Ruin

"Attack!" Ryo and Sumire both yelled in unison as their allies charged forward. All of Sunlight's members rushed underneath the Melody Dragon to face it from behind while Sumire, Ryo, Corlean, Charlotte, and Ziko remained in front focusing on the dragon's frontal position. Sumire rushed with Corlean towards the dragon's arm cannons, striking them together to attempt to destroy them. In an attempt to support, Ryo pressured the dragon's head area where the fabled creator of Planet Vicious remained within. Ziko and Charlotte kept under pressure by utilizing their firearms from a distance.

"Scatter!" Lucine's voice rang through the Melody Dragon's mouth. A wave of cerulean energy expanded from the dragon's aura and brushed everyone aside like flies. Naoto, Jinni, and Claude flipped back and slid nearly off of the rising elevator they battled Lucine within. Natia and Corlean rushed in to save them both.

"Let's see you handle this power, Sumire!" Lucine yelled, prioritizing her instead of the others. The dragon's hands reared up, powering up a charged beam with intense energy. She aimed it directly at Sumire and blasted it with both of its hands, having it sweep and linger throughout the entire battlefield. Metal pipes and the castle's infrastructure collapsed.

"I don't think so!" Natia shouted, clashing her shoulder towards the dragon's arms. The direct impact deactivated the beams with enough damage caused by Natia's twin blades after another direct stab within. "Sumire! Get your ass over here!" She hounded while holding onto one of the dragon's jagged shoulders.

Sumire, who heard Natia's wishes, charged forward with the power of the Glacial Crystal imbued in Vayah's gauntlet. She jammed her fist in one of the dragon's palms, turning the entire machine part into frozen crystals. She pulled her gauntlet out and shattered it into pieces. Sumire kicked her feet off of the dragon and landed with her weapons still intact. Her eyes traced themselves to Natia, and she caught a quick glimpse of a smile peeking out of the side of her face.

"Over here!" Ryo shouted as he reappeared next to the Melody Dragon's face. He dug his ax into the dragon's eye to blind it.

"Get out of my way!" Lucine shouted, releasing a pulse of her dragon's energy once more to brush aside everyone. She clamped herself off of the ground and leaped towards the opposite side of the arena. The amount of pressure that her opponents threw at her was much too oppressive and powerful. They speedily traversed across the arena with their nanosuits, coordinating with one another to strike.

"I've had enough of all of you," Lucine voiced as she clasped her jaw with her hands. The dragon kneeled on all fours and primed its rear. The dragon's frontal flap near its chest opened up, revealing the corpse of the founder of Planet Vicious locked inside chains. Covered with an oriental tiger mask weighing hundreds of pounds, freezing gusts of wind began blasting outward from its corpse, followed by carefully coordinated lasers. "Die!"

"Whoa!" Naoto shouted, barely dodging one of the lasers. He fell back on his rump and remained there as another laser came to be. Natia grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him back into safety. She sheltered his body from the cold air, hovering over him while staring down at his face. "I could have-"

"Shut up!" Natia cried. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for"

One of the lasers grazed Natia's back, sending her flat to the ground.

"Natia!" Naoto yelled, lifting her from the ground as more cold gusts of wind began to subside. Claude leaped in front of both of them, using his body to shelter the both of them together. "Claude, what are you doing!?"

"Giving you all some cover!" Claude as his back began to freeze up and numb. "Sumire! Ryo-boy!"

"On it!" Ryo and Sumire both shouted in unison, charging towards the corpse of the fallen deity. Both of them latched onto the side of the corpse, shielding the waves with their bodies. In their desperate attempts to attack and destroy the corpse; nothing could dent the energy barrier surrounding the dense body. Still, both of them combined their efforts to shield their allies from a cold death.

Claude ceased shielding Natia and Naoto, turning around to witness Sumire blocking the wave for him. "Sumire, stop! What are you doing!?" Claude yelled.

"Is this too much for you!?" Lucine laughed, blasting more cerulean lasers towards the backline. "Run! This is the power of-"

"Shut the fuck up!" Natia shouted, charging towards the head of the Melody Dragon. She utilized her full strength to slam her fist against its opposite eye, latching onto it and supporting her weight. She turned around and shouted at the members of Sunlight and the Fon. "While they're at it, pressure the back!" She ordered.

Charlotte and Corlean nodded, beckoning the Sunlight members to follow. Together, they slid underneath the dragon's frontal paws and assaulted its hind legs. Charlotte and Claude delivered a crippling blow to one of the dragon's hind legs, forcing it down to its knees. As rapid blows struck the dragon's back, Ryo and Sumire both noticed the corpse's freezing blizzard wave waning in strength. Its power transferred towards shielding its back, creating barriers and pulsating waves to push them away.

"It's redirecting its power to the back!" Ryo shouted as he continued blocking the blizzard wave.

Sumire turned her head to command her allies near the hind legs. "Keep attacking the back!" She yelled, supporting Ryo.

"Come on! Let's take the legs down!" Charlotte acknowledged Sumire's request and continued pressure towards the dragon's back legs.

Eventually, the rising elevator departed at its final destination; a wide and expansive royal garden hidden at the upper most sector of Vicious Castle. Sunrise had already begun. The corpse's blistering and freezing waves ceased entirely in the spacious area, making its power useless in the open. Lucine lost control over the corpse's power failing to stop her assailants, slamming her fists on the control panel inside the dragon.

"No..." Lucine whispered through the intercom. "No!" She exhuded another pulse wave from the dragon's core, pushing everyone off of her dragon. Naoto caught Jinni, and Natia supported both Charlotte and Corlean from behind. Sumire and Ryo slid back, watching the corpse's energy stockpile into maximum capacity. Chilling aura began forming around the dragon's body as it absorbed energy from its surroundings. "Enough! I will destroy this entire castle if I have to cut everything out of my life! Everyone shall pay!" She shouted.

Sumire rushed forward.

"What are you doing!?" Ryo yelled, watching his sister sprint at the dragon.

"Sumire, no! Get down from there!" Corlean shouted.

After disregarding their safe intentions, Sumire hopped on the dragon's front legs. She ascended the dragon, using Vayah's claymore to propel herself forward. Eventually, she reached the corpse of the fallen deity, watching it absorb the energy from its surroundings. She placed her gauntlet on her chin and deactivated it, letting it drop down to the ground below. With her hand free to use, she twisted the core of the Glacial Crystal on her chest and yanked it out of her nanosuit.

"No! Stop!" Lucine cried.

Sumire, who held on the claymore with her right hand, forcefully jammed the Glacial Crystal into where the corpse settled.

"Fuck you." She whispered to herself, hearing nothing but the ringing within her ears.

"Everyone, find some cover!" Claude ordered, pulling everyone from behind the Melody Dragon away towards several stone barricades and walls. Naoto covered Jinni as Charlotte supported Corlean. Natia, Nana, and Ziko moved behind Claude, covering their eyes and ears.

Ryo lifted his left hand to summon his mag booster, defending his body from the energy absorption. He attempted to move forward with all his might, but to no avail, his body was weakening from the dragon's attack. With Sumire remaining next to the dragon, Ryo rushed forward to seize her and escape.

Yet his plan was overdue. The dragon's inner core where the corpse remained had detonated with the crystal inside, blasting Ryo's body away with an immense shockwave. His body flew back against the stone walls, colliding with them and shattering it into pieces. He activated his ignition booster and held the balance as the explosion continued, but nothing could be done. The sheer force of the explosion knocked him off of Vicious Castle, sending him toward the entrance below.

The rest of Sunlight and the Fon had the same experience. As they were blown off the entire garden, Natia and Naoto seized as many of them as they could. Natia held Nana, Ziko, and Corlean, while Naoto held Charlotte and Jinni. Claude slid down the rear of the castle grounds, finding cover through slabs of stone and concrete in a minature dungeon.

"Wait, we have to find Sumire!" Charlotte yelled, reaching for where they had left.

"You wanna die that bad?" Natia yelled back. "Should have begged me to kill you when we first met! We're not going back there!"

From where the Glacial Crystal detonated, a peculiar crystalline energy field generated around the Melody Dragon. Sumire was on all fours, watching the dragon's bone-chilling and rumbling roar escape its muscular chassis and physique. The dragon's roar combined with Lucine's shout through the intercom. Sumire lifted her head even further, witnessing the dragon's entire body melt from the inside out into nothing but iron ooze. The corpse where the Glacial Crystal remained disintegrated completely, and the crystal's power detonated one final explosion of raw unbridled energy. Vicious Castle's garden began crumbling down as the floors underneath were quaked by the shockwave. Sumire's body brushed back, but she held onto a stable piece of slab as the Melody Dragon was nothing but scrap metal. Gusting cold winds continued brushing Sumire back, but she held on for her dear life.

Flying debris eventually collided with Sumire's face and body, cutting and slamming through her skin with huge impact. Pain tinged her forehead, arms, and legs, but nothing stopped her from holding on. The Glacial Crystal's critical mass of energy eventually set the entire floor beneath her in an icy wave of fractals filled with brimming energy sources. These fractals eventually arose from the ground and formulated tiny snowflake-appearing stars surrounding her.

A widespread barrier of ice eventually formed in the center of the castle grounds. Sumire, impacted by her stinging injuries, could barely move amongst the aftermath of the explosion. Her eyes glistened in ice. She wiped them from her eyes with her hand and stood up. Her legs wobbled indefinitely as she struggled to handle the amount of energy that passed through her nanosuit. She glanced at herself, noticing the nanomachines on her had completely burst and faded from existence.

She kneeled down and found herself near Vayah's claymore, split in half. His gauntlet had also been melted down into iron. She clenched her left hand and moved towards where the Melody Dragon was destroyed, passing by chunks of iron and metallic wires used to build the machine. She came across the dragon's divine head with its beady red eyes, eventually losing the light that powered it from within.

With a quick tilt of her head, Sumire's instincts activated themselves. She ducked down as a jagged edge of metal soared over her, landing behind. Sumire turned her head back, watching as a survived Lucine slashed through the icy crystal barrier with her gunblade. Tufts of her crimson hair vaporized in the explosion. Major parts of her battle attire had corroded and fragmented off into the atmosphere. Rivers of dry stained blood across her arms, cheeks, shoulders, and hips froze from the crystal's power. Her eyes were sharp knives stabbing deeply into Sumire's with the intent to kill.

"We're not done yet, you and I," Lucine's choked as she spat out increments of blood trapped in her throat. "We still have a score to settle."

Sumire rejected her selfish request with a quick shake of her head. "We're done here." She said.

"No, we're not," Lucine insisted, pointing her gunblade at Sumire's forehead. Crystal tears that appeared like ice began forming underneath her eyes. "The Melody Dragon... was destroyed by you... from the crystal's light? You could have died yourself. Why would you do such a thing?"

"Improv," Sumire said, lifting her left arm over her right. "Anything to stop you."

"I..." Lucine's heavy breathing began to tear her apart from the inside out. Her stamina was low. Her head began to pulsate in quivering pain. She dropped her gunblade to her feet, kicking it aside with what little strength she had. She wiped a trail of blood oozing from beside her lip. "I cannot believe you." She whispered.

"What can't you believe?" Sumire asked, continuing to solidify her stance on Lucine. "I told you that I'd stop you. I wasn't lying."

"But why-"

"All of this wasn't for you," Sumire clarified. "It was for me too. Me and my big mouth, thinking I could live a life of peace back home. But the truth is, I can't yet. Not yet. Not until I get stronger and save my mother and father."

Lucine's eyes dropped down as fatigue struck her body. Her eyelids drooped, and she fumbled her steps as she approached Sumire sluggishly. Sumire copied her movements as her strength began to rapidly fade away without the support of her nanosuit.

"You too, hmm..." Lucine muttered. "This was not simply a ploy for you, was it? Traveling through the edge of this world just to understand me... how could it have been so simple for you? How could you truly know my pain? How?"

"I just do," Sumire said. "Everyone did. But they watched you from afar. They didn't dare approach you. They were afraid to tell you the truth. But I wasn't. You were right. I'm not like you at all. But I think that's exactly what you needed."

Lucine wiped more blood from her lip. "Tell me, Sumire Nakai..." She began. "Who exactly are you?"

Winds circulated the two of them through the peaking altitude from Vicious Castle. Crisp and mellow light from sunrise at Sagittarius enveloped Sumire in a holy light that gave her vigor. She thought of the answer for an extended period of time. Both of them remained still as Sumire finally gave her answer after half a minute passed.

"I'm just... me," She said. "Just a girl who really loves orange juice... and doing fun shit in my free time. I'm a girl who can't stand by and watch people ridicule themselves to death... who only wants to open blind eyes. I live to be better... and to be myself."

Her answer satisfied Lucine. She lightly grinned as she continued approaching Sumire until they were several meters away. She examined Sumire's body and her own, chuckling after seeing how battered and broken they were. "I see," She said. "Then you are perfect for the job."

"What?" Sumire asked.

"You are perfect for the job," Lucine repeated, holding her head high up. "Open my blind eyes. Don't stand by as I ridicule myself to death. Cut all of my vengeful desires away... just the way you are. I tried to save my brethren. I really did. But my eyes were blind, as you said. Take it all away from me. Make me regret my decision. As you were."

Sumire glanced into Lucine's eyes, witnessing a different light spark inside her. A sincere act of genuninity erupted within her, making her words ring clear as day. She inhaled through her nose and puffed her chest out, regaining a small amount of stamina. "What do you want me to do?" She asked.

"It seems neither of us can fight any longer," Lucine said, eyeing Vayah's claymore and her crimson gunblade. "This final test... will determine it. Return my mind at ease. Or I will not submit."

Sumire exhaled a sigh. She held her left fist up and clenched it without another word.

"Shall we begin?" Lucine asked, approaching Sumire once again.

Sumire delivered a straight jab towards Lucine's cheek, sending her back two steps. Lucine wiped the blood off of her lips again and rammed her fist towards Sumire. Both of them lost stamina and fell back down to the crystalline ground. Their body could not bare to handle the release of strength any further. Lucine eventually stood back up, holding her right arm tightly as blood surged down her pale skin.

"My home was everything to me!" Lucine shouted at the top of her lungs, spitting a mixture of blood and saliva. "Why did they have to take it away?! Why me!?"

Lucine grabbed Sumire's collar and headbutted her forehead. She pushed her back and sent another punch towards her cheek. Sumire fell back down, but supported herself with her knee to prevent herself from falling.

"It was everything to me!" Lucine continued. "Everything! And I gave it all to protect my people with my song!"

Sumire regained her strength and jabbed back at Lucine with an uppercut to her chin. She sensed Lucine's brittle bones falling apart with her singular punch. She then rammed her knee into Lucine's gut and tossed her down to the ground.

"The Melodia Family..." Lucine continued. "The elders... they believed in me! So why did I change? Why!?"

Sumire and Lucine collided with one another again. Their foreheads locked with each other as they struggled to push each other down. Their feet dug deeply on the ground. Sumire's dark black hair and Lucine's crimson hair crossed each other as they both tossed themselves opposite from where they stood.

"Because... you're fucking stupid," Sumire said. "But it's okay. It happens to everyone."

"Cut it all out of me!" Lucine shouted one final time before rushing towards Sumire with her left fist primed. "Do it, Sumire!"

"Lucine!" Sumire yelled back, parrying Lucine's left fist with her own. She crouched underneath Lucine and dealt the final blow towards Lucine's gut with her right fist. More saliva and blood mixed inside Lucine's mouth emptied itself with her final blow. After the blow connected, Lucine clenched on her wound and collapsed on her knees. Sumire weakly slipped backward and maintained her stance on her feet.

"Rrragh!" Lucine exerted the last of her voice as her wounds began to take a toll on her body. She whimpered one last time before she fell flat on her back. Her breathing began to slow down as sweat formed around her nape. Sumire witnessed Lucine's body fail to move even the slightest inch within the crystalline barrier. She lifted her left hand and rotated it to cover her eyes from the blinding sunrise. "Oh..." She whispered.

"Now... do you understand?" Sumire asked, remaining strong in her voice.

Lucine's fingers spread apart, revealing small glimpses of the sun entering her irises. She placed her left hand back down on the ground, enjoying the sunrise with her body drowned in sweat and fatigue. "Yes..." She murmured with a lambent smile from her hidden spirit. "I do. I just..."

Sumire noticed Lucine eyeing something behind her. She turned around and watched as the sunrise imitated what she had witnessed in her dream with Ryo as she sped through the streets of Japan. The same outline of the mellow pink-infused orange sun came alight through her hazel eyes. She remembered her dream before she had lifted the debris covering both her and Corlean earlier, and she recalled seeing another figure behind Ryo and her family. It was Lucine, enjoying the sunset vista with her twinkling innocent eyes and crimson heart.

"Have I been missing out... on something so beautiful, Sumire?" Lucine asked herself. "Do you see this as well?"

"Yeah," Sumire admitted, remembering the aftermath of her dream of when she approached Ryo. "I do," She collapsed on the ground next to Lucine and stared at the sun with her. The sunrise's light invigorated the both of them, and they eventually laughed at each other with the rays tickling their cheeks. "What's so funny?" Sumire asked herself and Lucine.

"Ah..." Lucine voiced out. "In this world, where my fragile body stands out upon all of you as the grace of melody... nothing compares to what you have within your heart. Those who found solace in my performance... are not wrong. But what they lack is you. Your soul. Your spirit. Everything was missing you."

Sumire lightly smiled, understanding her intentions.

"If my life was destined to follow this road of vengeance," Lucine continued. "Then it was all worth it if I was able to experience as something as beautiful for my end. At the end of the light... there was you. And only you."

"Hey," Sumire annoyingly began. "Why the hell are you talking like that? Don't think you're going into hiding or something because of what you did. You still have a lot to repair. You've got responsibilities of your own, you know."

"Yes..." Lucine whispered. "I just... wanted you to know. Friend."

Sumire exhaled through her nose once more and relaxed her shoulders. Her left hand formed a fist and bumped it against Lucine's palm, reminding herself of what she had did to Ziko the first time they had met. Lucine's eyes bubbled up in curiosity from Sumire's movement, but her energy was much too low to press on. Sumire held her tears back. It was finally over.

"Yeah," She replied. "Friend."