The Return of Princess Anastasia

Grigori Rasputin, the "mad monk" who exerted a considerable negative influence on the Tsar's family was said to be murdered by Prince Felix Yusopov on Dec 16, 1916. However, reports couldn't be further from the truth. The body belonged to that of a magically created body double. Rasputin survived, and used black magic to seek revenge by bringing about the downfall of the Romanov family. The outcome of the black magic ritual and the evil spirits he summoned was the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Apparently, all members of the Romanov family were killed in the shooting of the Romanov family in 1918, on the orders of Vladimir Lenin, so that the Mensheviks would have no chance to make use of them. However, there were rumors that Grand Duchess Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, had escaped, which actually turned her into a legend, even though her remains were found.

However, what the world did not know was that, Anastasia also had a body double just like Grigori Rasputin, which was magically created by his son, Dimitri Rasputin (using the same technique), who actually infiltrated the palace and posed as one of the servants, and helped Anastasia escape. Dimitri eloped with Anastasia to Paris to start life anew there and joined the Escadron Magique Parisien (a joint collaboration between the French Army and the Société Parisienne de Magie (abbreviated as SPM)) led by General Charles de Gaulle at that time. Dimitri and Anastasia got married and even had a child. However, during one winter, Grigori Rasputin found his way into Paris under a different identity, called "Chien Rouge ("Red Dog" in French)". He wanted to finish the job he started: the total cleansing of the Romanov family and its descendants. It wasn't just purely revenge. He was already no longer himself, since he had sold his soul to Moloch, a very powerful demon. Moloch had already taken over his body, fuelled by Rasputin's thirst for revenge (demons thrive on negative emotions of their hosts to possess their bodies), and plans to cleanse the Romanov family. This was because the royal family bloodlines was a holy seal that protected Russia from being taken over by demons, and the end of the royal bloodline would break that seal.

To defend their child and Paris, Dimitri and Anastasia fought "Chien Rouge" using ice magic at Pont Alexandre III, where they summoned water from the River Seine to carry out their ice attacks. However, in a last ditch attempt to destroy Chien Rouge once and for all, Dimitri and Anastasia sacrificed their lives, frozen solid, after using a fatal magical move called "Finale Glacier" which backfired on themselves. Chien Rouge survived, but was severely weakened. However, what Chien Rouge did not know was that when the both of them sacrificed their lives, they had already cast a spell on him. His body slowly dried and curled up, and became a mummy. As part of the spell's package, Chien Rouge was also wrapped up in bandages just like that of an Egyptian mummy. General Charles de Gaulle actually ordered to have the mummy destroyed. However, all attempts to do so failed. The only way was to find a place to seal it away, and there was no place other than the underground chambers of the Palais du Louvre, which happen to be connected to the underground Musee de Louvre under the glass pyramid that was completed in 1988, right behind the painting "Liberty Leading the People (La Liberté guidant le peuple)" by Eugene Delacroix.

So far, no one has ever tried to unearth the secret of the mummy behind the wall where the painting stood.

More than half a century later, a young lady stood at a grave with another old lady carved with the names of the late Dimitri and Anastasia in Paris (under different names which are in French) at the Père Lachaise Cemetery (also the burial place of famous writer Oscar Wilde). This was an annual affair for Suzanne de Gaulle (great granddaughter of Charles de Gaulle), and her maternal grandmother Anne Blanche (Birth name: Anna Rasputin), who was the only daughter of Dimitri and Anastasia. This was only their first stop. Their next visit was Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, where General Charles de Gaulle was buried. Charles took good care of Anne after her parents' death at the hands of Chien Rouge, even when he became the 18th President of the French Republic from 1959 to 1969. They probably became closer after his real daughter "Anne de Gaulle" died of pneumonia. Since Anne had the same name as his daughter, she officially changed her surname to De Gaulle even though to the rest of the world she remained as Anne Blanche. It was right in front of General De Gaulle's grave that Anne told the long story about her and her parents, and finally told her, "Suzanne, it's time for me to go. Living in this world was wonderful."

"Grandmother, must you really go?" asked a tearful Suzanne.

"My child, why must you cry? You should be smiling. I'm going to a better place." Anne placed her wrinkled fingers to Suzanne's mascara-painted eyes. "Don't cry too much. You'll have to redo your makeup after that. I'm going to see your mother soon."

"Hang in there! Father will be coming soon! He'll be coming back to France..."

"Don't bother…I'm on the way to see him soon..."

"Grandmother…you mean…"

"The mission he was on…it was a failure. The spread of evil will slow down for the time being…"

"Grandmother!"

"Don't forget your French and Russian roots, my child…I've arranged for someone trustworthy to explain all this to you…and protect you till everything is over…RIGHT EUGENE?"

"Eugene?" Suzanne was surprised when she heard the name. It was not because she had not heard of the name, but more because she had.

A few days ago, she met this gentleman at the doorstop of her house, and apparently he had an appointment with her grandmother in her house's garden. Suzanne actually prepared tea for him at her grandmother's request. He was a tall and refined looking gentleman, and rather handsome. But what would they talk about? Anne asked Suzanne to leave the place and buy some flowers for them, so she did not even have a chance to eavesdrop on their conversation. Furthermore, when she asked her grandmother about it, she wouldn't talk much about it, apart from saying that he was the son of her father's good friend, and they were talking about things related to magic, and also the SPM. Well, it's not as if Suzanne really cared. Suzanne was a freelance model and student who didn't really care about the affairs of others, apart from the latest movies, fashion trends, pop stars, and the modeling assignments she accepted for freelance photographers and some fashion events, especially for the upcoming Louis Vuitton Spring Summer collection show, and also for Longchamp's SS collection. Oh well, she was pretty much living in her own world too much to bother about matters of her family (apart from being close to her grandmother). However, it seemed that she couldn't ignore the existence of this person anymore like she had done with most other guys, since he was apparently on closer terms with her grandmother. Guys came to her with attention, sweet words declaring love, flowers, luxury autos, plus both decent and indecent proposals. She had seen them all, and she was quite sure he would be one of them. This was despite the fact that she hadn't spoken a word to him except for "please have some tea", and he had not said a single word to her ever.

"Oui madame" was Eugene's reply.

"I'm sorry Eugene", Anne continued. "I don't have much time now. Please do me this favour, at least for her father, your mentor."

"Yes ma'am. Have a pleasant journey."

Anne's body started to fade away into stardust. Her body slowly became translucent. Suzanne's hands suddenly went through Anne's hands which Suzanne was holding. "Grandmother!" She cried.

"Je t'aime, et adieu ma chère petite fille," said Anne as she "faded away".

Suzanne's face was soaked with tears. "Je t'aime aussi, meme! Adieu!"

Her grandmother was gone, just like that. In front of her, in front of Eugene, and in front of the grave of her great grandfather, General Charles de Gaulle.

Eugene explained everything to her, all the way from the time Anne's parents eloped from Yekaterinburg to Paris, joined the SPM, and gave birth to her, to the events leading to Suzanne's birth. However, he added one more thing, which was her father's demise, which was just less than an hour ago. Being a member of "The Pope's Secret Service" under the Escadron Magique Parisien, he was killed in a covert mission called "Coup de Scorpion" to prevent the resurrection of Chien Rouge by the New World Order, led in particularly by the True Knights of Asia. He took part in this mission partially because he wanted to avenge the death of Suzanne's mother, whose death was believed to be linked to the resurrection of Chien Rouge. The main concern was that Suzanne was very likely to be their next target, so Eugene was appointed to be her guardian to do everything possible to protect her. This went to the extent of asking her to consume a blue colored sphere to modify the level of magical radiation in her blood to avoid detection, and also change her name through a deed poll to Suzanne Printemps, which was already her stage name.

On top of that, Eugene's parents were also members of SPM who participated in the same mission and killed by the same culprit. The name of that culprit was Thuy Son (水山), a sorcerer from Vietnam sent by the True Knights of Asia to assist with the revival of Grigori Rasputin, or rather, the demon Moloch in Rasputin's body. His mission was not only just revenge for his and her parents, but also to protect her, since her death would mean Rasputin's revival.

Just when he was explaining everything to her, a barrage of sinisterly green fireballs were fired in their direction. Eugene quickly grabbed her and pushed her down to duck them, causing her to yelp in shock. The fireballs hit random targets, damaging gravestones and other objects in the cemetery and stirring up quite a lot of dust.

When both Eugene and Suzanne got up, what they saw was a figure fully clad in black: Black boots, jeans, vest, long-sleeved t-shirt, gloves, hood, and skull mask. "Thuy Son!" Eugene exclaimed.

"What's wrong, Eugene? Didn't expect to see me so soon?" taunted Thuy Son. "The both of you must be missing your parents so badly. But never mind. You'll soon join them in my body, where their souls are! Hahahahahahahaha!!! Die!" Thuy Son fired another barrage of green fireballs. "Je rejette!" Eugene commanded as he extended his hand forward, and a green forcefield appeared from his hand, deflecting the magical attacks. "Je rejette" meant "I reject" in French.

In his protective arms, that was where Suzanne felt a "different kind" of warmth for the first time, which took her breath away. It was what other guys had not given her so far. Her heart was not only beating in panic from the attack, but also of excitement. Her brief daydream was only interrupted by Thuy Son's barking at them as he approached them, saying, "Humans are fragile. They age, grow old, die, and eventually lose access to the pleasures this earth has to offer. Join me, and your bodies and souls will be merged with mine, and I shall feed you endless pleasure. MY PLEASURE. Riches, women, power! My body is eternal. I will never die. I am untouched by the law. Defy me, and your soul will be mine, tortured by the evil spirits contained in my body to generate destructive energy for my black magic spells. It's your choice!"

Eugene got up, and faced the black hooded attacker, and said, "We humans are fragile, and that's why we value our lives, treasure every second of it, and live it to the fullest!" After said that, he shouted "CYGNE BLANCHE," and fired a flock of fireballs shaped like white swans that zoomed towards the shadow-like Thuy Son. All of a sudden, novagels Senna and Gen appeared in a whiff of smoke, and started to fire white coloured fireballs to add to the firepower. Gen teleported to where Thuy Son was, and grabbed him to immobilize him. Senna got ready her Grand Retour to slash and finish off the wizard that's dressed in black. However, Thuy Son broke free, grabbed Gen from behind him with one arm and slammed him to the ground. Once Senna reached Thuy Son, he teleported away to where Eugene and Suzanne was.

It was a trick!

"Die, Suzanne!" shouted Thuy Son, and both his hands glowed with sinister green energy, getting ready to destroy both Eugene and Suzanne.

"PIECE DE RESISTANCE!!!"

This was a familiar shout.

It was Yumeko!

She fired a blast of Piece de Resistance from a distance. Fortunately, the blast of energy hit Thuy Son before he could grab Eugene as a hostage.

Thuy Son didn't see her coming. She was invisible, and fired the huge fireball at him at point black. Thuy Son flew a certain distance away. When he collided with the ground, there was a huge explosion.

"Yumeko!" Senna called out to her. "What brings you here? I thought you're not supposed to be part of our mission?"

"Hina-ssi asked me to join you at the last minute," Yumeko answered shyly, "Luckily I was on time."

Unable to take the stress, Suzanne collapsed. Eugene called out to her, "Suzanne! Suzanne!" and tried to tap her face to wake her up. Senna and Gen (the illusion couple) rushed to his aid.

Yumeko then said to them, "Senna! Gen! Please save your strength for Rasputin if he ever gets revived. Ikazuchi, Kazumi, and I will go after Thuy Son."

"Understood, Princess. Please go ahead," replied Gen. "Let's take Suzanne back to the base." Eugene and Gen helped to carried her, then Senna helped to teleport all of them back to their base at Ecole Militaire.

The chase was a long chase: Yumeko chasing after one from Pere Lachaise Cemetery all the way to the Boulevard Périphérique where they ran all the way down to Quai de Bercy. After that, Thuy Son was stopped in his tracks by two of Yumeko's ninja comrades Ikazuchi and Kazumi (the lightning couple) at Parc de Bercy. "Don't get in my way, novagels!" he shouted in Vietnamese. Ikazuchi pointed a finger at Thuy Son and commanded "Dengekisen (電撃閃)". The bolt of lightning was released from his finger, striking Thuy Son, causing him to growl in pain. "Do Khon Nang! (Vietnamese for "bastard")" he cursed, and fired a whole barrage of green fireballs at the three of them as if he were using a Gatling gun, damaging the trees and structures there, causing park visitors to panic and flee. After that, he tried to run away. He jumped over a few fish ponds, fired energy blasts to create a smokescreen to distract his pursuers. A few shurikens were thrown, but none were on target. In no time, he was nowhere to be found in the park. The whole objective of chasing him was to stop him from getting to the Musee de Louvre and reviving Grigori Rasputin. "Shit!" cursed Gen.

They chased him up the Champs Elysees all the way to the Arc de Triomphe at Place de l'Etoile where they fought underneath the arch after cornering him there with Yumeko, Kazumi, Gen guarding three entrances of the arch, and the last entrance guarded by Getsuga, who arrived at the arch earlier as a reinforcement. Kazumi flew up to the ceiling of the arch. Thuy Son tried to escape but was stopped by Chiya, who was Getsuga's sidekick whereby both Getsuga and Chiya form the Moon Couple team. Kazumi fired a Dengekisen (電撃閃) at Thuy Son from above. While Thuy Son was being rendered vulnerable by the electric attack, the rest of the novagels extended their hands forward to create a forcefield around him to trap him and concentrate whatever attacks rendered towards him within the forcefield. Kazumi and Ikazuchi continued to electrocute him inside the forcefield. The attack was so intense that Thuy Son seemed to have vaporized inside. Thinking that they had won, the novagels disabled the forcefield to check for the soul of Thuy Son they were supposed to "catch" using their Grand Retour. However, they found nothing. Since Thuy Son carried a legion of souls within his body, his destruction would have resulted in a tornado of souls, or "soulnado".

"Wait! It's a trap!" exclaimed Getsuga.

"Hahahahahahaha!!!" laughed Thuy Son. He was outside the arch, along with four black coloured beasts guarding the four entrances of the Arc de Triomphe. Each beast resembled one of the four beasts of the Chinese constellation, with Chu Tuoc (朱雀, or the Vermillion bird) guarding the south of the arch, Thanh Long (青龍, or the Azure Dragon) guarding the east of the arch, Bach Ho (白虎, or White Tiger) guarding the west of the arch, and Huyen Vu (玄武 or Black Tortoise) guarding the north of the arch. The eyes of these four beasts glowed, paralyzing all the five novagels in their tracks as they struggled to move. Thuy Son then explained further, saying, "Did you really think a mere forcefield could just trap me? My body is made of darkness. It can be converted to energy and travel through the ground. That used up quite a fair bit of my energy but I should still have enough to revive Lord Rasputin." Then he corrected himself, "No, it's Lord Moloch!"

"What?" exclaimed Getsuga. "How are you going to do that if Suzanne is still alive?"

"Fools! She'll die very soon once I reach the Louvre! Why did you think I let you guys chase me all the way to the Arc de Triomphe when the Louvre is still nearer to the Bercy Park? I already prepared a trap for you here." Thuy Son snapped his finger, and a large diamond-shaped barrier appeared around the five novagels. The barrier appeared to be made of impenetrable glass. Yumeko banged the glass wall with her fists. "Let us out! Bastard!"

"Nice to see all of you so energetic. It's a pity you're going to die in there." Thuy Son snapped a finger again. The floating diamond-shaped receptacle was shrinking in size. They were going to be squished flat inside that receptacle. Worse still, they could not teleport out of it. Even if they tried to set fire or use electricity to break out, they would only burn or electrocute themselves since all magical attacks would be contained within that confined shrinking space. "Enjoy your last moments. I'm sorry I can't provide anything more spacious. Once I'm done, I'll come back to drink your blood right after the receptacle squeezes you to mash. Hahahaha!!!"

"Fucker! Shit you! LET US OUT!" shouted the rest of the novagels.

Once Thuy Son reached the Louvre Pyramid, the rest of novagels appeared outside the pyramid to stop him. There were six couples left. 1) The water couple, Mizuchi and Chiaki; 2) The fire couple, Rekka and Tamiki; 3) The wind couple, Hayate and Hina; 4) The solar couple, Hideaki and Naomi; 5) The earth couple, Domon and Kana; 6) The psychokinetic couple, Saiko and Mika. "Ah, the rest of you here! Perfect! Now is my chance to finish all of you, once and for all!" He summoned Chu Tuoc, Thanh Long, Bach Ho, and Huyen Vu to fight them. One beast to keep three novagels busy, and some teams would have to split up. Mizuchi, Chiaki, and Hayate fought Thanh Long. Rekka, Tamiki, and Hideaki fought Chu Tuoc. Domon, Kana, and Naomi fought Huyen Vu. And lastly, Hina, Saiko, and Mika fought Bach Ho. All of them tried to leave the battle to stop Thuy Son from entering the pyramid, but the beast that they were fighting stopped them.

As the battle progressed, each beast took a more humanoid form. Huyen Vu, the black tortoise transformed into a more humanoid turtle which would remind you of a Kappa in Japanese legends or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in popular culture. Thanh Long transformed into what appears to be a Chinese man in blue oriental tunic with the Chinese character 青 embroidered in front and at the back, sporting a Qing Dynasty style pigtail. Bach Ho looked more like a human sumo wrestler, except that he had claws of a tiger and white tiger stripes tattooed all over his body. Chu Tuoc had the appearance of a red-skinned devil with pointed ears, teeth, nails, and wings, plus a beak-like pointed mouth.

Without any more obstacles, Thuy Son magically adopted the appearance of an ordinary Asian-looking tourist and walked into the Louvre Pyramid and proceeded down to where the painting titled "Liberty Leading the People (La Liberté guidant le peuple)" by painter Eugene Delacroix (ancestor of the current Eugene Delacroix entrusted by Anne Blanche to protect Suzanne) was. He started chanting in Sanskrit. People who walked past him thought he was mad, and even made snide remarks to ridicule him. One Chinese man who was from Singapore looked at him, and said to his wife, "Siao lang eh! (Hokkien for "mad person")". However, don't be fooled. Although Thuy Son was concentrating on his chanting, he was still aware of his surroundings. He mentally cursed each person who taunted him. After some of them left the museum, each of them met with mishaps. One of them lost her belongings in the Paris metro. Someone tapped her shoulder and her handbag and purse containing her credit cards, passport, and other essential documents were gone. Another met with an accident after a speeding driver rammed into him. Later on, the Singaporean man and his wife quarreled over some minor issue and the wife suddenly wanted a divorce. All of these happened to those who mocked Thuy Son, since he was a child.

Back at Ecole Militaire, Suzanne finally woke up after being unconscious for a while, but she was very weak. Too weak to speak or to even think clearly. Since she was unconscious for quite a while, Eugene did not have the chance to tell her much about Senna's and Gen's relationship with Suzanne and her grandmother Anne. After the death of his and Suzanne's parents, Eugene actually tracked down Thuy Son and learnt more about his past, and explained it to Gen and Senna.

Thuy Son was born to a Vietnamese man and a Burmese woman, who were both members of vice drug syndicate in the Golden Triangle. Their syndicate also kidnapped children, maimed them, and made them beg on the streets of Bangkok. On one occasion, due to a failed mission by his parents, his parents were executed by their leader, and he became one of the children made to beg. He was only eight at that time, and it was only ten years after the Vietnam war. At the same time, he was mildly retarded, so he was also bullied by the other children who begged along with him. One day, the syndicate decided to dump him on the streets and leave him to die. A kind old woman found him and saved him, and healed his broken legs using magic. He was no more retarded after that, and found out he had gained the ability to curse people. The mysterious old woman taught him quite a lot of magic, and died soon after. One by one, he cursed every member of the syndicate and wiped it off the Golden Triangle. This feat was noticed by the True Knights of Asia, and they recruited him. That's when the nameless boy was called Thuy Son, and became one of the most vicious sorcerers working under the True Knights of Asia. Even though he was the strongest and smartest sorcerer ever, he still had not forgotten the anguish of being mocked when he was a kid, and swore revenge and curses towards all those who mocked him. Just by cursing people, some of them met with accidents or ended up with failed relationships, or ended up being inflicted with incurable diseases, some chronic, some mild, and some fatal. All these, just by invoking an evil spirit called Naberius, which had more or less taken over his will and was thriving on the satisfaction of his desires.

Suddenly, Suzanne started coughing violently. Senna and Gen frantically rushed to place their hands on her forehead to heal her. But once Senna placed her hand to Suzanne's solar plexus, she sensed a strong evil already taking over her body. A death curse has been placed on her. She was going to die already. Suzanne coughed out blood. Eugene was shouting "DO SOMETHING! SAVE HER!" However, it was too late. After violently coughing out blood, she stopped moving, and her eyes remained opened. "SUZANNE!" shouted Eugene, as he held Suzanne's lifeless body tightly to him and wept uncontrollably. He had fallen in love with her, even though he had not spoken many words to her.

"Curses!" cursed Gen. Then he turned to Eugene and said, "Don't worry, we'll defeat Rasputin and Thuy Son."

And so, Gen and Senna set off for Musee de Louvre where Grigori Rasputin was about to be revived.

The painting painted by Eugene's ancestor suddenly glowed red, and turned into a red screen showing nothing but randomly changing patterns that look like faces of people in agony, as if one were looking directly into hell itself. Out of the portal, a ghastly figure floated outwards. It was the mummified body of Grigori Rasputin. He had returned from the dead, possessed by the demon Moloch. He looked like a mummified person dressed in red robes, and a crown of thorns round his head. His bloodshot eyes opened, and first took into his vision the sorcerer Thuy Son prostrating before him. The mummified Grigori Rasputin descended to the floor, so suddenly that he stomped on Thuy Son's head, smashing it to pieces. Following that, while still floating in the air, he absorbed Thuy Son's blood, flesh, and bones through his feet, sucking up the whole of Thuy Son like a vacuum cleaner sucking up dust. The mummified Rasputin finally touched down, and his mummified lips smiled. He tensed his mummified muscles and tore the wiry bandages around him, freeing the content within. A man with blood-red skin in a blood-red robe. He spoke in Russian. "My name is no longer Rasputin! I am, MOLOCH!"

Outside the Louvre pyramid, just before the four demons Chu Tuoc, Thanh Long, Bach Ho, and Huyen Vu were about to finish off the respective novagels they were already cornering, they suddenly turned to stone and broke to pieces.

Just before the twelve novagels were about to be killed, they won the battle.

Who killed Thuy Son?

Suddenly, a pillar of red light shot up from the museum below, destroying the glass pyramid. Emerging from the red beam was the monster they were hoping they did not have to fight.

What emerged appeared to be a red humanoid figure with two cow horns protruding from its head flapping its large red bat wings in the air. It announced in a booming voice, "I am Moloch! Finally, the seal has been broken with the death of the last member of the Romanov royal family! I am finally FREE! Fear me, humans, and die fearing! I shall cleanse the earth of the human race, and build a kingdom for the glory of all demonkind! This, I command!" Having said that, he raised his hand into the air, and released some red gas-like substance which grew very quickly into a red cloud that grew very quickly to cover the whole night sky, which in turn coloured the sky red. Swarms of red demonic bats flew out from those clouds and descended towards the ground, infesting the surface and killing any human being they saw. This red cloud very soon covered the whole earth, subjugating it into complete darkness. The six novagels couples were fending off the swarm of demons but were heavily outnumbered and weakened. Domon was boxing demonic bats unconscious one by one and was barely keeping afloat. "There's no end to this!" he explained. He grabbed one bat by the wings and ripped it apart there and then, but another three zoomed towards him and he had to swing his arm to fend all three off, headbutt another, or pummel them with his knees. Talk about multi-tasking. Naomi then responded, saying, "We have to defeat that 'last boss' who calls himself Moloch! But how are we to do it if these bats are already too much for us?"

"PIECE DE RESISTANCE!" A few beams of light came their way, vaporizing large fleets of demonic bats in seconds. It was Yumeko's voice.

"The princess! The princess is back! She survived!" Hina announced as she created three typhoons to blow away thirty demon bats.

Three persons were flying towards the Louvre. One was Yumeko, but her energy was different. She had merged with the moon couple and lightning couple to form one body, with Yumeko being the base (taking the sole appearance of Yumeko with her soul and personality in sole control of the fusion). Accompanying her were Senna and Gen. "Guys, listen up!" announced Senna. "All of us will have to merge with Yumeko, since all of you are too weak to fight on your own! But I will be the 'base'! This is my fight with Rasputin as the reincarnation of Princess Anastasia! He won't be able to refuse the fight! Otherwise we will be destroyed by his infestation of demonic bats before we can even get to him!"

"All right guys, let's do it!" announced Hayate.

Without further delay, all novagels merged and Senna was the base. Only a one woman army with all her comrades inside her, Senna punched her way through the army of bats to get close enough to Rasputin a.k.a Moloch, and call out to him.

"Grigori Rasputin! Or should I say Moloch, the king of demons! As the reincarnation of Princess Anastasia, I challenge you to a one on one battle!"

Moloch looked at her, and smirked. "Huh? You and what army?" Moloch raised an arm to command the army of bats to give way to her, widening the space around her.

"What are you babbling about, little girl?" the demon king continued. "The bloodline of the Romanov royal family has now come to an end! I have already achieved the ultimate victory! What makes you so sure that your challenge against me isn't futile?"

"What if I have this?" Senna said, and magically produced a sword out of nothing. It was a medieval-style Russian-sword that was emitting strong holy power.

"What? What is this?" gasped the demon king. "Damn you! The Holy Sword of Ilya Muromets! How did you get that? I thought it was gone for good!"

The Holy Sword of Ilya Muromets was a sword used by the legendary medieval Russian warrior of the same name who fought the Tugar tribes and the three headed dragon Zmey Gorynych. The Zmey Gorynych was Moloch's previous incarnation, so the memories of his defeat by that dreaded sword scarred his subconscious memory for several incarnations. Grigori Rasputin happened to be one of Moloch's most recent incarnations. And now, the current incarnation of Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova was holding that dreaded sword. It was given to Senna by the SPM's Russia-based reconnaissance team after they had found it being kept at an old church.

"Prepare to die, Zmey Gorynych!" announced Senna as she held up the sword in a battle-ready stance.

"No, you prepare to die, Ilya Muromets!"

Senna's attire was magically replaced with a shining silver-colored knight armored suit, and the blade of the holy sword was glowing brightly. Senna started counting one to three in Russian.

"Odin!" She counted one.

The blade of the holy sword started glowing more brightly, and was giving off electric sparks.

"Dva!" She counted two.

The blade emitted so much energy that it was generating a tornado of energy round the sword.

"Tri!" She finally counted three.

Senna lifted the holy sword in the air, and swerved it like a professional tennis player, drawing a few crescent moons with the sword before pointing the sword at Moloch and releasing a white coloured beam of destructive energy at him.

This was a first strike. The white beam penetrated the chest of the monster and came out through his back, causing him to cough out blood from his already devilishly-red body. As if that was not enough, Senna leapt into the air to continuously slash the demon king with the sword. However, when she was about to deliver what she hoped to be the final slash, Moloch suddenly teleported away by transforming into a swarm of demonic bats that flew away to escape to a further location. The swarm of bats gathered in one lump and transformed back into Moloch. Moloch sniggered and said, "Think you can finish me off just like that? I am just getting started!" He started gathering energy in his hand to form red coloured energy balls to throw at Senna. And he started throwing.

Senna proceeded to swerve off every energy ball that came her way, once again like a professional tennis player. The balls were deflected in many random directions causing random damage to random places in Paris. She was trying to make the energy balls fly back in Moloch's direction, but Moloch kept dodging, causing the energy balls to hit random targets. Anyway, anyone who could have been hurt, would have already been killed by Moloch's swarm of demonic bats, so it didn't make a difference. Once Moloch was exhausted from firing the barrage of energy balls, Senna did not hesitate to dash forward in mid-air to slash him repeatedly again. Again, when Moloch was dizzy from her attack, she raised her sword to deliver a blow that would dissect him into half from his skull to his anus, but he managed to make use of that time lag to escape again by transforming into a swarm of bats, and then making those bats gathering again at another location to transform back into him.

"Suka!" he cursed. He just called her "bitch" in Russian. Then he raised his clawed palm high up into the air to gather a large ball of red energy. This red ball of energy was unlike any of the other fireballs that he fired earlier. While trying to gather energy, Moloch appeared vulnerable. Senna tried to take advantage of that and attack him, but suddenly an unseen force pulled her downwards, causing her to crash onto the pavement. Moloch then mocked her, "Fool! What makes you think I'll make the same mistake of letting my guard down? I was just getting warmed up. Just enjoying the pain you were inflicting from me!"

Senna gritted her teeth as she struggled to get up despite the excessively strong gravity acting on her. Moloch then sniggered, and floated up into the red sphere and merged with it. The red sphere started to glow, and many unintelligible symbols used during ancient times appeared on it. The glowing subsided, only to reveal what looked like a red coloured planet that appeared marked with craters to make the whole planet look like the face of a human skull - a red sphere with a skull-like face.

Moloch's voice boomed with echoes from the hideous little planet. "Come into my world! This is hell, the place I came from!"

All of a sudden, the super gravity that was pulling her into the ground suddenly turned into super anti-gravity that tossed her high up into the air, and towards the red coloured planet. Senna screamed, but she could not do anything. She accelerated towards the barren surface of that red planet, and thought it was the end of her. However, the surface was apparently made of gooey red liquid. She just fell right into the sticky liquid, struggled to get out but to no avail. Everything after that went black...

When she woke up, it was burning hot, as if she were inside an oven. She got up, opened her eyes, and found herself on a floating chunk of rock floating in the air over large bottomless pit of fire. Then she looked around and found that the world she was in consisted of nothing but an endless pit of fire, a crimson red sky, and floating chunks of rock. Thousands of them. However, she saw from a distance a similar floating chunk of rock disintegrating in the intense heat and falling into the bottomless pit of fire. All that could be seen was a sea of fire, and what lies below the flames was unknown. It was as if she were in hell itself.

"IT IS HELL!" boomed the voice of Moloch, followed by an eerie sinister laughter.

The winged Moloch suddenly appeared in front of her, though a few meters above her in altitude, flapping his wings to stay in the air.

"Welcome, Princess Anastasia. No, I should actually say, Vassilisa! Wife of Ilya Muromets!"

"You actually remembered, didn't you, Zmey Gorynych! Long time no see, old friend!"

"Yes! Over eight centuries in hell was a long time! I did reincarnate and became human a few times though, before I went back to hell," said Moloch.

"And one of your incarnations was Grigori Rasputin. I couldn't have known better," replied Senna. "I told you before. I sent you back to hell before, and I will send you back there again."

"And I will come back again, as long as there are ways for me to come back to the world of the living. However, there wasn't much I could do when members of the Romanov still lived."

"It's not over yet! Suzanne may be dead, but that doesn't mean you have won! You still have me to fight!"

"Yes! Of course! I am back to correct the mistake I made ten years ago! The mistake of being complacent! The mistake of thinking that I will be unbeatable! NEVER AGAIN!" Moloch suddenly shouted.

Moloch started transforming. His wings became larger, his body became longer, his legs and arms became shorter, and his neck became longer. Horns sprouted all over his body, just like most dinosaurs. He reverted to his original form eight centuries ago: Zmey Gorynych, the wyvern from hell.

Now in his dragon form, he spoke no more. He only roared, and starting flying around, crashing into random floating rocks, causing them to break to pieces and fall into the bottomless pit of fire.

Senna knew it. Her battle with Zmey Gorynych has begun.

After randomly darting around the rock she was standing on and destroying random floating rocks, Zmey Gorynych hovered towards her, like a predator bird eyeing its prey. After that it did a mid-air somersault before charging towards the floating rock Senna was standing on. It was her chance! Senna jumped towards the top of Zmey's head, and delivered two slashes to his eyes (which she remembered from memories of her past life that his eyes were his core weakness), one with her sword, the other with Le Grand Retour. Zmey winced in pain as he stopped charging in mid-air. However, even though he pulled the brakes, the momentum from charging forward caused him to crash into the floating rock Senna was formerly standing on, forcing her to flee to another floating rock. Once she landed on another floating rock, she continued to do the same thing. She kept doing this for five rounds. But on the sixth attempt, Zmey Gorynych used his head and swatted her like a fly onto another floating rock, which cracked and started to disintegrate. Despite the pain, Senna still managed to leap off the falling rock to a steady floating rock. Zmey laughed and said, "Did you really think I would fall for the same trick? Five times? I have been reborn, and will not let myself be defeated through the same weak point."

Senna started to panic. Does this monster have a weakness in the first place? How to defeat him and how to get out of here?

"So how? How are you going to defeat me? Hurting my eyes won't blind me!"

"That's impossible! Back then I defeated you by blinding you!" replied Senna in disbelief and also in a flustered manner. "You have to have some weakness! All monsters that we defeated before had a weak point that we could make use of, and also vulnerable to Le Grand Retour! Unless…"

Then it dawned upon Senna that this monster was probably not real. The real enemy was probably using a spell that's similar to hers. It was an illusion spell. So far, in all her battles with her enemies, none of them managed to break her illusion spells. She turned all her illusions into real monsters or fighters to fight her enemies. These monsters created out of nothing could be defeated by her enemies. However, none of her enemies were able to turn her monsters back into harmless illusions that fade away.

For all she knew, Zmey Gorynych may not be real after all. That pit of hellfire may not be real after all either. It was just probably just an illusion.

She had to try something. There was a spell that she knew would turn monsters back into the illusions they initially were. This was a spell Grigori Rasputin was well versed at, and she picked it up from Demitri Rasputin when she was Princess Anastasia.

"So how, my dear daughter in law? Have you figured out a solution?" asked the dragon.

"Shut up! You're not my father in law! You're just a demon!"

Even after becoming Senna, the novagel, she still remembered her spells. And there was a spell that she had learned from Dimitri (who is now named "Gen", the novagel) which never had to be used. It was called "Veritas Mortis". However, this needed a lot of magical energy. Probably a surge of energy. Probably…

"Piece de Resistance!" Senna had a brainstorm. Since she merged with Yumeko, she would be able to perform the Piece de Resistance. She would have to use the energy created by the Piece de Resistance to fuel the Veritas Mortis spell.

"Hah! You're just the descendant of a demon yourself! Novagels were offspring born of humans, angels, and demons! You're neither human, angel, nor demon. An outcast of all the realms, yet possess the powers and privileges granted to humans, angels, and demons."

"I don't know what you're babbling about," retorted Senna. "We're just attractive beings that look human, enjoy eternal life, youth, attractive looks, without the physical vulnerabilities suffered by mortal men. We use magic, and we fight to protect mankind. I've heard this shit before but I don't buy the part that we were angels and demons."

"Whatever!" Zmey continued to flap his wings, generating a strong gust of wind to blow her off the floating rock she was standing on so that she would be unable to concentrate on performing any spells. However, her willpower overpowered the laws of physics. She still summoned all her magical energy to fasten her feet to the floating rock. As she did so, she chanted the spell, "Veritas Mortis!"

A round glossy transparent coin-like shield appeared right in front of her like a looking glass or a large piece of glass lens or contact lens, except that it was not made of glass, plastic, or film, but made of energy. She will need to channel a lot of energy to activate that floating shield in front of her.

Zmey laughed. "You're going to need a lot of energy for that."

"Piece…"

"Get ready to burn in hell!" taunted Zmey.

"de…"

"Die! Princess Anastasia!"

"Resistance!"

Senna fired a long white beam from her palms, startling the dragon. Zmey Gorynych has not seen such a huge amount of power before. The beam hit the concave side of the shield, and the beam came out from the convex side, amplifying the intensity of the blast.

"No! No! No!" protested the dragon frantically.

The "Piece de Resistance" engulfed the dragon, consuming it.

It was gone.

The pit of fire was gone. The floating rocks were gone.

There was no floor.

Senna was not floating in the middle of a dark space.

It was an illusion.

So where's the real enemy?

Suddenly, the darkness subsided, giving way to colours and light. Senna found herself back in France in front of the ruins of the Louvre palace. The sky was bright again, but everyone was dead. Corpses littered the streets.

"Moloch! Where are you?"

She looked around and found an ugly, dirty, ragged, and hair disheveled man and recognized him as Grigori Rasputin. After activating her "Veritas Mortis" for the first time, she had gained the ability to see through illusionary disguises. She tossed the Le Grand Retour chakram at him…

…and everything went back to normal.

Soon after, Eugene and Suzanne got married a few months after what the novagels called "The Rasputin Crisis".