didn't want to wait for his answer, and neither did she need to.

Piercing her blade forth, the tip of her Sword dived forth, to which Vernui swung his shield up with vehement speed, clashing against Yuri's sword at a faster, more fervorous pace.

" I didn't steal your Memories, Yuri." Vernui yet tried to clarify calmly, blocking all the blows coming toward him.

" I just needed to know, to see it, Feel it…Understand the Power you have that could change Everything!"

" My Powers are not for you and the Demons you help!!" Yuri made a double slash, attempting to break his stance.

" My Powers…I want to use that Power in me to save others…to save my friends that are gone…to save Those I love! And you tricked me…You Used Me!!"

" But Yuri!!" Vernui cried, raising his shield close, withstanding Yuri's raging blows.

" The Demons!!! They are those that were gone!!! They are the ones that Remember, and needed your power most!!"

Yuri's blade stopped in mid-air.

" The Demons, Yuri!! They…They were people…they were like us…!!! They didn't choose to be like this, to become monsters…They had no choice!! They were betrayed, Like All of US!!!!"

" I don't believe you…"

" You have to…!!"

" I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!!!!!!!"

Fighting to resist her trembling hands, Yuri gripped tighter to her blade, only to shiver more at the fear of the words that were spoken to her ears.

Demons…were people…

No. Demons are not people!

Then…What are we? What am I? Aren't we all…Light-Hearted Kind…?

Vitas's turned his saddened gaze to the side, where the Demon armies started to dwindle as the flames and lightning and gunshots slowly devastated their population.

Without the smog, the Demons were perishing in large numbers.

" Do you see those brown rigid spikes growing out of the earth, Yuri?" Vernui motioned to the lands beneath, where the eerie crooked substances sticking out of the snow, distributed vastly across the battlefield.

Yuri didn't know why Vernui was suddenly talking about those unremarkable things but remained silent as he went on.

" Those are signs. A way that some of us used way back to commemorate those that were gone. A place where their bodies could rest, knowing that we, that had remained, would not forget that they, like us, once existed."

…

...….

With the tenth burning ball of lava smashed to the snowy earth, the crater, extending hundreds of yards in radius, was finally deep enough for Firren to see what the brown sticking object was hiding underneath.

Even though the smog had dispersed minutes ago, Firren still could not resist the heartwrenching urge to unveil the truth hidden deep under the snow.

With one last heave of his blade, Firren's wrist blade finally touched matter just inches beneath the snow.

Brushing the last layer of snow on top away, Firren looked down for a better look.

His body paused, remaining in position, stunned like a stone.

Even though the Demons mostly scattered and perished, Reina still thought it was better to call Firren and pull the commander out of his sudden trance.

" Firren! What is it??"

But the young commander didn't move.

His visor and face, facing down at the scene next to his feet.

" Firren, what's wrong?" Reina followed the young man's gaze, motioning closer to where Firren stood, stupefied. That was when the secretary realized that Firren was trembling, very very slightly.

And Reina looked down.

…

.....

" …Why are you telling me this…?!" Yuri asked, her voice incredulous.

" What does that even mean?"

" It means…That those who have perished, Those who have 'Died', were buried under those trunks. This is their burial ground, their graves."

Vernui explained calmly.

…

...…

There, emerging out of the snow in the center depth of the crater, was a pale frozen hand, attached to an arm leading deep into the snow.

…

.....

Vernui continued in a gradually aggressive tone.

" But their souls did not rest. They cannot, for they were betrayed, they were slaughtered innocent. Like All of Us. Their souls take shape, The Nano Scourge aided their wrath, giving their Hatred, their Despair, their Want, their Vengeance… gathering them and granting their despondent Souls a new form…into Demons…!

That is the truth, Yuri…!

That is what's real, the hate, the sorrow! The Longing to return to the old days before the Fall of Man!!! That is what we have been striving for, but the Light! The Lord that claims to eradicate Demons…He is the one that destroyed it all!"

Vernui panted heavily to catch his breath.

" The Demons are not the enemy, Yuri…Starbreakers are! Light, is the ultimate Lie…!!!"

No.

Yuri held her sword-wielding hand tightly, resisting her trembling fears.

No.

This is not true!

" If you don't believe me, ask the one behind you! Ask Lima!!" Vernui cried, pointing at the back with an accusing finger.

" Lima…the one who lived to see it all…surely you would believe in her…Would you not?!"

Yuri turned around, meeting the teary eyes of the little girl who stared back, in sorrow, in regret.

" Is it true…?" Yuri whispered in question.

" Is what Vernui said True?!?!"

Begging for whatever answer, anything of sound explanation from Lima with her persuading gaze. All Yuri got from her friend was a stiff nod.

Yuri's heart wrenched in shock and disbelief.

…

...….

" Lima is hiding something?"

Neliya tilted her head in wonder.

" When we got to the end of the tale, Lima left all of a sudden, with tears in her eyes. Either Lima knows what the hidden meaning behind this tale is, or…she has a history linked to it that we do not know." Kai explained with clarity.

" Either way, I want to know more, to find out what Lima knows that we do not."

" Okay…" Neliya examined the last part of the rune and drawings uncertainly.

" Here the final part goes—"

…

" Don't cry, living one."

Said the rock.

" You are not alone.

You will never be alone…."

…

...….

" Lima…why…why haven't you told me…? Demons…they were people…?!"

" Not just people. But People with feelings!" Vernui exclaimed, his voice echoing across the wall. " People with blood and flesh, not just artificial Light Blood or some insane fuel…! You, you and your Starbreakers, and all your Light-Hearted Kind, they are not the real residents of this earth! You are byproducts! Dolls! Parasites! Copies of the Orthodox Living Kind!!"

" This can't be true!!" Yuri shouted, cutting him off in agitating denial.

" I am here. I feel, I see, I remember…I try to Remember! I Am!!!! I am not a copy…I am Yuri!!...I am Who I am!!! I have a Mother! I have Grandpapa Bradson, I have sister Reina!! I have Friends!!!!...I…I…am…!"

…

...….

" Then where are my friends ?"

Asked the little girl.

" I can't find my friends."

Rock stood up

" See those falling from the sky?

They are light.

Light once lived far far away,

Under the deep blue Sea,

Swimming,

Floating,

Grasping,

Whispering.

They can hear you, young one.

Yes, they can."

So the little girl left the rock,

Setting off to the shore, and stopped at the waves.

The little girl looked yonder

And saw Light.

…

...…

Letting her tears run free, Yuri charged with a long painful cry, swinging her sword rifle down onto Veruni, hitting and striking, trying to wipe all that barged into her mind away by ending this blaspheming Demon.

Only to strike ineffective blows onto Veruni's round metal shield.

" If you think I am lying, Yuri."

Vernui spoke as he stuck Yuri's blade upon his shield.

" Just ask your friend. She knows, doesn't she? She knows of the past, did she not?! But why did she not tell you? Have you thought of that? "

Yuri herself had been pondering the same, every night, every day.

It's a curse, Lima had said, every time she tries to ask her of the past she had forgotten.

It's a painful burden Lima doesn't want her to bear.

" Wrong." Vernui shook his head bluntly, his eyes fixed on Lima's wide petrified stare.

" No…" Lima whimpered, quickly springing up to her feet, and rushed forward, terrified by what Veruni is about to say.

" No…!!! Stop—!!!"

" It is because she is the one that turned into this, Yuri. She too, like All the followers of your so-called Light, the SkyLord, the Starbreakers, they are the ones that made you out of your old self that has Perished.

Yes, Yuri. You are but a Soulless copy of your 'Dead' self.

And they did so, only to harvest your Memory, your Light, for their greed and insolent Want. The One that doomed the World, murdered us all, is using you for the power in your Past! You never knew. Even the one you call friend, would not tell you the truth… You are on the wrong side, Yuri. You always were."

Lima staggered to a stop as Vernui finished his reveal, looking at Yuri solemnly, as if in pity.

The little girl opened her mouth to explain, but no words to possibly express her thoughts, her regrets. Her apologies.

…

...…..

" Don't go, hopeful Light."

The little girl called out and the Light stopped.

" Who are you ?"

Light asked the girl.

" I am a little girl, and I need your Light."

Answered she.

Light hesitated

" Is it for Moon ?"

Asked the Light.

" We don't like Moon. The world is angry at him."

" Moon is good. He banished shadow."

The girl replied.

" Moon is a professor, and he has destroyed everything else."

Light answered.

" I am free, and I don't like Moon."

…

...…..

" ...Is it true?"

Cold, like ice, a toneless whisper did Yuri ask her friend stupefied behind her.

" Is it true…That I was made… by you?"

Lima could not answer. Her sobs restraining her vocal cords.

" Is it true…That you made me… to harvest My Memory…?"

" NO!" Lima cried out, tears that could not stop.

" I Never wanted to use you…I Never Wanted that Power! I…I just wanted you to be happy…Yuri…"

" But I am not the Yuri of your past…Am I?" Yuri's calm cadence sent dread all over Lima's guilty soul.

" You never told me…Because you don't want me to know."

" I didn't tell you because I don't want to hurt you!!" Lima shouted back.

" No." Yuri shook her head, finally turning to face her friend. Tears like mighty streams unceased.

" You just don't want to hurt yourself. To you, I am not a friend, but a replacement for your Memory. A toy…for your loss."

" No…No, no no no…No, Yuri…NO!!!!!" Lima wailed, falling onto her knees, the handle of her lightsaber clanking aloud to the floor and rolled to the side.

" No…Yuri…I am sorry, I never…I did not mean…No…Yuri…No…."

Unable to explain, futile to formulate her own reasons, Lima could but sob, wail in regret and defeat on all fours.

…

...….

" Then can you help me ?"

The little girl asked the Light.

" Excuse me ?"

" My friends were lost, and I can't find them."

Begged the girl.

" Please, help me with your Light,

So that they can find their way back."

…

...….

" Now you know," Vernui spoke at length, reaching out his hand to the silent contained Yuri.

" The Demons your Starbreaker friends have slaughtered, they resist so that I can succeed, and the only way to fulfill this promise, is You. Yuri, I need the full extent of your Memory—"

" I will not give you My Memory." Yuri snapped sternly, standing her ground firm.

Vernui's reaching hand twitched for a split second.

" My Memory is not for you, nor for the Lord of Light. It is My Memory, and I will find it, and help those with my Own Power!! My Own Way!!!"

The grip over her sword rifle, tightened once more. The blue and golden linings shimmered with power.

" You are incapable of finding It alone." Vernui reasoned still, trying to sound negotiable.

" Your Makers blind-sighted you. Let me, Let Vernui help you! He knows you, he will facilitate the search—"

Before this Vernui could finish his earnest persuasions, Yuri's blade was drawn in a split second, setting its tip atop the man's neck.

" Who Am I Speaking To?" Yuri demanded with a glaring stare, with each word full of unrelenting strength capable of halting a storm.

Instead of cowering under the blade, the Dark Unerva just chuckled, his lips curling up to a sinister grin.

" You had asked." The young man spoke, his voice doubling in two, one deep, the other high, eerily uttering each word with a vicious hiss, his presence looming out of the body and rising a depraved Deity of three pairs of skeletal wings sprouting out of its shadowy back. A long beak protruding out of its head perched above a long winding neck.

" And I shall reveal.

I, am Archdemon Plague. I speak for my kin, as this boy preaches my ideals.

How may I be of thy humble service?"

" None needed." Yuri coldly rejected the offer, raising her sword rifle high above her head in a high-stance combat form.

" I'll take back what you have taken from me."

" And I too shall take more than I have in store." The Archdemon raised Vernui's arms like a puppeteer hoisting his puppet to grab hold of his weapons, sword, and shield both.

With a ground-breaking leap, Yuri sped forth, swinging her blade down as Vernui deflected with his shield raised, to see Yuri's blade switch directions like water winding through a narrow stream, swiftly evading his defense and sliding over down to the side to sever his waist. Vernui pierced his katana full speed down to break the sword rifle's path, when Yuri triggered her rifle to fire a thundering bullet out, shattering the Dark Unerva's stance as Yuri drew her blade up, swiping his katana out of the way and slit the inner side of his arm.

Vernui and the Archdemon both snarled as the deep gash upon his arm burst out dark blood onto the cold glacier grounds.

But Yuri wasn't done yet, twisting like a hurricane counterclockwise against his shield, forcing the winged Unerva to fall back with swipes of his large wings, separating himself from Yuri's flurry. But not for long, for Yuri shot out one grappling hook straight at Vernui's bosom.

The shadow pulled the strings, making Vernui raise his shield, but to his advent horror, Vernui did not heed, but let the grappling hook pierce through his shoulder.

" You Fool!!" Archdemon Plague uttered.

" What in the Dark Mother's name are you doing?!"

" Doing what I should have done ages ago." Vernui whispered as the grappling hook cords pulled back, anchoring deep into his flesh while the man withstood it all, standing firmly his ground, looking straight at Yuri dashing towards him with her blade piercing forth—

…

...…

Two Minutes Ago

" I am losing my patience! It ends here now, Archdemon!!" Seito boomed, standing tall as he pushed a stream of lightning against the Archdemon's unyielding beam.

" Lo!! I shall unleash my Astra! Reina! Firren! Stay back!!"

Firren and Reina sensed a dramatic surge of power around the Lightning Starbreaker and dashed aside to a temporary retreat, as Seito focused his breathing, inhaling deeply before letting out a long audible sigh.

Then the Lightning hero man took one final breath. The air halted for a split second, then swirled in grave multitudes across the plain, all sweeping towards the blazing yellow Starbreaker's direction, where all light seemed to grow dim under the one sheer presence of beaming light, in the shape of his zigzagged Greatsword held high above his head. The world darkened save for the one last light source that Seito wielded.

Winds howled,

Rain and blizzard crackled down the skies,

And Lightning, one after another, flashed down, fusing into Seito's searing Greatsword as the thunderous crashes echoed across the infinite universe, like a courageous chorus pumping in song to Seito's utter cry, his shouts of the ancient Starbreaker incantations of unlimited power, ringing all over the field.

" Undefeated under the sky,

tempest and storm born from me reverence,

Witness thee, this blessed profundity,

And shiver you shall at its Wake—

Behold!!!!!

TERUMETERES · SAITEN KARANSHURA !!!!!!!!!!"

Lo!

As if the entire universe, bestowing all the Light of the stars and galaxies to this one strike, the Greatsword wondrously bloomed, larger than before, longer than it should, and bulged Mightier than the word could ever describe; Into a grand bolt of sheer Lightning and Catastrophe that Seito wielded in the air as his body levitated with the force of his Astra, the Starbreaker Incantations, and with his sinewy right arm, tensed and bulging with utmost masculinity, Seito tossed the Grand ThunderBolt Terumateres-Saiten Karashura out to the open, soaring light speed up, severing the lightning beam of Archdemon Death through the middle, about to pierce the Archdemon serpent in to pieces—

—When the large extension ball of the Archdemon aggregated all at once in a split second, squeezing all the lightning force it had captured from Seito's first blow, twisting aside with the transforming, swirling bits of its agile body, turning into a large funnel of Demon smog and rocky ash holding the unsteadble lightning energy ball like a palm holding a ball, turning the Grand thunderbolt to one side through a remarkable yet unexplainable display none could comprehend,

and before all their eyes, Starbreaker and Demon alike,

The Grand Thunderbolt shifted trajectory, and sailed the other way, shooting straight at the North Line—

…

...…

As the tip of Yuri's sword touched the armored surface of Vernui, the two of them, Starbreaker and Dark Unerva, both turned to look at the blinding light sailing straight at them.

All Yuri could hear were Lima's long drastic cries of her name.

…

.....

The Astra hit the lone wall, shuddering the grave establishment along with the entire world, the planet, shivering all in its magnanimous wake,

leaving one massive concave on the once formidable mountain wall, where the mighty Astra had struck.

Children on the Betelgeuse, glued to the glass window stared, wide-eyed, mouths agape in utter silence.

Kai and Neliya too, eyes riveted to the massive turn of events outside their window, forcing them to pause -their deciphering work.

Bradson Captain, Firren, and Reina were all at a loss.

Seito too could but stare, mouth wide without words, forgetting to take his next breath.

The North Line, was breached.

…

....

General Solo's dive in the snow halted as the frosty earth weighed down all of a sudden, squeezing him as the soil around him rearranged, swirled, distorted, crushing his body from all sides like a million strong arms twisting a reached mop that is he.

Not good. Solo felt the damage penetrating his armor and body, his bones breaking and his flesh crushed. The Asset was right there, just a couple of inches away from his grasp!

With his last power, before his vision was swallowed into infinite darkness, Solo made one last leap into the depth.

His fingers nearly touching the halo of Light that grew dimmer, and dimmer. And dimmer.

…

...…..

With a triumphant roar, the grand serpent, Archdemon Death, assembling back to its rocky serpent form, rose back up to the skies, spreading its shriek across the lands that were once separated by the North Line, now united, screeching as if in celebration of the liberation of its imprisoned kin.

All the Demons roared along victoriously, as their dark midst, darker than it ever was, smothered out of the indented hollowed path, wafting out slowly, ominously.

Then a thundering step landed down on the snow, reaching out of the dark north as it pulled a gigantic long body out, the sharp fanged-embellished snout pierced out of the darkness to the light, revealing a large triangular horned head of a canine beast with six legs and nine long slithering tails, roaring as it stepped foot on the forbidden soil, sending out Demons of graver form, grotesque and larger, more sinister and berserk in design and temperance, racing out to the open in raging ecstasy, as a humongous ball of spikes with large mad red bloodshot eyes staring both sides, rolled out as it swayed its tentacles vacuously along a raging puddle of pitch-black liquid, flooding the snow fields along with the toxic black smog and endless carnage.

Bradson Captain was on his two feet now, terrified by the scene of millions, no, trillions of drastically more devilish kind, Demons that were sealed away after the first scourge, all returning from the uncouth north, swelling down to all sides, free to take over the various lands of the Light-hearted folk.

…

...….

" Good…!"

Vernui looked up among ash and rubble, covered in snow and debris as he quickly scrambled up to a leaning posture to the side, facing the devastating horde of Advanced Demonry swept over his presence, Demons, Monsters of all shapes and sizes, of every defiling image ever known and unbeknownst to man, marched past him with evil glee.

The two huge bodies of the once imprisoned Archdemons of old stopped before the mortified dazed young man as they gathered before him, as if in waiting.

The one gigantic hound-like Archdemon, its sharp snout lowering in anticipation, stood tall at Vernui's right, with its six crooked strong legs as its nine long wriggling thick tails of thorn-like fur danced vigilantly like serpents of their own mind;

while the humongous ball Archdemon of spikes and tentacles sat to his left, one side of its bursting red eyeball stared morbidly at Vernui's Corrupted Soul.

High above, Vernui noticed the elongated looming shadow of the one that breached the impenetrable gates, of Archdemon Death circling down in a low resounding growl, joining the other two Archdemons in the murky skies, lingering also as if in premonition.

Not really looking at the Archdemons before him, Vernui traced his sight all around him, scanning for the fallen body where Yuri might be.

Where is Yuri?!

" Behold, boy!" Vernui's gaze was forced upward by his Shadow, only then realizing it had emerged higher than before, reaching high up to the sky behind him.

" My brothers and sisters…"

The winged shadow cackled in its deep hollow laughter, rising higher and higher, gaining more and more solidity as the winds from the forbidden North grew stronger and stronger, mightily bursting forth grand gusts of overwhelming breezes, swirling all over the towering shadow that drawn out of Veruni's body and soul, taking a frightening ghastly shape of a thin long metallic rotten corpse.

" They have come to my Calling…Reunited at last! For our world…our forsaken Home…! We shall Taketh what has been snatched away from us! We Shall Prevail! Come!!!! Embrace my Corporal Form!!!!!"

With arms that extended down over to the snow, massive hands carrying long sharp claws that arched upwards from underneath the wide palms; three pairs of skeletal wings harboring feathers of sheer dark ash spurring aggressively as it swayed slowly, sending storms with each small flap; and the head, with three curved up horns sitting prominently over its narrow head, a stinging beak piercing out under the thin twisted slit of red where the eyes were.

Archdemon Plague, its full grace once imprisoned, now unleashed back onto the Lands beyond.

…

...…

An alarm started to moan within the dark chamber, pushing all the hovering screens of the battling north aside.

" Alas…" The watcher in the dark silenced the siren with a contempt swipe of his frail hand.

" Ca… Bradson…see what you have done…"

The watcher sighed, sitting back as his fingers snaked down to the side of his throne, switching a small lever on the side as one screen reflecting nothing but darkness slowly gained light.

" …if only…you would…listen…"

…

...…

With his Betelgeuse scanner, Bradson Captain already could see wave after wave of enhanced Demons higher in rank than the usual ones they used to encounter, and also, sending most fear into his heart, were the old undefeated Archdemons, unleashed once more, to bring despair and devastation across the already hopeless world.

Nothing they do could stop them now.

And Yuri…somewhere out there…!!

There is no other way…!

" Captain."

Bradson Captain looked up, receiving the call from Seito's speakers voicing in the Betelgeuse control hub.

" You may give the order for the others to retreat. Bring your crew to safety."

From the tone of the hero man's words, Bradson Captain assumed what the Lightning Starbreaker had in mind, but still, he chose to listen.

" But this…is of my doing. And I shall stay, and fell as many Demons as I can to stay accountable for my own folly. My apologies, Captain Bradson, for I shall leave my post, to right my wrongs."

Even after firing dozens of lightning streams and a massive Astra incantation, Seito stood high and tall, with his Greatsword raised high, summoning bolts to his sword, engulfing his weapon into a bulging tempest, ready for one last stand.

" Firren, Reina, our collaboration may be short, but it is no doubt one jolly good cooperation." The yellow Starbreaker chuckled to his two comrades, his big shadow like an unwavering cliff of the hill facing the raging tides.

" I suggest you take cover and reassemble a larger army later on while I stall them here, as long as I can."

" What are you talking about?!" Reina muttered, standing her ground firmly, summoning more rows of nanoparticle arsenals before her, and she stepped forward.

" Have you forgotten what you have said? We are all here for the same reason. To Protect Light. It is our mission and our duty. And besides…Who's going to look after your Light while I am gone?!"

" …you…" Seito tried to find the words to persuade them leave, yet in his silence, his loss of words, his comrades stayed, proudly.

" As a commander, I have already made an oath to always leave the battlefield last for my team," Firren spoke, sharpening his wrist blades with sparks bouncing off.

" Seito sir, don't mind if I stay."

" Huh, surely I don't." The big man chuckled and sent down a pillar of lightning to recharge his armor as the three Starbreakers readied their battle stances before the final showdown.

Awed by the Starbreaker's noble determination, Bradson too rallied all the remaining cannons of the Betelgeuse and pulled out his all-controlling gauntlets for the last stand.

But that was not the only noble backup the old captain received.

" Captain!!" Lo, Neo, and the pack of brave children gathered all around him, enthusiasm like flames igniting their bright strong-willed gaze.

" Request permission to navigate the Androids one more time in your aid, sir!"

" Request Permission, Captain sir!" The children cried in wholesome unison.

Nodding in admiration, Bradson allowed the cause.

" Starbreakers, brave children of Light." Bradson Captain looked forth at the grand battle before their meager but courageous ranks.

" Fear No Darkness."

With loud chivalrous cries drowning the screeches of the Demon swarm, Seito charged forth at the lead, swiping cyclones and hurricanes at the face of the approaching Archdemons, combining his strength with Firren's flame, storms of lightning and fire swept out, spreading across the ravaged plain, evaporating seas of lesser Demons into mere ash in seconds, while Reina's photon lasers and light bullets sailed through every corner of the battlefield, penetrating lethal spots, one-shotting legions of savage beasts in seconds.

Photon Missiles rained down from where the Betelgeuse perched as the towering explosions each war-head induced seemed to push the Demons back north in miles, while the endless stinging light rays and annoying sabers of the children-navigated droids pushed the dread array back more and more.

Even against the upcoming swarm of endless Dark, the Starbreakers, with friendship and teamwork on their side, would not disassemble easily affront this overpowering menace.

…

...…

Quick fists banged on Neliya's door as she stood up to answer.

" Kai!! Neliya!! There you are!!" Lucky barged in from the doorway, hollering enthusiastically.

" Come on, you two are late! Captain has agreed to let us help fight the Demons!! Let's go and exterminate them now!! Hurry hurry!!!!"

Following the grander cause, Neliya and Kai followed Lucky down the corridors, heading towards the droid navigating Nerve gear center to prepare for the commenced second phase of the great war.

As soon as the two children left the room, the one with the pair of glowing eyes and slit thin vertical pupils, crawled out from under the bed and to the light, approaching the thick opened book on the table before her.

A sharp dagger gripped tightly in one hand,

grasping the pages, crushing the parchment with the other.

…

...…

Opening her eyes, Yuri was welcomed with a fresh long-forgotten air of silence.

She sat up slowly, sitting amongst the white, the high walls ending at her two sides, in the middle of the concave she reside.

Nothing stood before her, Nothing here, nothing there, nothing up, nothing down, nowhere in between.

Yuri stood up, noticing that even the snow had stopped, and the world was all but pure white.

She turned around, facing the other side of the world behind her, behind the broken wall.

There, the silhouette of its familiar shadow stood,

was the familiar white building, with the clock on its tall face, torn and half crumbled, deserted within the void.

Feeling her light-heart racing, Yuri began to rush toward the place, the building in her memory, the Past—

Turn Back.

Yuri stopped.

…

...…

Carrying the yet unconscious Momo behind her back, Lima hovered down through the energy grappling hooks that safely placed them both on to the side gently, behind a large boulder where they hid from the bursting sea of new advent Demons rushing into war against the flurries of explosions and elemental strikes in the middle of the field.

" Send her back. And return as fast as you can." Lima bade the energy grappling hooks as they coiled around the slumbering girl and sailed out to the skies, escorting Momo back while leaving Lima, clad in golden armor, wielding one lightsaber, darting boulder after boulder in search of Yuri.

" Woof!" The sudden unexpected bark of Elza the wolf cub alarmed Lima as she expected the critter to be hiding in Momo's backpack, not hers.

" Shh!!" Lima hissed hastily. " Not now…! Everything here's gonna kill us!"

Lowering its barks to a prolonged whine, Elza pointed its nose yonder, motioning Lima to follow its gaze which she did, grateful that the puppy was by her side.

There, Lima saw her, lying in the shadow of a slanting cement slab.

…

" …Can you help me ?"

The little girl asked the Light.

" My friends were lost, and I can't find them."

Begged the little girl.

" Please, help me with your Light…"

…

...….

" Yuri…!!"

Putting all thoughts, all regrets, and guilt aside, Lima raced forth, with only one notion in mind.

To get Yuri back safely.

…

...…

Yuri turned around slowly, face to face with a small child, blue of hair, standing steps away, longingly gazing for her attention.

It was herself, in a younger form, in an older time.

" Turn back."

The child Yuri bade once more.

" Turn back…Yuri."

" …I can't…!"

Yuri sobbed in answer, desperately.

" I have failed them…I can feel it…I can hear it!! It's there…it had been calling me, again and again, again and again! The past…that I have failed upon…I have to save it, Is that not what I am made for?! To save the Past with my Power, My Memory?!"

The young child, slowly, shook her head.

…

...…

" Yuri…! Yuri!!"

Lima whispered as loud as she can, holding the unconscious Starbreaker close in her arms.

Yet no response.

" Yuri…! Please...Yuri…I am sorry…"

Lima sobbed, cradling her friend in tight unyielding embrace, tears dropping like sparkling jewels upon the blue and white armor.

" Yuri, I am sorry…for all I have done…for keeping everything away from you…You are my friend, but in the end…I never treated you as one…Yuri…YURI…!!!!!"

…

" …help me with your Light,

So that they can find their way back."

" They are Stars…

Cheerful happy Stars."

…

...…

" What has happened is not one to fix. The Past…is not a path but a dead end."

" Then what am I supposed to do?! If not a tool…just a vessel carrying this Memory?!" Yuri asked adamantly.

" The Demons…they are wronged! They are the ones that are innocent… they are Real People!! And I have slaughtered them, thinking that I was right…What am I supposed to be…if I am nothing, nobody…Without a Future, without a Soul?! But a shell harboring the past that everyone else needs…?"

The young child waited silently for Yuri to let out her tears, her sorrow, grieving over the hard truth of her purpose and identity.

But an existence made out of reminiscence.

…

...….

Mustering all her remaining strength, Lima heaved Yuri up her shoulders and with one tiny step after another, started marching back out of the wreck, out of the dark.

Demons saw them and swarmed in, only to meet Lima's wrath, piercing them with fierce slashes of her light blade.

…

" Please, help me with your Light

So I can find my way to them.

They are Stars

Cheerful happy Stars

Who I played with

In the darkest times of my life

In a castle on a hill…"

…

Tripping over a mound, Lima stumbled and fell, twisting her body around to shield Yuri's body from the fall. Snow puffed up in a ball of haze as they were instantly dissipated by the rushing Demons hungry for their Soul.

Relentlessly, Lima crawled back up, slicing and felling as many Demons as she could, dragging Yuri and herself quickly to a crumbled cave at the side of the torn wall for reprieve. But the swarm kept on welling, squeezing madly in crazed thirst at the narrow opening of the shelter, pinning Lima into a dead end.

Sharp spiked tentacles snaked in, thrashing insanely with utmost yearning, craving to devour them as one of its appendages cut Lima's sword-wielding hand. The saber dropped to the snow, battered further away from her by the chaos.

Elza the wolf cub leapt out of Lima's backpack, barking and biting the assailants, fighting back hard the Demons a hundred times its size, to no avail but being beaten away by ruthless claws, slamming the poor critter down.

" Elza, stop!!" Lima quickly scooped the wounded pup up and hugged it close.

Left with no more options, Lima huddled close to Yuri in her arms, with her own body, shielding Yuri and the wolf cub from all the strikes and thrashing behind her.

The end was near.

The Starbreaker team was also overwhelmed. Advanced Demons outnumber them one hundred to one, under the lead of the notoriously devastating Archdemons.

The forces of Light started to dwindle, close to its fading.

…

...…

Yuri looked up from the tears that blurred her sight.

" I have to change it…I have to change the Past…! There is no other way. And I am the one with the Power to save it!"

" The Past is Already gone. There is nothing for you to save."

" THEN WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!?!?!?!"

" Go on. Foward."

The child replied tenderly.

" Yuri, What has happened is not your fault.

There is nothing anyone can do, to change what has already transpired.

The past is not what defines us, Yuri."

Yuri's tout stance faltered, as her tensed sinews unbind.

…

...…

Holding as tight as she could, withstanding all the hurt and pain coming straight at them behind her, Lima endured.

This is nothing compared to what Yuri had braved, and more so, she felt willing to stand in the way of harm.

For she is Yuri.

Her friend.

Her savior.

Lima smiled, resting her sweaty, bleeding forehead onto Yuri's visor, as she hummed softly, weakly in spontaneous song.

A song Yuri had sung for her, to help her find her way back.

" There was a castle… On… yonder…. hill…

There were stairs… Leading up… And… Down…"

Claws tore her golden armor but still, Lima sang bravely.

" There was a tall tree… in the yard…

….And…a pond… Next... To… The tree…"

…

...…

" We never belong in the past, but in the vast unknown.

The Now.

We try to stay, we try to trust,

We try to pray, we try to give.

We try to find and we never give up,

That is who we are, Our Fate."

…

...…

Sharp tentacles entangled all over Lima, sinking their fangs deep through her shattering golden armor, biting into her skin, and pulled her back, away from Yuri.

Lima fought hard, yet her fingers, her bleeding grip, wavered and were forced to slowly loosen.

" How I wish… there was a sound….

To... remind... me.. that I... could... sing…."

Lima croaked in a fading whisper, letting go.

…

...…

" And there, within all our struggles,

Lies our True Value,

Yuri."

…

...…

"...There was a castle… On a Hill…

There they were… at yonder gate….

And…There I was…. At... The… Other…. Side….."

Lima's fingers gave way, her body sailing off in the air, dragged away by the pulling tentacles, into the grotesque mouth opening wide behind her—

— When at the last moment, Lima stopped.

Her hands, feeling a tight grip, yanking her back from imminent demise.

Lima looked up in disbelief.

As the world behind her started to brighten, Light burst out of the ground.

Protrusions, piercing brown stakes all over the snow, now pillars of blue Light shooting up into the heavens, circled by rotating runes of power, emanating a force unseen, untouchable, but felt throughout the battlefield, Stabreakers, Demons, all, felt the rippling of the soul, alleviating the heavy weight over them and dispersing of the midst over their sight.

" By jove…!" Seito uttered, as surprised as the gigantic Demons that halted their assault, gazing at the numerous large pillars of blue holding the sky and separating the clouds.

Reina looked around in wonder, at loss of words in awe.

Firren saw something drifting down, falling onto his cracked visor.

He reached out his hand,

to see not just snow that fell softly onto his palm.

" It's…Blue."

Blue Snow.

Dark Unerva Varium looked around at all the Demons paused in motion as if time had stopped.

" What is this…?!?!What is going on?!?!" Varium cried, and was startled even more by the sight of the Demons turning away, leaving the battlefield and roaming off to the lands in various directions of their own will.

" Hey…HEY!! Come Back Here!! It hasn't ended yet!!"

Trying to pull the Demons back, only to realize her right Demon arm, once huge and grotesque,

had shrunk drastically into just a regular arm made of dark nanoparticles.

Varium could just stare, speechless.

All the children navigating their androids stopped in mid-flight, gazing at the towering blue pillars that slowly, steadily open up the murky grey skies, revealing the bright blue above, letting in shafts of Sunlight dawning down over the vast white snowy plains.

Bradson smiled at ease, nodding proudly afar.

Never had he imagined himself to live long enough to witness a small fraction, of the Powers

of the Herunis Carna, at full display.

Vernui looked down at the blue snow sparkling in his palm and closed his eyes.

For that one short instance, like eternity,

Vernuis was free from the Archdemon's calling,

Nothing, but silence.

…

.....

The Watcher was now on his frail skinny feet, trembling uncontrollably, his eyes fixed at the one enlarged screen before him, of the miraculous scenes before the North Lines.

" Impossible…" the watcher guffawed, clinging to the wires crown above his head with one hand, while the other supporting the armrest of his throne lest he falls to the side.

" After all these years…you have finally graced us…with your lost Blessings…!!!"

The door slid open behind the watcher, casting a long beam of light upon the glass floor.

A tiny figure stood in the foyer, looking at the watcher with startled eyes.

" Father…?" The tiny child at the doorstep inquired worriedly.

" I…I think I felt it—"

" I do as well…My dear…" The Watcher soothed the worried girl, motioning for the child to come over for him to pet her glistening blue hair.

" It is there…My dear Princess…It has finally ascended to our presence…and as promised…It Shall eventually be Yours, my dear… Sora."

" Yes, Lord father."

The princess smiled in answer, happy that her father was finally smiling,

for the first time in millennia.

…

.....

Lima couldn't move her gaze away, staring back at the blue eyes that glowed with majestic luminesce, dazzling like the starry void of the universe.

Lima opened his quivering lips, but no words came out of her sobbing.

So Yuri finished the song for her, singing softly.

" …Holding…The key, for you…to lock…"

Together, hand in hand, they walked out of the crevice, to see the marvelous sight at full bloom before their eyes.

Blue snow-like petals filling the skies and the air.

Pillars of light rise up from each soul underneath the thick snow, fading eventually, resting eternally in peace.

And the Demons, walking away on their own, their berserk bloodlust diminished in that blissful instant, like creatures in the wild, roaming the earth,

as it should be.

With a low groan, the Archdemons, like all the other lesser Demons beneath them, turned away and slowly depart. Archdemon Death slithered off to the horizons and floated off to the end of the sky.

Thumping footsteps of the six-legged giant canine Archdemon walked passed Yuri and Lima as if they weren't there. A grand beast of its own right, calmly moving along its path.

" Woof!!"

Elza the wolf cub suddenly popped out of Yuri's backpack, though wounded and battered, the small animal still managed to cry out loud brightening barks that stopped the canine Archdemon in its tracks.

Yuri and Lima stared in amazement as the long snout of the grand beast lowered down to their level, sniffing the wolf cub climbing up onto Yuri's shoulder which sniffed back, before the Archdemon breathed a large gust of warm wind with a low snarl, touching its snout with the nose of the wolf cub.

Both girls exchanged looks of sheer excitement.

When suddenly,

A loud groan of an engine behind them, rattling with an abrupt start that grew to a thunderous roar, bursting a beam, a hot red cyclone beam, twisting and turning, wrenching and wringing everything in its path, breaking the ice, sending scourge and flames across the plains and blasting the six-legged canine Archdemon off yards away with its unfathomable power.

Just one beam of immense energy, was enough to send an Archdemon as large as an airship flying away to a distance.

Yuri pushed Lima and Elza back behind her through sheer instinct as they all beheld one black armored rugged form, crashing out with its overgrown hulking arms from underneath the snow, climbing out and stood up, its one gigantic feet hoisting its body up high, casting an overpowering shadow over them, asserting dominance and pressure just by its sheer existence.

The ebony armored being looked down, with its visor facing none other than Yuri,

a red mono-eye glowed eerily at the next second, as it two large shoulders, clad with enormous bulging spheric canisters, started to roar once more, calling upon the devastating beam able to bring down Archdemons, now both aiming at Yuri's face.

" RUN, YURI!!!!!"

Yuri spun around, just in time to see the winged shadow of Vernui's dark armor crash forth, sinking its blade into the neck of the dominating armored Being, which stood still, unperturbed by Vernui's sudden intrusion, as the Dark Unerva's sword, thrusting down into the Being's neck,

simply shattered to pieces.

With its tantamount large fingers like boulders at the top of the mountain, it grabbed Veruni in its locking grasp, crushing the man with but one grip before tossing the Vernui down onto the snow.

With a gaping cry, Vernui fell flat on the snow, immobile and silent.

Yuri quickly raised her sword rifle high and pointed at the armored dominance leaning down over her.

" What are you…?! And What Do You Want?!?!" Yuri shouted angrily, backing slowly as the towering existence edged forward menacingly.

" …I just want to make things…easy, for both of us."

Replied the muffled deepened voice,

of General Solo.

" For the best…of My Mission…I need You— Herunis Carna."

A black fist, the speed of lightning dashed out from the edge of Yuri's sight, and at the next second,

Yuri's world vanished into darkness,

her senses shutting down.

and All was Silent.

…

...….

Standing over the two motionless bodies under his feet,

The armored Being turned its visor morbidly to focus on Lima.

The little girl, stunned, petrified on the spot, her horrified eyes staring wide at this overpowering presence of Destruction and scourge,

of an unstoppable force,

of Reckoning,

of The Bradinn.

Letting the Dominant Being pass, carrying Yuri and Vernui away in its large interlocking fingers,

Lima could but step aside, in guilt.

-Before Light-

[....to be continued]