Chapter 26

Nepgear's location…

"SIGH… looks like things aren't going along too well…" a dispirited Nepgear mumbled in dejection as she slouched forwards slightly. She currently trailed behind her fellow Party members with a look of depression on her face.

Not something which IF would allow as she glanced behind her towards the downtrodden CPU Candidate. "C'mon. If they were easy to find, that Oracle would have them already by now."

Currently, the Party were walking together through a Dungeon called the Endless Zone, where it looks like digital code around them but also another source of where monsters spawn. Now, do not be fooled, this wasn't the same kind of place as the Orcus Labyrinth, despite having some similarities to it in terms of nature and that it had monsters in it. For one, the Endless Zone wasn't NEARLY as massive nor as complex as the other Dungeon, which was one of the reasons why it had been made available to seasoned Adventurers and Guild Agents.

Now, the thing with Dungeons, especially ones like the Endless Zone, was that they were ALWAYS filled to the brim with Monsters, monsters which would gradually spawn and grow in population. Should these monsters grow too large in number and the boss monster arrives, which usually happens first, then it would form them into a pack and leave the dungeon to cause havoc to the surrounding areas. One could call these monster rampages, as that's what happens when things get to that point, though combined with the deity of sin's influence getting stronger by the day more and more monsters have become at risk of going viral, a state which makes them not only stronger but increasingly aggressive in battle. Thus, it had been the job of the adventurers to routinely go inside these Dungeons and clear them out, to the point where people treat it as a daily task and a sort of 'rite of passage' to getting up in the Guild.

But enough about all the lore stuff like that, back to the story proper!

As for their intentions for going through this Dungeon, well the Party had been trying to find the Items which Kei had requested of them to pay her back for her help on locating the CPU Candidate as well as the Lastation Mascot. To do this, they had tried to go at it in the gamer way, where one farmed monsters multiple times so that not only would one level up but also get rare items in the process... unfortunately for them, so far it wasn't working out so well. In reality, one could call it 'not working out' to be a major understatement. The Oracle items were INSANELY rare, to the point where not even Vali had them in his collection he'd developed from his many adventures, with Luxon confirming this to them after doing an inventory check through Vali's stuff.

Nepgear wasn't the only one who wasn't in high spirits though, since multiple other members had the same thing on their minds, the first one to speak about it other than her turning out to be Alexia herself. "This is getting us nowhere, those items are impossible to find." the noblewoman muttered in annoyance, a sigh of exasperation leaving her lips. She had heard for herself how rare these Oracle Items were, but she didn't think they were that bad.

Glancing behind her at that, Alpha tried to be the one to cheer her up even though she felt like her spirits were also taking a hit with this lack of progress. "Don't be sure of that Alexia, we can't be sure until we find it. Remember sometimes monsters drop the unexpected." she tried to remind her, although it felt more like she was trying to keep her own hopes up instead. She had the most experience out of the group of them regarding adventuring for rare materials due to accompanying Vali on a lot of his adventures, so she understood this kind of thing better… didn't mean she liked it though, in fact, it was her LEAST favorite part of the job.

Her words did little to reassure Alexia, however, as she aimed a slightly irritated stare in Alpha's direction. "And when it's that working Alpha? Those items are on the borderline of an SS rank! They could be potentially only found in the forbidden dungeons!"

At THAT, the blonde elf narrowed her eyes and spoke in a sterner tone, bad memories of the orcus labyrinth being drawn up from the depths of her memory against her will when she heard those names. "We are not going to those dungeons yet, remember the last time we went to the dungeon? We almost lost important people because we weren't ready." she stated, each of the girls grimacing at the things they remembered about it.

"I get it Alpha it's just don't know where look, do YOU have any ideas where they are?"

"I….(SIGH) I don't know."

"I guess running around without direction will get us nowhere."

"Why all the glum faces?"

"Huh?"

Just then, an unknown voice spoke up and derailed the conversation between the two members of Shadow Garden. Stunned by the fact that someone else had been here, they all looked ahead to see a young-looking girl approaching them, looking quite cheery in comparison to their sour/depressed atmosphere. The girl looked to be around a similar age to Alpha, with short red hair that looked to be cut above shoulder length with a silver headband on the top and orange eyes. Her attire consisted of a white tank top with a belt-buckle around the hemline under a light blue jacket with white coloring on the inside part of the sleeves, pale yellow lining, and big cuffs. She also wore a skirt reverting the colors with a white outside and blue inside, along with a brown belt matching the black choker around her neck. She had black above-the-knee socks/stockings with a single gold circle around the top, and blue boots with white, brown, and small amounts of yellow on them. On both of her hands, she sported black fingerless gloves.

In the end, they saw her as a typical adventurer, but none of them had seen her before. While Alpha and Alexia theorized that she had been in here before them if she had came to them from this direction, IF became the one who addressed the new arrival with an air of caution about her. If she had truly been in here for a while, then she must have considerable fighting skills under her belt. "I'm sorry, who are you?" she questioned.

For a moment, the red haired girl blinked in confusion and befuddlement, before a nervous laugh escaped her lips after a second or two of realization. "Whoops! Where are my manners? I'm Falcom. I'm your average everyday adventurer as you can see. And also I have this nasty little habit of wanting to meddle in the affairs of troubled folks like you." she explained.

Compa definitely seemed to be quite keen on her, if the amazed and awed look was anything to go by. "Wow! An adventurer! Iffy maybe she knows something. Can't hurt to ask, right?" she questioned, glancing to the others with sparkles in her eyes.

"I uhhh…. I guess not. We're fresh out of alternatives."

With the consent of Alpha who nodded her head in reluctance, as well as that of the rest of them, Nepgear became the one who asked the new girl for some advice. "Umm… so, we're looking for two gems: Hematite and a treasure gem but we have no idea where to look."

"Treasure gem and Hematite huh? Never heard of Hematite, but I know the treasure gem isn't anywhere around here. I think I heard more about one in Planeptune. Was it Virtua forest? A gem collecting monster maybe…?"

"Wait a minute, a gem collecting monster?! Ah come on how did we miss that?!"

"Are you serious?!"

Of course, they would miss that. A gem collecting monster was a rare monster that collected gems across the whole of Gamindustri. Common adventurers have tried MANY times to find this monster in order to get its gems and be rich, but for rich people like Alexia as well as Alpha(Who had millions of credits due to Shadow Garden's successful business) they didn't find it interesting since it was useless to them.

"I'd take you there if I could, but I'm already in the middle of some other errand. Sorry about that."

"Oh no, that information is plenty! Thank you so much."

"Cool. Your eyes are full of life again, so my work here is done. Perhaps we'll meet again. Good luck!"

"Thanks bunches!"

With her task done, Falcom proceeded to pass them and walked away from the group, heading on her way.

They were silent for a bit, before Alexia smacked her forehead in exasperation, dragging it down her face. "How unexpected, we didn't even think of that monster." she muttered under her breath.

Though her sentiments were shared by the others as well. "We all didn't Alexia." IF stated, nodding her head in agreement with the noblewoman.

Alpha herself hummed in thought as she pondered this information. "I never would have thought it would be in Planetupe all this time..." she mumbled, trying to think at what point she could have heard about its existence then completely forgot about it due to lack of interest. It had been a grievous oversight on her part, one which shouldn't have happened in the first place.

"Come on girls, let's hurry and find out if she's right!"

Vali point of view

"Ugh finally, we found this goddamn spring, I was almost tempted to destroy the debris."

"You're not the only one Vali."

Over on Vali's side, he and the group of vampiric beings had managed to traverse back to the main part of the city, then searched for a new route to pursue. As a result, they had reached the underground where the butterfly lost spring was as they descended to the underground which is on the bottom was dirty water. As such, they had each gotten dirty water all over them, mostly on their pants as they could almost smell it. Vali and Krul almost destroyed the debris but Louis told them not to because if they destroyed it, then the whole place would crumble since there was nothing to hold it up. Thus, they had no choice but to go through the goddamn sewer maze.

They got lost three times.

After having to curb their destructive tendencies multiple times now, the group finally managed to locate the Bloodspring of this place, having done so by locating one of its branches which had led them to it. Once Krul had restored the Bloodspring, Vali of course took some more Blood Beads for their collection, before they spotted the bloodvein going in the other direction. "Wait…. What's going on here?"

Looking at all this, Louis cupped his chin in thought while a slow hum escaped his mouth. "We have to go back to the old city ruins. There must be something we missed there." he eventually decided after a moment of pondering this.

At this, Vali had to mentally groan in annoyance, because to him this all felt like they were going on one wild freaking goose chase. "Of course we did, if it leads us to the city ruins then why did we come here Louis?" he questioned while facepalming.

"Because we want to see if all the bloodspring or the others were going to a different source but it leads to the ruins. Lets go-?! VALI!"

Vali's instinct and Louis' warning quickly caused the former to snap into action, his eyes shrinking into dots. With a quick flicking of his arm, he quickly conjured a MS to block an attack by a girl who had jumped out from seemingly nowhere at him. For a moment, the two struggled for dominance with the male wondering what she had been using to attack him, but couldn't identify it due to his attention being focused on pushing her back. Eventually, Vali did so as he pushed forwards, sending her away from him though she quickly recovered in mid air, before landing on the ground once again. After getting up from her previous all fours position, she ran right back towards him, prepping to continue her attack…

CLANG!

"?!"

"Not this time, bitch!"

… that is, before Krul appeared before her and raised her arm which held Dragonslayer, blocking her attack as she jumped back before aiming her weapon at them. Her weapon looked to be a long flintlock rifle kind of gun, with what looked like some kind of fixed bayonet attached to the bottom of the barrel for slashing and stabbing purposes. As for the girl in question, she had blonde hair as well as a fair-skin tone with a considerably petite build. She had a slim frame highlighted by a small, demure face, large green eyes, slight bust, slim waist and narrow hips and shoulders.

In terms of outfit choice, she seemed to be wearing a tall bearskin cap and a spaghetti strap black corset that she commonly allowed one shoulder strap to hang off to the side, worn over a purple dress, purple thigh-high socks complete with black garter straps around her thigh and black, calf-high, fur boots. Over her of this attire was a black, fur-lined, long coat, as well as a choker-type frame for her purifier mask.

Right now however, hostility radiated from her body whilst she aimed her weapon at them, ready to attack anytime.

Not something which Vali felt particularly threatened by as he held his Sacred Gear Divine Dividing at the ready as well as his two MSs. "Searching for blood beads on your own? That's awfully bold." He remarked, a slight smirk on his lips.

However, the girl didn't pay this much attention as she cast her gaze across them, her tone hard and cold. "Listen, no one here wants this to turn violent, so hand over your Blood Beads." she demanded.

He had a feeling this would lead to a fight, but Vali decided to just get on with it anyway, starting with the following question. "What if we don't want to?"

"Then I'll take them." With that said, the blonde girl sprinted forwards, though she didn't utilize her Gun. Instead, what looked like a tail like weapon protruded out from the back of her coat. She held it beside her in a stance similar to a cat or any other four legged animal, though another thing about the Tail had been that it looked similar to Alexia's, much to Vali's surprise. Seeing this did bring a new worry to the back of his mind that he couldn't help but pay attention to no matter how much he tried to do otherwise:

Could this be a Sacred Gear?

'No, that is not a Sacred Gear, I can see it looks like a mechanical construct that can be easily removed anytime.'

Fortunately, Albion saw fit to quickly disprove such a notion, causing Vali to sigh internally. Here he was wondering if there were Sacred Gears appearing in this dimension, but anyways back to the battle. The male soon noticed how she looked to be bringing her Tail to bear on Vali's position, prompting him to dodge it as it thrusted towards the space his head had once occupied. Afterwards, he wasted no time in rushing towards her, entering into another deadlock between his MS and her Gun which she'd used the Bayonet for.

Just as Vali was about to overpower her-.

BONK!

"OW! Alright who did tha-huh?" After feeling something bonking him on the head which also made the girl stumble backwards, Vali quickly turned his angry gaze to the source. Only thing was, once he did Vali's anger diminished as he beheld the sight of a young boy wearing the same kind of winter clothes as those from Lowee, also sporting the same hair color as the girl. "A kid?" he muttered, blinking in confusion.

"Get away from Mia! (COUGH!)(COUGH!)" The boy yelled at the beginning before coughing at the end and ruining his supposedly 'threatening' entrance… not like it worked in the first place, however.

The fact that the kid had been here DID alert the girl however, judging from her widened eyes and the frantic fear that formed within them. "Nicola! What are you doing out here?" she yelled out in anger and panic.

"Because you….(COUGH!)"

The boy tried to respond to her, only to break down into coughs. Vali narrowed his eyes at him as he mentally figured out the boy's problem using process of elimination, as well as some mental thought processes only known to himself. "I see…. He's on the verge of a frenzy. That's why you want the Blood Beads, Isn't it?" he questioned.

She didn't give him an answer however, and instead glared heatedly at him even more so than before. Though unlike before, this one had an edge to it only someone with something to protect could express. "... if you lay a finger in him, I'll carve out your heart." she stated, scowling while her Tail flickered behind her.

Instead of panicking at her glare, Vali remained silent for a moment, before he made a decision in his mind and proceeded to walk on over to the bloodspring. There, he reached out and took another Blood Bead from its ranches, much to everyone's confusion, before he went to the girl named Mia and threw the Blood Bead to her and she caught it. "Take this, better hurry before its too late." He stated.

She was silent before she proceeded to give it to her brother… though initially the young boy tried to refuse it. "No. you… haven't had anything to drink Mia..." he tried to say without breaking into coughs, although this time he succeeded.

It wasn't something that the girl named Mia felt happy about, however. "Don't be silly, it's for you." She stated, eventually managing to convince Nicola who took off his mask and started to drink the Blood Bead's contents. Once it had been drained, the Blood Bead was dropped to the ground beside them, however to the shock of everyone else the mark was not fading.

Yakumo pretty much summarized everyone's thoughts on the matter with his following question. "The symptoms aren't fading. Why?"

Mia had an answer though as she stood up, retracting her Tail which turned into the bottom of her Coat, much to Vali's intrigue as she held her brother in a princess carry in her arms. "It's not enough. That all….. I just have to find more for him!" She exclaimed urgently.

Louis however, didn't like the thought of her going out without getting any backup, despite the fact that she had just tried to kill them. "Hey come on. Going out on your own is crazy." he tried to say to reason with her.

'Won't work, Louis. Someone in her situation won't listen until their loved ones are safe…' Vali thought internally, only to be proven right in the following seconds.

She turned around as she spoke to them. "Thanks for your concern, but we'll be alright. Come on let's go."

The group was silent as they watched the siblings go ahead of them before they didn't see them anymore. "Sooo… I don't think we-" Yakumo began to say.

He didn't need to finish though, as Louis nodded his head in her direction. "Yeah, I know. Let's go after them."

At this, Vali arched a brow. "You sure about this, she tried to kill us." he questioned, frowning while Krul rolled her eyes as she mumbled something under her breath. He didn't bother to pay attention to what it was, though.

Glancing behind him, Luis opted to add on to the statement which he had made. "And she was looking for Blood Beads for her brother, wouldn't you do the same if you had a sibling on the verge of frenzy?" He questioned.

Hearing this, the silver haired male internally hummed in agreement. Louis made a point as Vali would do anything to heal his mother, initially he had wanted to use his power wake her up, but Albion had told him of the reciprocation, his energy was VERY dark in nature (even more so thanks to that strange power he showed back in the Gamindustri Graveyard) and it could further damage to his mother's mind because his energy does not belong to this dimension which only fuelled his desire to kill that bitch Magic.

With this done and Vali finally on board, the group then walked to see where they could find Mia and Nicola as they descended down to the sewer water which is really disgusting to them.

"Fuck it grab onto me." Vali said as he brought out his divine dividing and Krul got the message as she spawned out her wings Yakumo gaped in surprise at, before he was grabbed by Krul and Louis grabbed onto Valis shoulder.

"Wait hold on we don't knooooowwwww!"

Cries escaped a panicked Yakumo's lips, but went ignored as they flew on the underground city, the group flying across as they looked for them. After a short while, Vali's enhanced hearing caught something that made him gance downwards:

"-it please do-"

"-y but its my-"

Vali looked at the right before he flew to the direction as Krul followed them. As a result, upon getting close enough they gazed down from their spots in the air to see Mia on her knees in water… although she wasn't alone. Each of them widened their eyes to see that the hunter was there as well, his eyes glowing blue. Upon hearing their descent, the Hunter looked towards them in surprise, before going back to his neutral face.

"You son of a.." Yakumo growled as he dashed towards the Hunter, intending to behead him. However, before he could the Hunter quickly teleported before leaving them alone. They looked at Mia as she looked at the ashes, her eyes blank and motionless like someone who had lost the will to live.

It didn't take long before Louis realized why, his eyes darkening with sadness. "Those ashes are the boy's..." he muttered, though he may as well have said it out loud due to how it echoed throughout the cave.

Vali gripped his hands into fists, mentally adding another person on his list of the people he will kill, seeing how this girl lost her may not have lost his mother yet, but he could damn well imagine the despair Mia must be going through, especially since he could imagine how he'd feel if he remained unable to save his own family. As such, he kneeled down next to her to say something, before his ears twitched when they registered something nearby. 'Hm?' the male wondered, glancing to his right.

The thing he had sensed, looked to be something moving beneath the surface of the water like a shark circling its prey, as it moved around them almost like it were searching for an opening to attack. In a few moments though, something got chucked into the air from the surface and it landed opposite the group, who quickly got on guard even when they saw that it wasn't an enemy but a weapon of some kind. One which took the form of a large, thin-looking War Scythe that looked to be drenched in water. Following its reveal, its owner quickly jumped out of the surface and landed on it, clinging to its shaft to support its weight like some kind of stripper pole dancing. Upon looking at it once the water from its form dripped into the water below, they saw that it looked to have the shape of an adult woman, taller than Vert likely due to the mutations caused by becoming 'lost' with a predominantly blue skin tone. In addition to this was the chitinous black armor which it sported over its legs, waist and upper torso like some kind of swimsuit. Though it also completely covered the shoulders and the armms, while half its face was covered safe for the right cheek and lips, with a makeshift eye patch covering the other eye.

"Another Greater Lost, then… bring it, need some way to vent this frustration regardless." Vali stated as he took off towards the Greater Lost while deploying his second MS as well as his Balance Breaker. Glancing at one another, the group did the same with their own respective weaponry.

The Greater Lost took the first move though when it flicked its hand in their direction and Vali noticed a distinct rumbling in the water in front of it. He didn't want to take the risk, so he quickly backed off just as a large geyser erupted in front of him, before he cut through it and continued on his path. As such, it quickly began slashing at him in multiple horizontal motions, prompting Vali to block and parry them before going for a few slashes of his own. Slashes which the Greater Lost also parried.

SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!

They went, doding, blocking and parrying respectively between their counterattacks. Eventually, it went for a downward slash which Vali sidestepped and made to grab with his Tail, though it didn't let him and instead spun it behind its back to follow up with a diagonal slash which he jumped back to dodge.

This gave Krul and Yakumo the chance to get in on the action with their respective large swords, the Greater Lost deflecting their strikes by angling its weapon's shaft so that the strikes would slide downwards and away from its owner. Krul went in for an upward slash to launch a bunch of water into the Greater Lost's right eye to try and blind it, but it instead jumped backwards and then thrusted its War Scythe forwards, jabbing its tip right into Yakumo who had used the distraction to try and get in close. Fortunately he had jumped back at the last second so it didn't stab too deeply, so upon touching the ground with his feet all the redhead man did was skid along the water to a stop.

Louis took his place though, teleporting towards their enemy and swinging a couple times at the head which the Greater Lost blocked before throwing a punch in his direction. One which he blocked with his Longsword and got sent sliding across the water though not as much as his companion. He grunted at the blow, but after recovering he quickly blocked an overhead strike that would have sliced him in two before flicking his hand in the direction of the Greater Lost's head.

PSHEEEEW-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

The fireballs hit, causing the creature to stumble backwards and away from the Revenant. This gave the group the chance to go in for one quick and yet decisive blow to end this creature now, however instead of that happening the Greater Lost instinctively sensed their individual approaches. As such, it stabbed the rear end of its War Scythe into the water beside it… before proceeding to spin around on it like it were pole dancing, constantly launching balls of pressurized water from its form towards them like some kind of bullet hell game that was popular in Leanbox.

'Tch, this bitch is making things difficult…' Vali thought as his Balance Breaker lost its shoulder parts as well as a few leg components to reveal his human body beneath. Such things didn't happen to the rest of the Revenants since they did what they could to evade… save for Yakumo who stabbed his Greatsword into the water in front of him and used it like a makeshift blockade to avoid getting hit himself. With the size of his weapon, it remained a viable strategy, one would have to admit. As for the rest of them, they had to focus on dodging like their lives depended on it, because the water had been pressurized enough so that if they hit then they would have to endure MORE than a simple limb being severed, something which Krul had nearly learned the hard way.

A few moments later, the Greater Lost stopped spinning and the barrage ceased, although it chose Vali to be its first target before the group could recover their bearings. With its target chosen, the creature then burst forwards at a stunning display of speed, skating across the water as if it were a sheet of ice and it an ice skater putting on a performance, such was the feelings it invoked with its almost elegant movements.

'Fuck!' Vali thought when he saw it about to slam into him and quickly flapped Divine Dividing, taking to the skies so he could avoid being hit, although it simply switched targets to the rest of the group and continued to press its offensive in the form of the same attack. 'This bitch is fast… guess water must be its domain…' the male thought as he raised his right had, tapping into his MZ ability and donning his MSK in light of his Balance Breaker, before summoning a BUNCH of MBs that he tossed downwards towards its position like a shower of water droplets. Fortunately, his comrades had seen this coming by glancing up at him, so Krul managed to spread her wings to grab onto Yakumo after flying towards him, taking him to the air while Louis quickly teleported to the farthest side of the battlefield to escape what followed.

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!

The sounds of explosions filled the air, constantly ringing out while steaming sounds accompanied them, and when it all died down a smokescreen made from vapor and heated water filled the landscape.

Up in the air, a certain redhead Revenant remained held in place by a certain former Vampire Queen who had her arms under his armpits to hold him by the shoulders. Fortunately, he had retrieved his Greatsword before everything had went down. "Ugh, that was close…" Yakumo remarked, grunting in the beginning before seeing the devastation and whistling to himself. "Damn, wouldn't want to piss this guy off…"

At this, Krul smirked in a manner which sent chills down his spine. "This is just him being mildly annoyed. You haven't seen him TRULY angry yet, Yakumo, which I pray you never do." She warned him with an all too cheery tone to her, something which caused him to sweat profusely.

Louis however, remained calm as he analyzed the situation. 'That strike… it hit a wide area, and I sensed that Vali wouldn't hit the girl if he could help it so odds are she managed to avoid it too… but still, now our visibility is limited.' Those attacks must have had significant heat in them if they triggered this kind of reaction.

Vali saw this and narrowed his eyes, searching for any sign of his opponent. 'Looks like the bitch managed to dodge all that…' he thought, scowling… That is, until he glanced behind him upon sensing a presence there and saw the Greater Lost above him, about to swing horizontally towards his back with its War Scythe.

…

…

…

…

…

… Vali grinned right as it made to strike him though. "Sucker." he stated simply, clicking his fingers…

Before a bunch of Magic Circles appeared around him which were all aimed towards the Greater Lost. Since it had been in the air, it couldn't use its water tricks to get away in time, so Vali simply let the beast have it in the form of multiple MZ-empowered MRs the size of the Greater Lost itself.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The amount of Mana, combined with the loud booming explosion and its dying cries, signalled the Greater Lost's complete disintegration. There would be nothing left of it once the dust settled… if there would be any dust left at all.

"Whew, looks like thats over with…" Krul commented as the party regrouped with one another. They stood in silence for a moment, looking at one another before they turned their gazes towards Mia, the one whom they had been protecting. The girl herself had returned to her previous spot next to the pile of dust that had once been her brother Nicola as she grabbed a handful of dust in her hands, watching it dissipate with an empty, almost emotionless gaze. After all, to her it reminded her of just how useless she had been regarding saving her brother and preventing this fate from befalling him.

Just as she stared at the last of the dust… everyone's eyes became saucers when the last of the dust faded away, revealing... a vestige.

"Shit!" Krul cursed under her breath as it stabbed into a stunned Mia. Just before the girl could be taken over and turned into a Lost, the former Vampire Queen quickly appeared by her side. Reaching out faster than the eye could track, Krul snatched it from Mia's hand the whole area turning bright.

Back to Nepgear

"Hhhaaaaa finally we're here." Alexia proclaimed after a loud sigh, as the group FINALLY arrived at Virtua forest. They had a LONG ass journey to get here alright, travelling from one nation to another, having to obtain permission to go to the depths since that place had caused many deaths for those who went there, therefore only a rank A or an S are allowed to go there, and if THAT wasn't enough they had kept getting attacked by Monsters along the way.

One could say that it had been an EXHAUSTING journey, much like travelling across the world on bare foot.

Right now they arrived at the Virtua Forest depths, before they proceeded to commence their task: to hunt the monster gem collector. Each of them hoped that they would be rewarded for their troubles, rewarded by that monster having what they were looking for.

"Let's hope that monster has what we are looking for because if it doesn't I swear to the CPUs that I will go to that oracle and smack the living hell out of her!" Alexia muttered angrily, multiple veins forming over her head.

"Calm down Alexia, you're not the only one."

"Girls please let's not get violent here!"

"Compa….. We spent four straight days finding those items and we haven't even found a single item."

"Weeeeelllllll…."

"Just give it a rest, we're already here and might as well get over it."

"...hhhhaaaa your right IF, lets just find the monster and get out of here, I got a feeling something bad will happen."

"You're not the only one."

As such they began to adventure!... For the hundredth time.

They killed monsters that spawned from the area which had increased due to the influence of the deity of sin. The faster they get the item, the faster they can stop those fanatic ASIC from reviving her or else it's too late. Alexia cut them down with her swordsmanship as she got better over the years. Alpha to as she used her demonic power to increase her damage by infusing it with her arms to swing faster, Nepgear's training with Vali paid off as she didn't need her HDD form and she feels like she is growing stronger but not enough to join him and Krul in that forbidden area.

"Ugh where is that fucking beast? all of them just drop useless items-ohhh, a lily flower. Don't mind if I do." Alexia puts the lily flower away so that she can have an alchemist to craft a perfume so that she can smell good. What? She's a girl and she likes the smell of perfume!

"Uhhhh, what about that Mister scary dragon monster over there?"

Upon hearing her voice, they looked to see where Compa was and found what IF identify is an ancient dragon, a monster who is half as old as the current CPU of the nations.

Once they saw it, suddenly Alexia's eyes narrowed when she remembered something from her Sacred Gear. Tiamat had told her that dragons loved treasure, to the point where they would hoard it for themselves for their own greed like Fafnir in her universe. "I see... Looks like we found the monster we are looking for." she stated, cautiously.

Caution which was shared by IF who also got into her battle stance, her Qatars at the ready. "I get the feeling too Alexia, that might be our target. Let's strike while we have the initiative!"

"Right! Hold on guys, transform!" Nepgear said as she was about to transform but for a few minutes it didn't work. Heck, not even her demonic form could be assumed at the moment, much to her horror. "Wha?! Why don't they work?!" she exclaimed.

"Hahaha! Looks like it actually works!"

Soon however, the group got their answer when a familiar voice laughed at the CPU Candidate's plight. Glancing behind them, they saw Underling come out from behind a tree, looking smug as all hell.

"Wha-you!"

"Yeah, it's me idiots! Oh, well would you look at that? Looks like I got the upperhand!" Underling sneered as she held her X-Baton at the ready, her lips twisted into an ugly grin.

Alexia growled at her while Alpha drew her sword, knowing that this would end up in a fight. "What do you mean bitch?!" she asked while scowling, raising a hand and flipping her the bird.

Something which briefly irritated the green haired ASIC Agent, though her previous grin returned. "It's simple, I asked my leader to give me something that can actually seal off those bothersome forms of yours, and she gave me this monster! The ancient dragon roaming around is the perfect alibi for me!"

At this point, each of the girls realized something: this had been a trap set up by ASIC, or rather they likely had gotten wind of their actions and had decided to use that to their advantage. Either or, this situation's severity didn't change. "Grrrrr! You think this sucker will hold us off?!" Alpha questioned, biting back the urge to go nuts like her companion Delta.

"No, but its enough to kill that CPU candidate! Now attack!"

"RRROOOOOAAAARRRR!"

The ancient dragon roared as it complied with it's masters' wishes and stomped on over towards Nepgear, said CPU Candidate gritting her teeth as she considered her optioned as limited as they were. It had been told to her many times by Histoire, even Neptune herself (especially after one time when she'd stumbled across a nest of them) that Dragons deserved to be respected because not only were they Ancient beings of immense power, but also strong enough to even make a CPU sweat.

Before she could continue her mental tirade, a loud shout erupted forth from a frantic-sounding IF's throat while she and the others got ready to intervene on their weakened companion's behalf. "Shit! Nepgear dodge!"

Instinctively, Nepgear prepared to dodge the following lunge that the Ancient Dragon had made, but soon stopped and went for a blocking move instead. She did this because she felt that trying to dodge wouldn't work in time, hence why she wanted to put all she could into blocking this attack… although she bet this would leave her heavily damaged afterwards.

BOOM!

Just before the Ancient Dragon could get within striking distance of her though, a loud explosion sounded in the distance, loud enough to cause the entire forest area to tremble like it was hit by an earthquake. Whilst everyone stumbled about and tried to maintain their balance, a couple of them (Underling and Compa)) failed and fell flat on their backsides… well, Underling did, while Compa barely got caught by IF in time. Growling as she looked upwards, Underling stood up and looked around, shouting the following words in frustration. "Ahh what the heck, what is it this time?!"

"RRRROOOOAAARRR!"

"Hey we can hear you loud and…...clear. Oh you gotta be kidding me!"

"Huh…...Grimlock?!"

Various responses accompanied the event that just transpired. Thing was, to rewind to just before Nepgear would have had to fight, a loud roar had echoed throughout the surroundings accompanied by loud booming sounds. Booming sounds which had been akin to loud footsteps or massive earthquakes… until from the wilderness a MASSIVE grey, mechanical T-Rex burst out into the scene like a fiery bat out of hell, roaring with bloody murder and swinging its Tail in a full 360 degree spin. This wound up slamming right into the Ancient Dragon and knocked it back, although it didn't do as much damage as one might hope as it slid to a halt across the battlefield.

Why was Grimlock here, one might ask? Simple, in one word: Luxon.

When they had traveled to Planetupe Luxon had been worried about his creator, worried that ASIC might have something that could help them on their task of killing her, like some kind of legendary black dragon sword. Call him paranoid, but he had just finally met with his creator, and did NOT want to part with her so soon. Therefore, he had secretly sent Grimlock to follow them, keeping the Airship high up in the air so that they couldn't see him. When the danger arrived in the form of this encounter, the Robotic dinosaur had complied with its wishes since Luxon was also a partner of Vali, its master, and it would be bad to see her dead.

Right now Grimlock looked down upon the stunned Nepgear, before looking at the ancient dragon as they squared off in a battle of dominance.

"Grrrrrhhh!"

"Grrrrhhhhh!"

They both growed at each other as if to intimidate their opponents.

"What the hell is this monster?! I've never seen this before!... Well whatever what are you growling for, kill that candidate!"

"RRRRROOOOAAAARRRRR!"

"RRRROOOOAAARRRRR!"

The ancient dragon roared as Grimlock roared as well... before they both ran to each other. Instantly they got into a grappling contest with Grimlock biting down onto its shoulder while the Ancient Dragon gripped it by its sides and bit into Grimlock's metallic back… though that didn't stop the mechanical monstrosity from digging its robotic teeth into the flesh of its opponent.

Stunned that the beast wasn't listening to her, Underling once again yelled out at it with her eyes almost blazing with fury. "What the?! Hey mechanic monster, you're supposed to attack the CPU Candidate, not fight each other! Woah! Hey-watch where you swinging!" She exclaimed, noticing Alexia having closed the distance and swung her Tail-type Sacred Gear at her in a diagonal slash that would have left a deep cut if it had connected.

Meanwhile, its user simply flipped the bird at her with a mocking sneer escaping her lips. "Oh sorry, couldn't hear you from all this bitching and Grimlock fighting and you wonder why it doesn't take orders from you? Take a guess…"

Underling thinks for a moment before she opened her eyes, her expression turning uglier than a sack of garbage. "Grrrrrrhhhhh! That fucking Unbeatable Prince! He always gets in our way! Fine then, looks like I'll handle this myself! It's a good thing I brought reinforcement!" With that said, the green haired girl snapped her fingers as digital codes rose up beside her in the form of a spiraling vortex, and when it died down a robot monster called M-3 custom.

Watching this happen, Alpha sweat dropped as she commented dryly with her sword at the ready. "Like what Vali said, you don't find trouble, trouble finds you instead, now I know what he means."

An equally deadpanned look assaulted IF's features as she nodded her head in agreement. "Indeed." She muttered as she and the others prepared to engage the Robot and, hopefully, restore Nepgear's ability to transform...

"Hold it right there!"

"Huh?!"

Once again however, things got interrupted by yet ANOTHER guest joining the fray, this one flipping through the destruction which had been caused by Grimlock trampling over the wilderness, launching themselves into the air and landing like a superhero would in front of… Nepgear of all people. Once they had landed, the person stood up and turned to face the flabbergasted Underling, pointing their finger at them with a hand on their hips, revealing themselves to be… a young girl.

By young, she looked like a girl between preteen and actual teenage age, with a short stature and childlike physique. Despite her physique, she had a... well-endowed chest, one which Alexia scowled at in indignant irritation, the girl's skin a very fair skin color and black eyes. She sported bright red hair with some of it from the left side of her head worn in a fashion similar to a side of a ribbon, held by a black ribbon with yellow beads on the end, with white highlights on her bangs on the right side and on the end of the tied hair on the left side.

If this wasn't weird enough, then her clothing fashion could follow suit along this trend. For it consisted of a dark grey and black, collared, sleeveless vest with gold trimming and red stitching. On the top back of her vest was a red circular-like logo while on her chest was a golden trimmed, light blue Magatama. A smaller version of the Magatama looked to be behind the bottom of the back of her vest, while red detached sleeves with cherry blossom flower patterns adorned her arms. On the top of her sleeves were black frills, and at the near bottom ends were golden five-petaled patterns with golden linings at the top and bottom of the patterns. Additionally, a scaly, golden Chinese dragon with red eyes wrapped itself once around her belly area. Around her waist, the girl wore a golden trimmed, red skirt designed like it's separated into five large petal-shaped sections. The skirt contained cherry blossom flower patterns similar to her sleeves while she also wore black tight shorts with red linings along the bottom. Furthermore, the girl wore red, textile ankle cuffs with cherry blossom flower patterns similar to her sleeves and skirt, in addition to short black socks that only peaked out through her ankle cuffs. On her feet were red getas with light brown wooden bases and a Magatama, similar to the ones on her chest, on the straps on each side.

Needless to say this new arrival was… a strange one, though internally Tiamat wondered if this girl had ancestry similar to her world's China.

The first to recover from her… entrance, turned out to be Underling who pointed her X-Baton at the girl and angrily asked the following question. "Who the hell are you?!"

Her anger got redirected back at her though, as the young girl puffed out her cheeks and glared right back as she pulled out… a toy hammer of sorts from apparently out of nowhere. She pointed it at Underling and made the following declaration. "How dare you treat such cute girls this way! I've been eyeing them all as potential wifeys, so any more funny moves and you'll face the wrath of RED!"

SSCCRREEEE!

"...huh?"

"...what?"

The whole world seemed to screech to a halt at that, even Grimlock and the Ancient Dragon stopped what they were doing and looked at the proud face of the girl known as RED. Said girl looked like she didn't see what she had declared as weird in the slightest… which couldn't be said for the rest of the onlookers.

"I can't even… I don't have any words."

"Me too."

"I'm gonna say this, what in the most unholy hell is this chick saying? Is she missing some screw loose?"

"I'm wondering the same thing Underling."

Even as the two sides discussed on whether or not this new arrival had a screw loose with her head, RED seemingly appeared right before the stunned Nepgear and took her hands in her own, holding her hammer under her armpit. "For this girl who radiates such power, my wifey! I've come here to save you!" she proclaimed with stars in her eyes.

"Huh.. w-wait what? Who, where…. Why?!"

"Save the questions for the honeymoon, my lovely-"

BONK!

"GAAAH!"

Fortunately some semblance got returned… with the best method possible for this situation: head trauma. Alpha had come to the rescue and bonked her on the head as she had enough of this. "Alright lets just ignore all of this and get back to fighting."

"Huh. Oh yeah thanks for that, anyway uhhhh crap I forgot the script hold on a second!" Saying this, Underling went and brought out a big script as she went through the pages before she found her following line. "Aha! Got it! As I was saying ATTACK!"

FINALLY, the fight began in earnest, with the M1 Custom attacked by deploying its mobile drones, the long stick-like protrusions floating behind it. Each of them formed a circular formation and proceeded to pepper the group with projectiles,while Underling snapped her fingers, two more appearing beside the first one to number them at 3.

One would think that the group would respond by scattering or something as they would then try to fight back.

But then…

"...SIGH, I wonder how Vali doesn't get a migraine from all this idiocy…?"

"{COLLIDE!}"

"?!"

Casually strolling forwards and through the group (grabbing onto the girl named RED by her waist and tossing her back to Nepgear's side when she'd tried to move forwards too), Alexia activated her Tail-type Sacred Gear, Chaos Collider's ability. As such she quickly smashed the ground in front of her which caused it to shatter into pieces, forming a crater yet with speeds that no human could match Alexia's Sacred Gear picked up the pieces of debris formed from her attack and put them in the path of the lasers, letting them negate one another although the debris got reduced to dust despite their size.

All the while, she had her expression shadowed by her bangs, encasing it in darkness.

"Uhhh, Alexia? What are you doing?"

"You lot stay back, I just have to… vent a little." Alexia told the girls without glancing back at them, hopping over the crater with ease. She ignored whatever responses they would have given to try and stop her, but she did hear how Alpha silenced them with a few hand gestures for added effect, something which she internally smirked at. As a fellow noblewoman, and ALSO as someone who had spent a large amount of time with Vali thus she knew just how much time Alexia herself had spent with him, Alpha must have known immediately what she had intended to do, something she could respect about her unlike the majority of the pussy nobility who don't know how to get shit done when it counted. Glancing towards Underling and the M1 Customs as her slime suit-made boots made contact with the ground, Alexia proceeded to speak. "You know something, bitch… You've really been testing my patience, lately."

Somewhat confused about the blonde woman's change in demeanor yet slightly unnerved by the creepy voice she used, Underling nonetheless smirked smugly behind her little posse. "Heh, well thats the idea. Thanks for making my day, you damn broad." She sneered, cackling mockingly at her while her MI Customs finished prepping another volley and launched it at her. She expected it to have worked by piercing through the defences provided by that disgusting suit of Alexia's…

But instead, what REALLY happened was Alpha's Sacred Gear quickly responding to the threat to its master. It did so by swishing about faster than the eye could track, literally moving like a blur as it blocked each and every laser which would have hit its mistress otherwise, said mistress simply stopping her stride towards the enemy like it was no big deal. She hadn't even drawn the Dragon Sword strapped to her hip yet, but soon that point became moot as she began to talk once more. "Ever since I was helped by Vali, I devoted myself to trying to develop my sword skills to an equal level to his own, an endeavor which took me over 3 years to accomplish…"

Memories began to flow back to her, memories of both the aftermath of her rescue by Vali's hand as well as the great defeat at Eden, or rather the 'fall of Eden' as it had been coined by the populace now. She recalled the way she felt so useless back then, unable to do much beyond flee for her own life, a pathetic blow to her pride and honor as a swordswoman. Every night she would constantly think back to that time and want to rip out her own hair due to the frustration she felt at that time, though it would usually be thanks to the memory of her saving Vali's mother that would stop her from doing so.

One could say that saving his mother had been the sole thing which she clung to, as well as the one good thing she had managed to accomplish back during that disastrous incident.

That terrible incident had been a MAJOR loss for all parties involved other than ASIC, for it dealt a huge blow to not only them but to the faith in the CPUs which had sustained Gamindustri for so long. Ever since the fall of Eden, horrific actions came to light one after another, with the reasoning that since ASIC had been supporting them from the shadows the whole time it would be okay to commit them. Drug trafficking, human trafficking, child slavery, torture, amongst piracy and other illegal trades swelled with their rise, supported by ASIC and promoted to the rest of the populace. When they had explained things to Nepgear, things had to be DRASTICALLY understated in terms of how bad it had gotten as otherwise they had no doubt that Nepgear would have slipped into a depressive state without much hope of recovery. It had nearly happened when she'd eventually found out the truth before their leaving for Lastation, but thanks to her being in her Devil Trigger state at the time she had only used this to further her resolve to make things right again…

Yet none of this had the most relevance to Alexia, nope none of it. Not the tragedy, not the huge loss of live…

What she focused on the most had been one thing which had happened during the fall of Eden, something which had changed her view on a certain silver haired male DRASTICALLY:

He had awakened the Balance Breaker.

A power which had pretty much had Magic on her Knees supposedly, according to what Alexia had learned from those who had witnessed its power first hand, as well as from the user himself. If he had managed to have a bit more time, then he would have been able to knock her teeth out accordion to him, although when she had asked Tiamat for information about this after everything went down, she had admitted to her that what Vali had said severely understated this power's potential.

The Balance Breaker: according to Tiamat, it also known as the 'Forbidden Move', is the evolved form of Sacred Gears in which their full powers can be released. She had learned about it from Tiamat who had been MORE than willing to explain about it. Apparently that perverted Fallen Angel (Azazel she remembered his name being) had claimed that the Balance Breaker was a "bug" in the system created by the God from the Bible back in her and Albion's universe, which could potentially upset the balance of the world, thus the name Balance Breaker. Initially considered a forbidden power by the Three Factions of Tiamat's universe, the Balance Breaker state was known as the ultimate state of activation for a Sacred Gear.

According to Tiamat, the Balance Breaker was THE most powerful manifestation of all Sacred Gears, in which the possessor's feelings trigger this evolution. Once reached, the Balance Breaker could be entered again far more easily than the first time. With proper training, it can be maintained for longer periods of time, as with the case of Vali who she remembered constantly training his Scale Mail over the last 3 years though she wasn't sure how long he could keep it up for at the moment.

That kind of power… If she hadn't been envious about Vali for how strong he was, she DEFINITELY had been when she'd learned about this.

Such power sounded like something she could 'so' use to prove that she had her own identity and its use could help her surpass her sister. She could use it to utterly dominate her and be the one on top for once, truly establishing herself as someone who should not be messed with. Power was EVERYTHING in her family after all, and without power all one could do would be to follow the orders of those who had.

Thus, after the fall of Eden Alexia had spent the last 3 years trying to obtain that power for herself, something which her companion Tiamat had mentioned was quite possible due to her potential as well as how much she had trained her body already. 3 Years would have been enough time, though only 'barely' according to the female Dragon King. Yet, as the one who had inherited the title 'Chaos Dragon Empress' from Tiamat due to her possessing her, Alexia almost felt COMPELLED to do so. Yet, it had not been easy, for that state had an absurd condition to be triggered first, as from what Tiamat had told her the 'Balance Breaker' often got triggered the most by high emotions combined with a change in the heart or spirit of the wielder. Yet, for a time Alexia had little to no means to actually fulfil such a condition...

As such, 3 years had passed, and as for the results…

Well, lets see, shall we?

A dark smile formed on her lips as she let out a small chuckle, though one which sounded like one a goddamn psychopath would make. It was one which caused Underling to start sweating beads despite her bravado she was putting up, as the M1 Customs once again tried to pump her full of holes only for her Chaos Collider to repel them in a manner akin to what had happened before. "Now, I had initially wanted to wait till I next fought Vali to show him this, since he's been busy recently, but I guess you will have to do as a bit of an 'appetizer' I guess…" she said as the Tail's jewel gained a dull glow to it.

"Oh yeah? Treating me like a damn meathead, eh…? Tch, this is why I hate do-good brats like you, YOU KNOW JUST HOW TO PISS ME OFF!" Underling shouted at the end after being deceptively calm for the first portion of her sentence. Her shout even surpassed the loud booming noises made in the battle between Grimlock and the Ancient Dragon, although they ignored her in favor of keeping each other occupied as Alpha and the others provided rear support for their mechanical companion. Showed that they either trusted Alpha a lot, or were damn fools.

The answer would be shown in the next few seconds, though.

Alexia smirked even wider when she saw the M1 Customs aiming their Drones at her again, likely to try and generate enough power for a stronger volley. Not like she intended to stand idle while this happened like before however, even if her Sacred Gear provided good defence aside from offence and speed. "Took the words right out of my mouth, you little bitch…" she started saying while flipping Underling the bird, one of her favourite things to do to those who piss her off. "But instead of yammering on, I'll just do this."

"{CHAOS DRAGON: BALANCE BREAKER!}"

In an instant, the jewel's light intensified tenfold, completely encasing Alexia within a cocoon which also served to force Underling to cover her eyes, as well as order the M1 Customs to hold fire for the time being. She'd liked to have summoned her Legion, but right now she didn't and for multiple reasons like there being a bit of a bug in the control device she used and that there were 'others' that needed to be implemented into the device itself. Back to the light though, it had enough brightness to even catch everyone else's attention, including the two battling monsters as they looked to the source…

The light dying down in that instant to reveal Alexia… but not her usual form.

Instead of her usual form, she now stood clad in what looked like some kind of Armor, an Armor which looked to cling to her very SKIN and covered the majority of her form in it. The Armor was dark blue in color mostly, but there were also areas which had a lighter blue coloring. consisted of a helmet which had two large horns protruding upwards like some kind of demon's, with two light blue lenses for eyes. The helmet DID expose her chin, mouth and the end of her nose though, the rest being covered by the Helmet itself. The dark blue chestplate covered most of her upper body, save for a circular hole around the middle of her chest to expose some of her cleavage, with large dark blue shoulder pauldrons clinging to said body parts while her arms were also completely covered, ending in larger dark blue gauntlets. Lighter blue markings, a similar color to the lenses, could be seen on the chestplate, pauldrons and gauntlets. On both sides of the waist were an additional pair of Pauldrons which looked to have formed a 'skirt' of sorts which remained open at the front, exposing a pair of thigh high, stiletto high heeled, armored dark blue boots. (AN: Hunter here, for what me and Darklord used for inspiration, google 'Dragon armor set, Kyung Han Kim'. It's on Artstation, just change the colors to varying shades of blue, focus on the female version and you get the idea).

In addition to this, the signature Tail with its Jewel could be seen swaying lazily behind the armored woman, complete with a set of large, blue Dragon wings the size of gliders. All the while, Alexia's voice spoke with a smug smirk forming on her lips as she drew her Dragon Sword. "Chaos Collider: Scale Mail."

Looking absolutely gobsmacked by the sight, Underling could only ask the one question most prevalent on her mind. "How the ASIC Gamindustri hell did you do THAT?!"

A question which Alexia naturally responded with the following words: "Fuck you, that's how."

Without giving Underling a chance to respond, Alexia instantly dashed forwards, appearing right before one of the M1 Customs and shoving her Dragon Sword in a thrusting motion through its main lens, destroying it's core and quickly causing it to explode. A second later, the girl swung her Tail towards the second one and after a quick "{COLLIDE!}" shoutout by Tiamat, the whole thing exploded from the force generated by the blow. Alexia then proceeded to take to the skies as the third one proceeded to strafe away, firing its lasers wildly at her in an attempt to create some distance between them… only for the blonde girl to feel nothing when the lasers hit since they just bounced off her Armored self harmlessly. With that, Alexia grinned deviously as she flew down low like a falcon, swooping downwards till she had found herself right on top of her enemy, stomping her right heeled boot through its top and destroying the robot with ease.

All in a manner of seconds.

"What in the?! How did you?! Impossible! How did you get so strong!"

"Why should I tell an ASIC Underling like you…?" Alexia sneered, smirking darkly as she held her Dragon Sword at the ready. Just then, something clicked in her mind which resulted in her getting an idea, one which caused her to smirk in a sadistic manner as she proceeded to stride forwards. Her Dragon Sword glinted menacingly, as if reflecting its mistress's desire to rip into her enemies and bathe in their blood. "In fact, let's see how you will escape this time." she stated darkly, dragging her Tail's end across the ground as a promise of what's to come.

"Woooaaaahhhh how did you get that armor Alexia? It looks like a game from Dragon age!"

Unfortunately, before Alexia could make good on her word against a sweating and panicked Underling, Nepgear just HAD to express the awe and amazement she felt at seeing her Balance Breaker for the first time. After all, she only knew one person who had such a thing, and currently they were tracking down the Lastation Mascot. "Now it's not the time, Nepgear. We'll talk about it later." Alexia stated in mild annoyance.

Something which bummed the CPU Candidate out as evident by how she slouched her shoulders and the disappointed look on her face. "Ahhhh fine." she whined, trying to console herself with the fact that she hadn't outright denied her.

Meanwhile, Underling wasn't the only one who looked panicked at the sight of Alexia's Armor, for Compa also looked like she was about to faint at any second due to the intimidation factor the Armor had going for it. "But that design looks so scary it could scare little kids!" she exclaimed fearfully.

Alexia rolled her eyes uncaringly, though. "That's the idea, Compa." she stated, a dark smirk forming on her lips which would have sent even seasoned veterans running for the hills. ESPECIALLY with how her Dragon Sword glinted dangerously in the sunlight. "Chaos Collider: Scale Mail. a reflection of the Chaos Karma Dragon, Tiamat herself. All that shall lay in its wake will be utter ruin and devastation." she declared, as if those words came from her very soul.

"Gggrrrrrrhhhh! All of you are a pain in my ass! I'll make sure all of you will be gone from existence!"

"Wow, classic evil monologue. Is that the best you can do?"

"Shut up, it's what comes from my script!"

"Less talking, more fighting."

"Oh, I agree also!" Underling said as Alexia prepared her power to make sure this Underling wouldn't get in their way EVER again. Like Vali himself, she too wouldn't hesitate to kill someone who caused problems, something which Compa had learned of and had became dismayed about.

However, just before she could go in for the kill… all of a sudden a black figure instantly leapt out the wilderness, and Alexia instinctively jumped backwards towards her companions. Good thing too, she realized, because upon glancing down she widened her eyes behind her helmet when she noticed multiple sword gashes having formed from seemingly out of nowhere. 'Wha…?! What the heck, what caused those gashes?! I didn't even see anything be drawn!' she internally exclaimed as she glanced towards the source: a black armor man who had stopped before Underling who gaped at the sight of him… also cowering a little due to their height difference. "Wha-sir!?"

"Now's not the time, young Underling." The man stated, ignoring Underling's dismayed look while proceeding to explain his reasons for appearing in a blank monotone voice. One which did NOT hide the power that came with it. Managing to get a better look at the man, they saw that he looked to be a well built elderly-looking man, one with a large scar on top of his bald head whilst the sides had strands of pure white hair that fell down to his shoulders. Like described before, he wore black armor over the majority of his body save for his head, Armor which resembled a knight somewhat… only a DARKER version. One which wasn't afraid to get their hands dirty if it achieved the objective. "Lord Brave ordered me to get you out safely because the plan didn't work."

"I can handle it sir! The ancient dragon will deal with them as soon as he finishes with that robot!"

The old-looking man arched a brow at this, Underling's panicked yet defiant gaze bearing up into his own one. "Is that so? Take a better look." he stated, gesturing with his left armored gauntlet to the side with a few clanking sounds accompanying the movement.

On the words of her superior, Underling did indeed look towards where the two beasts had been fighting… to which, she became very angry. So angry that she might have popped a blood vessel as she sees the robotic T-Rex standing victorious above the downed Ancient Dragon, one of its talons on its face before it started to disappear as the T-Rex roared towards the skies in joy and glee. "No no no! Everything was perfect! I had this whole thing planned and then this robot ruins everything! Damn you Bartford!"

"Don't worry, Bartford will become the least of our problems soon, let's go."

At this, Alexia scowled as she realized what would be happening, already starting to run towards them with her Dragon Sword ready to slice their heads off. "you think I'll let you?" she yelled.

Though, the elderly knight didn't even regard her with a glance as he responded with disinterest. "No, but we might meet again." He spoke as he pulled something from his pocket, something which looked like… some kind of stone with a rune on it.

One which IF recognized if the alarmed look that formed on her face was any indication. "Ah shit don't let him activate that!" she shrieked like a banshee.

Alexia heard the warning as she sped up towards them. However, she proved too slow as the black knight crushed the stone before they disappeared JUST as Alexia's Dragon Sword cut into the space they had once occupied. "What the- they escaped! How!?"

IF growled under her breath, not liking this at all. "A returning stone, didn't know they had one." she explained bitterly, with Alexia pretty much summarizing what everyone felt inside at this moment.

"Well, shit."

A return stone was an emergency rune which adventurers were allowed to have in case they were in trouble or couldn't handle the Quest they had undertaken. Many adventures have this but still does not bring down the casualties because either they forgot, got stolen, or already dead or sometimes they were stupid idiots.

Much like a certain group of idiotic disowned princes.

Meanwhile, Alexia cursed the situation once more under her breath, not liking how it had all played out. She had even revealed one of her trump cards to the freaking enemy, now they may anticipate it in their next battle! "Dammit we won't be able to catch them, we are too far from the entrance! Just when I had the chance!" She ranted.

Before she could continue though, Compa put a hand on her shoulder after walking up to her, speaking in a comforting tone. "Don't worry, we'll catch them when we have the chance!"

"Not helping Compa."

"(SIGH) we might Compa, let's hmm?"

Alpha didn't finish what she was about to say before some minerals appeared when the dragon was killed before she picked up one pacific item which looks like a diamond but with multicolor on it. "What the hell is this?"

Looking at it for a few seconds, IF's eyes widened in startled recognition. "Wait, that's the treasure gem we're looking for!" she exclaimed, sending startled shouts throughout the Party.

"Is it?!" Nepgear shrieked.

This got a nod from a now MUCH happier-looking brunette Guild Agent, who looked like she just wanted to get out of this damn forest already and who could blame her? Not them, that;s for sure. "Yes it is, we found it finally." she exclaimed in relief.

Relief which passed through the rest of them as Alexia sighed audibly, still in her Balance Breaker state. "Ahhhh thank CPUs for this, turns out Falcom was right after all."

"Indeed so."