Chapter One Hundred Fifty: Rise

In Aleora…

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Atomu and Nakada were running as fast as they could to the source of the destruction: the giant mech formed by Runea.

"Hurry, Atomu, damn it!" Atomu thought. "If I let my home and comrades get taken like this, I'll be a failure as a General!"

On the opposite side, Shinjii and Toru were hopping from building to building, getting closer to the mech with every passing second.

"Man, Kenshi gets ALL the fun!" Shinjii bellowed. "It's just about MY time to shine!"

Toru scoffed. "Don't fumble this, Kumagai."

And to the left, Naito and Himeka were running toward the mech as well.

"That thing's so big and scary!" Himeka gasped. "We have to FIGHT IT?"

Naito remained silent.

"Why couldn't it be a big fluffy cat?" Himeka groaned.

Naito just sighed.

While they all turned corners and jumped buildings, a large blast of ice hit the mech, freezing it in place, but it broke free, swinging its sword violently.

"DIE!"

On the street it was standing on was General Fujii, narrowly avoiding the mech's blade while firing large ice blasts that Runea blocked as she swung the sword.

BOOM. BOOM.

"Hey!" Fujii exclaimed. "Stop making a mess, you monster!"

The mech's blade shifted into a double-bladed glaive, and Runea stabbed it into the ground, causing every building nearby to rise into the air. Fujii formed his Ice Dragon and began flying around her as she formed a gun from her mech and started shooting.

"ANNIHILATE!"

The dragon unleashed a large beam of ice from its mouth, freezing the mech high into the air. To Fujii's surprise, Runea broke the ice with one stab from her glaive, landing on the ground with a loud THUD.

"Weapon Mastery: Assault Mode!"

The hands, shoulders, and chest of the mech retracted, revealing a massive cannon within each of them. With a wave of Runea's hand, the mech fired large bladed disks from the cannons, nearly slicing Fujii into bits.

"Not good," Fujii thought. "She hasn't even used her Unleashed Form yet. Maybe her emotions are too chaotic to focus right now, but if this fight goes on, I'm dead!"

A disk decapitated Fujii's dragon, and he quickly made another one and jumped onto it before more disks tore the dragon apart.

"Run all you want," Runea mocked. "I will avenge my sister, you demon."

Fujii jumped off the dragon and landed on the back of her mech, preparing to stab it, but she batted him off with the back of her hand, causing him to fall to the ground.

"So this," Runea declared, pointing the gun at Fujii. "Is how Kenshi Fujii meets his end."

Fujii looked up and laughed. "Not just yet."

BOOM.

To Runea's shock, a large blast of purple energy exploded from behind her, and she immediately turned around. "It can't be…!"

She immediately turned around, but there was nothing there. She heard a whistle, and once she looked up, a massive plasma blast hit her, sending her mech crashing into several rows of buildings.

"Marachii?" Fujii realized. "Is that…you?"

Runea's mech slowly got up, but once it did, another figure batted her away with an ENITRE communications tower, breaking it in half.

BOOM.

"DACHII?"

Both of them landed next to each other, their skin eerily black—-just like Runea's. Their eyes were purple, and their teeth were black and dripping. Marachii looked at his hand.

"What…what is this?"

Dachii examined his arm before turning his attention back to Runea. "Doesn't matter. We've got a job to do."

Marachii nodded.

Runea slammed her hand on the ground. "No way! That's impossible! You, you both—here? NOW?"

She roared an inhuman scream, her mech springing to life. "You'd DARE turn my blood against me?"

Her mech began to shake. "Weapon Mastery: Mecha Army!"

Two mechs emerged from the first. And then two more. And two more. Runea pointed to the two boys. "Get them!"

The mechs ran toward the two, crushing buildings and streets beneath their feet. In unison, Dachii and Marachii both took off, rushing the mechs.

BOOM.

With one punch, Dachii knocked the head off a mech.

BOOM.

And opposite of him, Marachii fired an entire rocket barrage that blew up the top half of another.

"This power…" Marachii thought.

"Is amazing…!" Dachii finished.

"No, no, no!" Runea exclaimed. "This isn't right!"

Marachii unleashed a wave of mechanical tendrils that ripped the arm off another mech, before whacking the one right next to it in the face with the arm.

…?

"Rise, Marachii Jones."

Dachii's body instinctively dodged and flew past every attack as he got closer to Runea's mech, punching it back with a violent force that damaged its chest.

…?

"Rise, Dachii Jones."

Fujii, now recovered, watched the scene with amazement and confusion on his face. Akari, Luca, Aoki, Hikari, Saori, and even Kiyota joined him, utterly stunned.

"What's happened to them?" Akari asked.

"I don't know!" Hikari replied. "They got knocked out and they woke up looking like…that!"

Even Aoki was speechless. "No…they're human…they have to be…they can't be…Zharians?"

"Impossible," Luca agreed. "That's not their scent,"

"Mister Dachii and Mister Marachii…" Saori worried. "What are they?"

"I don't know," Fujii admitted. "But it's pretty damn cool!"

"Idiots!" Kiyota interrupted. "Who cares what they are? We need to take advantage and finish this witch off!"

With a bat of her arm, Runea sent Dachii and Marachii flying back. "ENOUGH OF THIS GAME! IF YOU TWO WANTED TO SUFFER YOU COULD HAVE JUST SAID SO! NOW YOU CAN DIE IN THAT SKIN!"

Dachii jumped out of the wreckage and immediately appeared in front of Runea, punching her out of her mech and into the sky. "Shut up."

As he went in for another punch, she used her blades to block the blow, and her mech grabbed him by his legs, throwing him back down as it caught her.

"Reform," she ordered.

All of her mechs repaired themselves, forming large weapons of their own. Dachii punched the air near Runea's mech, causing a wave of gravity to bring it crashing down to the ground on top of Runea.

"CRUSH."

He watched as the mech short-circuited, but under it, he could see a slight rumble.

"Sister…I want you to know I love you. Even if I die, I know you'll surpass me and take my place!"

"But, how could I ever surpass you? You helped Titan defeat that crazy tyrant of a goddess!"

"Haha! That was mostly him. And trust me, I know you're strong, Ritsuka. Much stronger than me. If you really applied yourself, you could probably even be a top five Rank if you joined the Order!"

"The Order? They wouldn't take me."

"Of course they would! Because I'd take you, little sister. I love you."

A glowing gray light appeared through the cracks of the mech, and a powerful burst of gray energy followed it, destroying the entire mech and everything around it.

"UNLEASH!"

A powerful force immediately lunged at Dachii faster than anything before, and he barely managed to jump out of the way. He looked up and found Runea, her hair, eyes, and body glowing, with a glowing gray sword in her hand.

"No, don't run," Runea's voice spoke, much deeper and colder than before. "You started this fight, Dachii."

Blades surrounded her like wings. "SO FINISH IT!"

"Good," Dachii flexed his arms. "I will!"

But even he couldn't perceive her first attack, a punch so powerful it launched him back and lit the entire street on fire.

Fujii noticed and immediately summoned his blade. "Guys! Things just got from bad to worse! Forget everything else, we've gotta help Dachii take down Runea!"

"But what about the mechs?" Hikari asked.

"She CONTROLS the mechs!" Fujii pointed out. "If we stop her, we stop them!"

A mech stepped into their path, preparing to crush them, but Shinjii knocked it off balance with a powerful swing of his axe. "Don't hog the glory, runts!"

Himeka hit another one in the head with her Gigarang, twisted its head around. "Sister! Hi!"

Nakada, Toru, Naito, and Atomu dropped in as well.

"Finally, you guys joined the party!" Fujii stated. "I was getting kinda lonely!"

"Quit with the jokes," Toru demanded. "We'll cover these hulking scraps of metal. Go stop the one who did this."

Fujii nodded. "Come on, team!"

They all followed, and Kiyota tried to follow as well, but he collapsed onto the ground. Toru shook his head. "Idiot boy. You stay here."

"What? Screw that, I need my rep—-!"

"No," Toru ordered. "Going with them will only get you killed. Remain on the sidelines."

Kiyota slammed the ground. "Damn it! Fine."

Meanwhile…

BOOM.

"TAKE THIS!"

BOOM.

Dachii and Runea were both colliding punches so hard that the entire ground shook. With one focused punch, Runea knocked Dachii's entire jaw off. Dachii regenerated it and unleashed a rapid combo on her, but she evaded it and swung at him again, breaking his gauntlet when he tried to block with it.

"You think I need that? We'll both die here!"

Dachii headbutted her to no avail, and she delivered a spinning back kick to his chest. Dachii grabbed her leg and brought his elbow down hard on it, breaking both his elbow and snapping her knee, which immediately recovered as she kicked him off.

"Pathetic. You think you're worthy of that form?" she shouted.

Dachii slammed his fist down, increasing the gravity in the area, but Runea stood firm, unmoving. Without warning, she formed a spear and slashed the top of his head off.

"You might be stronger in that form, but you haven't even reached your leader's level yet," she said. "Don't think that you can throw hands with me—-!"

Dachii grabbed her arm as she tried to pull it back. "Get her, Marachii!"

A light blue trail darted straight for her, tackling her away from Dachii as they both went down street after street, far too fast for the eye to see. Once both crashed, Runea jumped away from the attacker, noticing Marachii, with thrusters on his legs and six tendrils sprouting from his back.

"I thought you were smart, Marachii," Runea remarked. "But that was pretty stupid."

Marachii got into a low stance, laughing unusually. "All this tech inside of me! It's gonna TEAR YOU APART!"

"Hmph," she scoffed.

Each of his tendrils immediately formed a rocket launcher, and five more formed on his legs, arms, and chest. "FIRE!"

Runea formed a large shield as the rockets came at her, and then she bashed Marachii in the face with the shield. He wrapped a tendril around her leg, swinging her into the air and slamming her down into the ground, but she responded by grabbing the tendril and doing the same to him.

Once Marachii got up, Dachii was by his side, both breathing hard as Runea dusted herself off. "Tired, are we? The power boost is impressive, but you two walked up like you thought you could beat me. Cute."

The roar of a dragon could be heard, and Runea saw Fujii's Ice Dragon once again, this time carrying the entire squad on its back.

"Great," she sighed.

Fujii's dragon slammed down, and the entire Squad S-1 stood side by side. "Look at that, kids! You made her mad!"

"Good," Dachii replied.

"Let's RIP her into pieces," Marachii added.

"Whoa," Fujii said. "That's pretty dark, you two! I like it! Now…"

Fujii took one step, leveling his blade at Runea. "Attack!"

He and Runea clashed at the same time, with Akari and Aoki joining him, the three dancing around her like an elegant duel. Swords and shields clashed together at high speeds, and Luca transformed into his Hydra Form, jumping on a roof so Saori and Hikari could fire their beams at Runea from his back.

"It's working!" Hikari said. "She can't defend against all of us at once!"

"RAHHHHH!"

With a terrible roar, everyone got knocked to the ground. Runea stood there, regaining her composure as she floated back into the air, firing blades. "COME AT ME, WORMS!"

In the blink of an eye, both Dachii and Marachii's bodies moved in separate directions toward Runea, dodging the blades that came their way. Dachii clapped his hands, gravity sending all of the blades flying into the air.

"This little tramp…" Dachii growled.

Marachii blasted an entire wave of blades out of the sky with his cannons.

"Needs to be taught a lesson!" Marachii yelled.

In sync, they both jumped into the air and drew their fists back, elemental energy charging inside them.

"NOW DIE!" they shouted, delivering a powerful punch to Runea's torso.

BOOM.

The force of the punch shook the entire district, turning the power off across all of Voltiana.

"Incredible!" Fujii cheered.

Once the smoke cleared, Dachii and Marachii were both on the ground, groaning and back to normal.

"Ugh…" Dachii moaned.

"Never doing that again…" Marachii murmured.

Akari ran over to the two. "Nice work! Did you guys get her? Is she…?"

A hand punched through a pile of rubble, and Runea, her body still intact, pulled herself out of it. "That was quite a punch. It hit with the force near an Elite's. I didn't know your bodies could produce such power."

Blades rose from around her. "But unfortunately, it wasn't enough. Now I'll start ripping you all to shreds piece by forsaken piece, until there's NOTHING LEFT!"

The blades flew straight for Dachii and Marachii, but suddenly…

They stopped. A brilliant white light dazzled, and a figure in an elegant dress gracefully descended in front of them.

"Mom?" Akari realized.

Queen Ayame patted her daughter's head. "You've done great, Akari, all of you. I'm proud."

"What the hell is this?" Runea inquired. "Where did you come from?"

With a snap of Ayame's fingers, the blades disappeared. "Young lady, I think it's time I teach you some manners."

Runea drew her blade. "Forget it. You'll have to KILL ME! Nothing will keep me from my revenge! NOTHING!"

She charged at Ayame, but with one glowing hand, Runea stopped right before she could reach her.

"What magic is that?" Dachii thought. "Is it like Nishiyama's?"

Runea struggled against her hold, but she couldn't move.

"Now," Queen Ayame declared. "Sealing Magic: Sealing Tomb."

Runea's body began to shift back into her human form as Ayana, and her body began to turn into white particles as Queen Ayame stared her down.

"I'll be looking forward to speaking with you soon, Ritsuka Hoshigami."

And then Runea disappeared in a brilliant flash of light.

—-