"Death"

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We become the things that we hate when we have nowhere left to go.

...

"I've come to get you back, Joon. I've come so that we can be a family again."

Joon smirked in his nonchalant way as he watched his brother stand tall in the cold winds of the empty town, the only noises coming from the howl of air blowing through the skeletal structure of skyscrapers and debris tumbling in the breeze.

"You are my brother, Han Kwan," he said coolly. "But not like this. No, not like this. Whether you intend to use force or let me decide on my own volition, this is one thing that you cannot make happen on sheer willpower alone."

But the man did not listen, and as the tails of his long trenchcoat flapped in the winds, his left arm reached back to grasp the five-feet swords strapped across his spine.

"You do not understand," he said as the blades slid free of their scabbards with a high-pitched screech of metal. "Do you not see what I have done, what I have proved to the world? People like us are not as weak as we once thought we were. Even if civilization has fallen into anarchy with us at the bottom of the food chain of killers, there is no reason why we cannot fight back. The gangs have fallen to my hand and I alone have shown them all how strong we can be. No longer must we live in fear or abuse, for I have opened the doors to the future for our kind. Now, we can step through heaven's gate, my brother, and we will never ever have to face this dismal vision of hell ever again."

But the gunman's eyes only narrowed, his crisp smile never leaving his face.

"Han Kwan, you have only proven the vicious cycle that we exist within," he said. "In your quest to eliminate the gangs that have brought chaos upon us- the common people- you have succeeded only in being seduced by their methods of violence and fear yourself."

"It was a necessary step in order to ascend to the next level," replied the man. "To the Lords, there was no such thing as reason or equality. The only thing that they understood was power, and that was what I had to use to show them the error of their ways."

"You killed them, brother. You did not show them anything."

"You simply do not appreciate the things that I have done for you!" shouted Han Kwan in a brief moment of rage. "You act like I have sold my soul to the devil, but I have not turned to slaughtering the peasant masses, have I? I have not taken it upon myself to loot and plunder from the weak for my own personal gain. My quest has never been a thing for myself, but rather for us, for the future of our people. I will carve out a glorious world where this stagnant fear no longer exists, and from there will sprout the lustrous flowers of peace that this planet has lacked for so long."

But Joon Huh did not flinch, and dropped his all-powerful gaze in shame.

"If you finish this charade, the gangs will be driven to fear, and from there into the shadows of weakness. The people who are frail now will move up on the ladder of prosperity, but do you think that they will be satisfied with only that? Even the leaders of the greatest governments in the world were peasants once, revolution being the tool that brought them into control. Don't you see? This is just a vicious cycle of power, for man may very well never be satisfied with the things that he possesses in life. He must always strive harder, always yearning for more, and in the end he is even willing to kill his own kin to achieve that goal. Is this not what you yourself do now, Han Kwan? Will this crusade of death that you have set out upon accomplish anything at all?"

Han Kwan Huh did not answer at first, staring at the young boy who had the fluttering jacket upon his shoulders like a superhero. His steel blade scraped gently in the dirt as the rain begin to fall in torrents, and just as it seemed as if the sky itself would fall down upon them, the sword grew taunt in his hands once again, the ringing of metal echoing throughout the empty city as it twisted sharply against the falling raindrops.

"Pain accompanies revolution, but it is something that eases with time," he said coldly. "What I do is for the future, and even if you do not see the good that I accomplish now, you will see it in tomorrow's sunrise. Do not do this to me, Joon, for I have finally brought about the change to liberate us from weakness, to liberate us from our pasts. We have everything ahead of us, you and I, and the possibilities from here on are endless. Simply leave this illusion you have created for yourself behind and come with me into the glorious new world. We can do everything, and together we will guide the people into a utopia of grandiose proportions."

"No, Han Kwan. Killing will not change our world. It will only continue the sins that had been started long ago. And I will not believe in that destiny, no matter what you say."

"Then I have no choice," said the man regretfully as he stepped forward, and Joon could only shake his head with sadness, his left hand straying to his side as he prepared to pull forth his own sword of [justice].

"There is always a choice... my dear brother..."

...

"I wish that I could turn back time

cos now the guilt is all mine

can't live without the trust from those you love

I know we can't forget the past

You can't forget love and pride

Because of that, it's killing me inside."

--- Shiro Sagisu and ARIANNE, "Komm, susser Tod" (from "The End of Evangelion")

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...

Fallen leaves and brush softly sifted beneath the brisk walk of the traveling party as Kouryuu led the team through the black jungles. With the sun quickly fading in the distance, the cover of darkness led to a new problem for the tired party. The robots had little problem adjusting their vision to compensate for the lack of light, but Yoshime and Iesu were severely hindered by the loss of their eyes. Even a single lantern had the potential to attract the enemy in waves, and most of the team's other equipment had to be abandoned with the hovercraft that had taken them so far in their journey. Luckily, Zero's demonic half had been able to cast a spell that managed to somewhat dispel the handicaps on their human vision. Though the forests still appeared as though they were walking through a thick, murky soup, the incantation brought enough sight back for them to be able to transverse the timberlands without the aid of the others. However, progress was still slow, and Edge still bore a strong burden on their back as Terpfen carried his limp shell across his shoulders. Ears perked up at even the slightest movement in the brush, and often times the passing wind nearly made the warriors jump to premature conclusions about what might be watching them from the shadows. With battle systems almost completely inactive to conserve energy and stay below radar, nobody knew just how close their foe had caught up to their backs. And with no telling how long it would be before they would be able to rest again, it had begun to make them all wonder if they were going to make it out alive at all.

Heavy breathes came from Yoshime's mouth as she wearily trudged behind the others, struggling to keep up with Kouryuu's back even though the muscles in her legs ached from wear. The rebel was forced to keep a quick pace due to the enemy at their rear and the young girl could not help but grow weary as she began to feel the fatigue from the events that had happened only in the last couple hours. It had been hectic enough trying to escape from Yoshiki's clutches within his own twisted mansion, but to continue their flight afterwards threatened to wear her endurance down until she collapsed from exhaustion. She nearly tripped and fell into the dirt as the end of her toe caught on a small rock jutting up from the soil, but at the last minute she managed to right her balance and push on, biting her tongue to keep herself awake and steeling her eyes straight ahead into the murky darkness. No matter how much hardship she had to endure now, the others were right there by her side. They would not let her fall no matter what. Even if Edge had lost consciousness, he was still there in Terpfen's arms, and he would return to her once all of this was over. No matter how tired she became, she had to push on. There was nothing else for her to do. `

She felt a shiver run through her body as she spared a look back towards the nuclear machine as it mechanically stomped forward with the young boy unceremonially draped over his back. He had fallen so quickly, so suddenly, all in the midst of fighting the gangster's assassins. Yet, he had not been physically struck nor did he seem to contract any sort of software error that might have triggered such a dramatic response. What had caused him to fall? More importantly, what continued to preserve his sleep even though Yoshiki's initial assault had already passed? Clef had been working on him earlier to try to figure out the cause, but seemed reluctant to tell her any more other except that he would not be able to revive Edge until they had more time to study his condition. He did not seem to be as hesitant to share information with the others though, as she had spied him talking to Kouryuu and Double at length after he had completed his examinations. Perhaps they were holding something back from her for fear of how she might react. Perhaps the situation was far more dire than even she had feared...

"How are you doing?" said Iesu suddenly as he sped up to walk by her side, his wooden cross methodically digging into the ground again and again as he used it to support his march forward. He wore a tired smile despite the ragged breathing that puffed forth from his mouth, and though he tried his best to be cheerful, it was obvious that even he was beginning to succumb to the exhaustion of their escape. "You've been looking pretty down even after we escaped. I was wondering if you’re going to be all right."

Yoshime just did her best to smile as she tried to concentrate on the path in front of her feet.

"It's a lot of things," she said. "I've been worrying a lot ever since we all set out on this trip in the first place. Long before Yoshiki, long before meeting Fumiya, the angels, and everything else. I think there's a part of me that will always worry about the things and people I care about, and I think that since we all met and left the homes we knew in this journey, I've only gotten more reasons to be concerned about everything. And now I can't even be sure if we're going to make it out of here alive."

"We just have to keep our heads up," he said, a distant,sad grin on his face. "I know times are hard right now, but that's all we can do."

"I know," sighed the young girl as she comfortingly hefted her rifle back onto her shoulder as the strap began to slip off. She knew that there wasn't much else that they could do but move on, but it was still so frustrating to endure such helplessness. "I'm worried about Edge more than anything. None of us have any idea why he passed out so suddenly and why he still hasn't regained consciousness."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," said Iesu, his tone growing somewhat tense as the subject floated away from his companion and on to the android. "Once we get out of this place, I'm sure Clef will be able to find a way to revive him."

"But he isn't even willing to tell me everything now," said Yoshime as her jaw grew stiff. "I know that there's something that they're not letting me see, but I can't check for myself now, not while we're already busy running. This isn't some kind of normal virus or infection. They would have said something if it was. That much can be fixed without much of a problem, but there must be something bigger if they still can't revive him now."

Iesu simply stared at her for a moment, his once amiable smile fading to a more unpleasant disposition. His movements grew a little more deliberate as he forced his gaze forward, even as the words finally overflowed from his tight lips.

"Why do you worry about him so much?" he asked.

Yoshime blinked in surprise at the question.

"Eh?"

"There's only so much that we can do for him now given our limitations, but even knowing that much you continue to wear yourself out by wishing there was something more that we could do that might be hidden from our eyes," he said, and turned his head towards the young girl. "Why is that?"

Yoshime just laughed softly as she tugged on the strap about her shoulder.

"Maybe it's just because of the way I know him," she said softly. "Edge has always been nice to me, nice to everybody. Nobody ever forced him to be that way, but he has always done it on his own. He's always been a friend, and I just want the best for him just like he's always wanted the same for me."

"Doesn't he scare you sometimes though?" asked the young boy carefully. "I mean, I'm not trying to say that he's an awful person, but he does have a rather frightening side to him every so often. Haven't you ever wondered about what we saw back at Fumiya's old headquarters? Haven't you ever wondered where he got that madness from?"

"That was Yujin's doing," answered Yoshime without letting her gaze waver. "I can’t say I’m not afraid of him when he's like that, but it's no different than from when you or I get angry and loose our temper. Nobody's perfect, and even he has a right to be sad or be upset, just like any of us. It's all just a normal way of releasing all those pent up worries that we bundle up inside ourselves as human beings, and I know that when all of that excess fear and worry blows away, he's still the same person inside who has always been there for us."

But Iesu did not buy into her words quite so easily, his gaze growing dark as he dug his cross into the ground.

"He's just a robot, you know," he said coldly. "Everything we see comes from a single, cold, computer chip that was soldered into his head. His emotions are nothing more than artificial responses designed to show themselves in specific environments. I'm not trying to say this to hurt you, but sometimes I think that you delude yourself into thinking that there's something more in him- in any of these androids- than there really is. They're all great robots, but that's exactly what they are: robots. In the end, we're the only ones here who have carried souls since our birth, and we're the only ones here who can really feel anything. When a robot says or does something, no matter how sincere it may seem, it's only part of its artificial intelligence that is acting in a way deemed appropriate for the situation by its human creator. They can't feel anything at all, Yoshime, and I don't want you to be heartbroken over something that..."

The boy suddenly trailed off as the girl before him slowly came to a halt in her tracks and turned her head back a bit to look at her companion. The blue eyes that he saw then were not quite filled with animosity, but they had certainly lost the friendly invitation that they held so aloft only a minute ago. A confused frown crossed her face ever so softly, and yet its sorrow seemed to be stitched so deeply into her gentle features that one might have thought it to have always been a burden on her shoulders.

"I know he's a robot," said Yoshime levelly. "I never deluded myself of that fact from the day I met him, nor did I for any of the others. But why does that mean that I can't care for him?"

"He's just a machine," said Iesu, suddenly nervous as he felt his face flush red with embarrassment. "He can't feel anymore than a calculator or a gun."

Yoshime closed her eyes and nodded to herself as she turned forward and began to walk onward once more. This time, she did not look back to the boy as she talked.

"Just because a calculator and a gun don't make noises and can't visually show their emotions with a face doesn't mean that they can't live without function," she said plainly. "Maybe they really are just machines. Maybe man really does create them without emotion and without care. But then who is to say that any of us are alive either? Aren't we all just glorified, organic mechanisms of tissue and body fluids, put on this earth for some unknown purpose by a god that may or may not exist? Why can we declare ourselves- the human race- to be such a great thing when it is merely a self-definition? Maybe we've been deluding ourselves of something much greater in the long run. What if our 'god' made us as heartlessly as we did with every corazon chip? But even if he did, we've still somehow managed to create this reason, this 'soul,' that represents ourselves, our penchant for individuality, our very lives, and some of us can live with this in harmony. Regardless of our origin and make, we have birthed meaning and power into ourlives. And maybe that reason is just one facet of this existence that we float about in, for it is something that none of us have ever been able to really and truly, fully illustrate. So who are we to say what is what in this wide universe when we cannot even define ourselves? Who are we to say that a robot can't have a soul?"

...

...

...

Double's audio sensors sharply observed every movement that disturbed the carefully arranged flora around him as he brought up the rear of the party. He had suspected that Yoshiki would try to keep a close track on their group as soon as they had managed to slip out of his sight, but he had never imagined that the gangster would go to the extent of recruiting the assistance of Toy himself. This raised the game another notch in their race for freedom, and the assassin had been completely unprepared for dealing with a crisis on that level when he realized the severity of their situation. Asimov had great knowledge of their opponent's technology and methods, but even the warrior had to admit that they were extremely limited in their ability to counteract any of those advantages. For now, all they could do was continue their flight and hope that they could stay out of vision until they got closer to the border. For now, there was nothing more that they could do. For now...

"Ch," cursed Double beneath his breath as he cast an absent glare out into the dark voids that rested beneath the eves of the restless trees. There were times when his instincts as an assassin continued to kick in even though he had abandoned the profession long ago, and right now he knew that he might actually be able to make it out of the woods with his head if he didn't have the excess luggage that he traveled with. Still, even that selfish thought was beaten down without little resistance as he turned his attention back to the weary group of travelers who continued to persist through the black forests. He had changed quite a bit, hadn't he? For all his big talk, he had become a much different person than he had started out as. He could still remember his defeat at Edge's hands when the boy was barely aware of the cataclysmic power that he held in his hands, and he could still remember how his mighty pride had drawn him into his companion's journey if only to someday regain the chance to clear his own bruised honor once more. Edge had grown so much since then, and there was probably no comparison now as to who was the stronger man, but sometime between now and then Double had ceased to care about that. He had found something else to look forward to, something that freedom from the government's cold grasp had granted to his touch. He didn't even know if there was a word to describe such a feeling, but he was always sure of its existence, and he never doubted what it meant to him even for a second.

The assassin sighed as his eyes swiveled about to the backs of his comrades, and he perked up a little when he noticed that Fumiya had begun to lag behind the others as the mercenary dragged his left foot in an awkward limp across the uneven ground.

"You doing okay?" asked Double as he quickened his pace a little to catch up to the sullen man. "You should have said something if you're injured, it could be serious."

"Don't worry about me," said Fumiya gruffly, barely sparing the time to speak as he continued his rough shuffle forward. "Just leave me alone. I'll hold my own."

Double's face hardened a bit at the brusque response, though he tried his best to hold back a caustic remark in return.

"Hey, we're just trying to look after you," he said. "There's no need to get in my face."

The mercenary stopped suddenly as he rose up to his full height, ignoring whatever pain it was that had caused him to limp so feebly just a minute ago. When he looked back, his cold eyes were already narrow with animal rage, the anger sowed deep within his body refusing to be burnt out by the passage of time alone.

"Maybe you didn't hear me," he snapped. "I said that I can take care of myself. I don't need anybody to babysit me, okay?"

"I didn't say you did," said the assassin coolly, watching the fiery gaze warily. He had thought that some time away from Yoshiki might have taken the ferocity out of the man and brought him back down a little closer to his senses, but he could clearly see now that Fumiya just was as eager as ever to continue the dangerous feud that he had established with his parent. It could be a dangerous situation. For both of them. "I was just concerned about your condition. It doesn't look like you've fully healed from your battle yet."

"And I said that I don't need your help!" said Fumiya angrily, wheeling around to face the assassin face to face as his fists tightened into white knuckles and a faint purple tint began to lick the sleeves of his tattered jacket. "I came with you for my own reasons, and though I may assist you to the best of my abilities, I am not your ally nor do I desire to be! My journey is my own, and it will be treated as such no matter who I travel with. I don't expect you to help me any more than you should expect me to help you, so don't try to be my 'friend.' You wouldn't want to be anyways."

"But it's my business if you lag behind, and that's something that could hurt us all," said Double. "If you want a strictly professional relationship, that's fine. It's your choice. But it's another matter entirely if you're going to be dragging us down with you. Maybe you don't give a damn about the people around you, but you're mistaken if you think that I'm going to idly let your foolishness kill us all."

Fumiya's eye spasmed as a tongue of indigo holocaust leapt forth from his body in a momentary flash of brilliance.

"Are you trying to imply something?" he said in low tones, his pupils growing narrow in acute rage.

"I think that Kouryuu restrains herself with her principles," said the killer plainly. "In my opinion, she's done a lot of stupid things just to preserve the lives of ungrateful people like yourself. While I try to respect that when possible, don't think that I wouldn't slit your throat if you proved yourself to be a liability. I'm not going to do that now though because I want to believe what you said when you helped us escape Yoshiki's mansion. We're in this together whether you like it or not, and we need your cooperation if any of us are going to make it to the border alive."

The mercenary simply snorted in contempt as a wry smile crawled across his face.

"You have no fucking idea..." he said shakily, his voice quivering on the brink of ecstasy. "My quarrel is my business and mine alone. I do not need your help, nor do I want it!"

"Fumiya..." started Double, but the mercenary suddenly closed in on him in rage, his right hand clutching at his heart violently as the air about his body began to burst into flame.

"I am not NORMAL!!!" he seethed, his voice nearly cracking through the delicate peace of the forests around them. "Someone like me should not live in a world like this because the only things that I can do are to kill or be killed. I cannot have peace. I cannot have rest. I cannot even have the luxury of enjoying life the way you do! Every second of my existence tears me up inside because my true face has finally been revealed to me and it is everything that I have always hated! The only thing I have left is to steal away the life of the one who birthed the suffering of my existence, and if I cannot have that, then I have nothing. But you can't understand this, can you? This phenomenon of living an empty life, one that has no meaning no matter how many times you turn the picture around. You still exist in a world where your aspirations can come true, and therefore you ride a different form of logic than my own. I refuse to let you hold me down though, even if you can't understand my pain. I have already been given one chance and I was severely punished for my failure. I will become stronger for the next time, and I will rise above everybody and finally take back the last sliver of my mortality in this spinning illusion of madness. I cannot and will not let you get in the way of my ambition, even if it means tearing your puny little head from your shoulders! I won't let you hold me back. I MUST HAVE THIS DREAM!!!"

The purple flames licked the assassin's crimson hide now, even as the crazed mercenary nearly lifted him off his feet by collaring him at the throat. Yet, the killer's grip remained loose and free, and even though the stare he directed into the mercenary's eyes was not one of mercy, neither was it one meant to inflict harm upon his being.

"I'm not your enemy," said Double calmly as he bore the clouded breath frothing forth from his companion's mouth with a simple dignity. "None of us are, Fumiya. None of us."

Fumiya did not answer at first, the diluted irises of his bloodshot glare never wavering from the calm assassin. However, a human glint of recognition slowly began to return to his eyes, starting out as only a single sparkle in his gaze but slowly consuming his entire being as the quivering in his body changed from rage into fear. Though the grip of his hand on his chest only continued to increase in pressure, the grip of his other slowly let Double down and let him go as the mercenary gently backed away, swaying unsteadily on his own feet. He looked at the assassin for a second, waiting to see if hewould add anything more to his words. But Double only nodded, a movement so slight that he might have only been listening to the wind. And as Fumiya gulped in huge breaths and the purple pyre began to extinguish himself, the pitiless flavor of his eyes returned once more, and he forced himself to shut himself away where no one could touch him once again.

"I know," he said coldly as he turned back to follow the others. "I know..."

...

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...

Kouryuu slowly plodded along as she led the tired party through the black woods, her mapping systems the only solace that kept her on track for the border of Kei-Shu. Every step that she took forward brought the fear that she may be leading them into an unseen trap, but she still continued to force her feet forward without hesitation. Double's discovery of the ghost had set her on the edge, and now she had come to wonder if they had made the right decision with their plan to continue moving south. There wasn't a lot that she could do about it, but it bothered her nonetheless.

"You're too tense," came Asimov's voice suddenly, and the rebel whipped her head around to find the gold plated warrior tracking closely behind. "You'll just waste your energy if you continue moving like that. Just calm down a bit. You won't help anybody by holding that much in reserve."

"Mmm..." hummed Kouryuu in slight amusement as she almost felt heat rise to her face in embarrassment when she checked her operating system. "I think I've been a little high-strung lately," she admitted to herself.

"I think that's an understatement," said Asimov with a slight smile. "You can't keep doing this to yourself. It's not going to help any of us and you know it. You're going to wear yourself out before anything even happens at this rate, and it's not making our trek go any faster by being that uptight."

The rebel scowled stubbornly as she pushed forward, but she still couldn't resist loosening her hold just a bit on her energy tanks now that the issue had been brought to her attention. She held a certain amount of pride in her ability to effectively and efficiently judge a given situation, and it bothered her more than a little when she realized that she had begun to lose that edge under pressure.

"Can you blame me?" she said blandly, direction the inquiry more towards herself rather than her friend. Asimov simply shook his head in response.

"Of course not," he replied. "We're all worried. It's a natural emotion that comes to people in times of trouble and uncertainty. I could no sooner blame you for feeling as such as I could blame the sun for setting in the horizon. The only problem in your situation is that I think you're feeling far more responsibility than you need to be. Even though nobody ever said it, you've always done your best to lead us in the right direction, and I think that that aspect of leadership has come to be a heavy burden on your shoulders. That's not a package that you have to carry alone, Kouryuu. You've got friends here all around you."

Kouryuu simply chuckled at the proposal as she pushed a branch out of her face, continuing to push through the dark maze as though she exactly knew the path towards their salvation.

"I think that I often feel a duty to my companions regardless of the situation," she said simply. "I've learned that things tend to get done faster if someone stands up right away and gives the people a goal to direct their activities towards. I suppose that I just happen to be that person. I'm not trying to be a leader. I don't even care, really. But I also don't want to be the one at fault if someone around me gets hurt on my account."

"Perhaps more often than not you yourself choose to make that your own account," said Asimov wryly, and Kouryuu just snickered.

"If I could have done something to prevent the problem in the first place, then it's my business regardless," she answered, and the warrior nodded his head in recognition.

"I think you're just a workaholic and don't want to admit it," he laughed in low tones. "But really, you don't need to force yourself too hard like this. Maybe you need relieve a little of your stress with a job less tedious."

"And you had something in mind?" said the rebel with a raised eyebrow and a light hint of sarcasm.

"I have been wondering about our current situation ever since we discovered the ghost," said Asimov quickly, his voice lowering a bit as his tone grew serious. "Toy might not be just content with trailing us from the rear, but he might have also moved on ahead to the border to try to cut us off before we can exit the country. If that's the case, then we need to start worrying about walking into snares as well. There's no telling what kind of traps or blockades he might have set up in anticipation for our arrival. I don't think they have a handle on our current position quite yet. We pushed hard off course after we discovered their first tracker and I haven't caught any signs of others just yet. But this might have simply led him to anticipate our moves ahead of time and set his soldiers to the south where we've been headed."

"Do you think we should break west back towards Sen Shu Baan?" asked Kouryuu in low tones. "If he's focusing all his attention on us from the north and south, maybe it would be better to break in a direction that he's not anticipating."

"I would say yes, but there's no way we'd be able to make it over alive," said the warrior grimly. "Many of this nation's cities are close to the border, against both Sen Shu Baan and Arune Trane. This has primarily been a trading nation for centuries as well, and the government has a history for not taking kindly to outsiders unless they're merchants. Running west would also run the risk of clashing with the army, and in our current condition, it's a danger that we can't possibly risk. They guard their perimeter very closely, and I doubt even an inch of that land goes unwatched for more than a second every day. Besides that, this nation was made famous by the guard that holds this territory. Moruki Dana has had plenty of unsettling differences with Arune Trane in the past, and rumor has it that their enemies have never been able to break through the walls protecting this country. Not to say that we couldn't do some serious damage if that was our goal, but not only do we lack the energy to accomplish such a feat, but we're also not exactly at the level of military prowess of Arune's armies as well. We already have one man down, and look how much we've been hindered. I don't want to take a chance on only ten people, especially when three of them may not be able to fight at all."

"Do you have any idea what kind of firepower they have?" asked the rebel hopefully, but Asimov only shook his head.

"MM-6800 artillery cannons," he said. "... government class, among other things. But those cannons alone launch shells that are bigger than we are. I could probably take a hit if I shielded myself with my energy, but it would tear me apart if I thought that my body alone would be able to take the blast. They could have hundreds of these as well. There's no telling exactly how much firepower they're holding under their belt."

"Mmm," said Kouryuu as she tried to stifle a slight moan of despair. "Do we have any other options?"

"Toy isn't going to ship in guns as big as those to the area we're in now," said Asimov. "In the forests, we have the advantage of cover and that makes us harder to keep track of. There's no way he could expect to target us with such a weapon in this much foliage, but the trees thin out considerably to the west, almost completely once you reach the city limits. These woodlands should stretch a little bit into Kei-Shu if I'm correct and he'll have to resort to a micro-managed ground assault if he wants to flesh us out, which is probably the reason why we've ended up encountering the ghosts. As long as we can predict his movement, we can adjust our route to avoid his troops. By keeping a close scout ahead of our path, we could be able to spot his units before we reach them and make the according reactions to avoid conflict altogether. That's not a lot, but it's the best we can do for now."

"And this is just presuming that he'll set up an attack ahead of us," inquired Kouryuu as she tapped her chin in thought. "What if we're wrong? We'll just be wasting our energy if there's nobody out there, and if they finally do catch up on us from the rear, we're not going to have anything left to fight with. Do you really think that this is worth it?"

Asimov didn't even miss a beat as he closed his eyes and breathed in the cold night air with a huff.

"If I were in his position, it's what I would have done," he replied. "Regardless, his tactics leads to one of two advantages depending on what course of action we take. If we chose not to anticipate a frontal assault, then we risk the chance of ambush and Toy gains a preemptive attack. If we do chose to anticipate it, he merely succeeds in wearing down our already limited resources further. Either way, he possesses far more options than we do and we are forced to play within the context of the rules that he creates."

Kouryuu just frowned as she stared at her companion with a furrowed brow.

"So if we're losing out either way, what's the point?" she said.

"Neither method gives us an advantage, but I didn't say that there wasn't an optimal choice to choose from," added the golden warrior. "Right now, conflict is our biggest danger. At our current levels we don't have a very good chance of winning any battle that might come in our direction. Therefore, avoiding that at all costs needs to be our top priority, and we can try to reach that by patrolling ahead even if it does mean gambling our already low energy levels."

Kouryuu sighed as numbers tumbled through her computer, slowly falling into place as she watched the statistics straighten themselves in broad columns. She was hesitant to go with any plan that might jeopardize their dwindling power, but at this point it was useless to believe that they could win a fight in their current condition. If she had thought they could, she would have opted to stay behind and finish the job that they had started in the first place.

"We don't have much of a choice then, do we?" said the rebel as she pushed forward through the dark branches. "Besides, maybe it will make my excessive worrying a little more useful to our evacuation on the whole. I might as well put that energy to good use if it's going to seep through my sensors regardless of what I'm doing."

Her companion simply patted her shoulder with a firm palm and began to break away from their path with a wave of his hand.

"I'll cover the southwestern path and contact you if I find anything," he said with a slight glance over his shoulder. "I've already asked Zero to take over in leading in the others, so you don't need to worry about them." He stopped momentarily as he turned about one last time to face her, and Kouryuu suddenly found herself face to face with the eyes of a soldier. "I still feel unconfident to call myself one of your own at times, seeing as where I've come from and what I've done in the past. Sometimes I'm unsure if you've all fully accepted my offer of alliance in full, and that is something that I can fully understand because I did not expect your apprehensions to simply disappear at a moment's notice. However, I want you to know that you have my word and my trust, and I will not fail you regardless of where we may be. This is not your battle alone, Kouryuu. I'm here to help, we all are."

The rebel simply nodded without hesitation, but the creases of worry were still buried in her features when her head came up again.

"I no longer question your affiliation. You've already proven yourself to us a long time ago. But I'm not sure if you or the others can necessarily help me with what I'm feeling." And she too turned to disappear into the woods, a silent hiss of steel freeing itself from its scabbard ringing through the air as one of her swords flew free into the cold night. "Sometimes, people pile burdens on their own backs. When I became a rebel, I knew that I wanted to fight for [justice], and that is a road without end that I shall follow into the future regardless of the world I live in."

...

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...

The notes ravaged about in a fierce cacophony, wailing up and down again and again as they rose and fell with relentless vigor. And yet, behind the musical chaos the melody continued to softly and steadily continue its stable beat, never missing a step even as the symphony fell apart all around it. And like the constant of time, it refused to stop for anything, no matter how hard the instrumentalists cried their songs of frustration and sorrow.

...

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...

Edge sat huddled over upon himself in the back of the rickety horse-drawn wagon, his body shivering and his teeth chattering as he drew the coarse, woolen blanket closer in about his body. Yet, he knew that the chill of the dry night air outside the canvas roof was not the reason that was causing his fragile frame to shudder. Rather, it was because of the fear that had begun to grip his soul, its merciless grasp growing tighter with every passing second.

Eight hours after the assault of the Knolls, Falcoon pushed the rebels out on the road again under the cover of the starlit sky. The first wave of attacks was a sign that their enemy no longer disregarded the threat that they posed to his standing. If they remained stationary, more would surely follow, and at this rate they would not be able to keep up with the sheer power behind Shin's massive army. For now, they needed to stay on the move to avoid detection, and the wagons had slowly began to make their way towards the southern tip of the empire as they paved a path towards the isolated parts of the dark nation to buy themselves some time. Yet, without a plan, they had nothing, and even Falcoon knew that it would not be long before the scouts closed in on their trail.

Edge held out a shaky hand as scintillating waves of gravitational power sparked between his fingertips. The skill had returned to him on the brink of death, granting him the strength he needed to strike down the black wizards. And yet, it frightened him that this power had festered itself in his body once again with reason beyond his explanation. Why had this remnant of Akuji shown itself once again now? The boy shook his head wearily as he forced the thought from his mind. No, it was not that it had come back. It had come forth to him, from a dream, from a reality that did not exist. The power to kill and destroy had come back to his hands, and that power could only serve the same purpose here...

His hand closed violently as the blue trails winked out with a snap. He couldn't think about this now. He didn't have time to do so. The rebels came closer to liberation with every passing day and he couldn't afford to be hampered by the memories of a drifting illusion that had only brought him sorrow. This was his world, and this was where he belonged! His wife was still waiting for him to rescue her, and his child's revenge lay right before his eyes. He should be thankful that he had been able to escape from the Knolls grasp with the ability that had been granted to him. He should have never questioned the gift that had been bestowed upon his being.

But he could not help but feel frightened, because the feeling of the gravitational field of the world felt like clay in the palm of his hand, the smooth, tender surface just waiting to be molded to his every desire.

He jumped a bit when the leather drape covering the back of the wagon flew open with a gust of cold wind from the outside, and Mikaeru quickly scampered in to escape the icy bite of the moon.

"Are you feeling any better?" she asked as she plopped down beside him, a small leather bag dropping near her feet as she began to rummage through its contents. "You should be sleeping. You only rested for a couple hours after the fight. Those wounds still need to relax if you hope to get better anytime soon."

Edge absently nodded his head as she produced a small loaf of hard bread from the pouch and put it in his hands, the stale food already halfway to his mouth before he even started to speak.

"I'll be fine," he said plainly, barely paying attention to his words as he took a bite of the cold grain. He checked to make sure that his hold on the gravitational spectrum had been completely lost before he allowed himself to relax. He was always afraid of his own power and the effects that it could have on others, but right now he was even more concerned about hiding the ability from the rebels. Who knew how they would react if they learned what he possessed?

"Mmmm..." muttered the windrider in disapproval. "You always say that, but I don't even think that you believe yourself."

He couldn't help but chuckle a bit because he knew it was true. Looking after his own needs had never been a high priority for him no matter where he was. As long as he could fight, he could always push the pain aside...

"I've just been thinking too much," he said between bites. "Falcoon forced everybody to move so quickly, I've been wondering where we would go from here. I asked some of the others, but they just said that we're moving deeper into enemy territory for now. Nobody really seems to have a good idea of what's going on."

Mikaeru fidgeted uncomfortably as she cleared her throat, taking another bread from her sack for herself as she took a quick sip from a leather thermos that hung at her belt.

"We anticipated that Shin might be employing some sort of mystically-based combat, but nothing to the extent that we witnessed the other day. The Knolls could very well be the worst that we may ever have to face, but spell-based warfare has many variations that we aren’t familiar with. If the black wizards are on his side, we will not win without an alternate plan. Any move we make now is very risky simply because of the danger we run of exposing ourselves to the enemy at such a strategic disadvantage, but this journey south actually has an ulterior motive. Scouts have reported back that the wizards appear to house their operations south of the capitol in the town of Sonarant. If we try to approach Shin's stronghold now, we will undoubtedly be thrown back by his combined armies. Therefore we must knock out one of his regiments beforehand if we are to gain any advantage whatsoever. Since his treaty with the wizards still seems to be fragile at best, seeing as how they have continued to isolate their activities outside of his jurisdiction, they are our best- if not our only- target for this case."

Edge's face tightened a bit as he suddenly became far more sensitive to the direction that the wagon was traveling, each creak of the wheels bringing them one step closer to the gates of the black arts.

"That's a little easier said than done, isn't it?" he asked questioningly. "I had a hard enough time fighting less than a dozen of those wizards. Is it really that wise to attack their central base of operations? More Knolls would just tear us to pieces and we can't afford to lose more men than we already have."

"For this job, we might not even have to face those things if we can pull it off right," said Mikaeru. "Remember how I said that black wizards are rumored to not even be human? Some of the reasoning for that has to do with research based on their appearances in this world, primarily with their living habitat. At first glance, there don’t seem to be any apparent differences between us and them other than their powers, but some people have found that the wizards grow increasingly weaker whenever they are outside of their natural environment, and after two full days their bodies begin to deteriorate into frail, emancipated shells of their former selves. This natural environment that I speak of comes in the form of the settlements that they build in isolation, festering, dark cities of raw magical power that have rarely been sighted in the history of this land. Some say that these encampments have become alive from the influence of the mystic arts. Others say that it's merely an aesthetic complement to suit the creatures’ tastes. However, the fact remains that witnesses have been able to account for fully healthy wizards in these settings while they appear to weaken both physically and mentally in other settings, and there must therefore be some aspect of their encampments that is able to sustain the their health outside of whatever hole their buried out from."

"There’s no way we’ll be able to destroy a whole town. We'd have a better chance with the monsters instead," said the young boy as his hopes continued to drop.

"But there's something in the town that's keeping them alive," added the windrider enthusiastically. "Something about the atmosphere of the area must be what sustains their life force, and that's why they are able to remain strong within their encampments while they slowly begin to weaken once they step outside. We don't need to destroy the town itself, just whatever it is that's providing this sustenance. If we can do that, we can force the wizards back in a single blow and move on to the capitol to finish the job."

Edge nodded pensively as he popped the last crumb of the roll into his mouth and chewed absently on its rough surface. Mikaeru's proposition was certainly not a road he would take if he had the chance, but surely she was right in noting that the black wizards were a problem that could not be ignored. Five of them alone had nearly crushed their entire army, and there was no telling how much damage twice their number could administer to their forces. Taking out the empire's legions one at a time certainly seemed to be a good course of action, but could the strength of the wizards be defeated even when separated from Shin's normal brigades?

"It sounds like a good plan, but the fact still remains that they outnumber and overpower us with huge odds on their side," he said hesitantly. "Out of all these people, you and I are the only ones with any special abilities, and two people aren't going to be able to do this job alone."

"Thankfully, we will get an extra advantage when we're fighting within the city," said Mikaru with a hint of confidence in her voice. "We got devastated on the plains before because we were out in the open, but this time we can resort to guerilla tactics now that we have cover to conceal our assault. Previous to assimilation, Sonarant was a fairly dense city, and since our scouts have reported that very little of it has changed in terms of the structures, the wizards will not be able to use their more powerful spells lest they risk damaging their own compounds. We don't need to defeat anybody in particular this time, so even if we can get a couple groups within the city keeping the wizards on their toes while another team searches out and disposes of whatever it is that's keeping them alive, we should be fine. In some respects, we almost have it easier this time around since our squads can keep on the run while doing their job. There's a fairly low chance that anybody will get slaughtered in the manner of the Knoll battles."

"I see," replied Edge. "How many people are we planning to send in there anyways? Do you think we'll have enough?"

"Guerilla warfare is actually something that many people around here excel in due to the lack of any strong organized resistance force until just recently," said the windrider. "Even some of the farmers have become pretty adept at using stick-and-run tactics to keep soldiers away from their crops whenever they pass by the area. It's mostly large scale battle methods that people are unfamiliar with, so we're pretty lucky in this particular mission. If we can play this correctly, we won't even need to risk too many people either. I think we might be able to get by on less than one thousand units split into groups of ten to twenty people apiece. Anything bigger would just be a hinderence, and all they need to do is distract the wizards while we aim for the real prize! We may actually be able to increase the intensity of this diversion as well if we play our cards right. Several of the merchants who have joined our group also happen to be chemists by trade and they've apparently been working with an experimental powder made from earth extracts that can explode upon contact with fire. Used carefully, this might be able to give us the power of siege machines without actually needing the mechanisms in the first place. Placing this at strategic points may further draw attention away from our actions while we search for this 'core,' hopefully this will give us the room we need to finish the job."

The more Edge considered the odds, the more upset he grew at knowing that the only role that the other rebels would play this time around was that of a decoy while he himself headed after the true goal of the mission. The plan that his companion proposed was tactically sound, but he hated the fact that people would need to be sacrificed as bait for the sheer sake of giving the others time. But Mikaeru must have already seen the worry in his eyes, for before he could voice his distress, her hand was already on his shoulder with an tender squeeze.

"I know what you're thinking, but you can't let yourself be concerned about the others this time," she said. "You and I both know that this can work, but we're going to need to make some sacrifices along the way as well. They all know it too, Shizuru, and they have already pledged their lives not to you or me, but to the war and this dream we all hold."

Edge simply sighed and nodded in resignation as he brought his hand up to his face to rub his tired eyes.

"I know," he said in response. "I know it's true, even if I don't like it. There's a lot of things that are true that I don't like, but I guess I just need to learn to deal with them sooner or later."

Mikaeru faintly smiled as she patted him on the back and began to lift herself to her feet to leave.

"I think you just need some rest for now," she said. "It will be half a day before we get close to Sonarant, so I suggest you try to catch up on your sleep after the long battle that you had the other day. You’re going to need it."

"Un," nodded Edge as he watched her turn to go, and began to lie back against the side of the jittering wagon to try to rest his tired body. But seconds before sleep claimed his exhausted shell, a fluttering memory flashed through his mind just as his friend began to step out into the cold night once again. Something wasn't right. His mind was so drained that it begged him to ignore the fleeting image in his head and allow himself to relax, but something inside refused to let him do so. Even as his eyelids flew wide open once again and he turned his head towards the flaps at the entrance just as the windrider began to pass through, he knew that there was something that he had missed even though it floated just before his eyes like some sort of intangible fog that teased him with the existence of the truth.

"Hey, Mikaeru?"

The woman questioningly looked over her shoulder at the young boy's voice, wondering what his inquiry might be.

"What is it?"

Edge hesitated as he wet his lips, almost looking past his friend as the flash of light flittered about the void, blinding him in the tunnel of darkness whenever the passing flare met his pupils.

"Didn't... you find yesterday strange?" he asked hesitantly.

Mikaeru simply cocked her head in confusion.

"In what way?"

And then he knew, and the same fear that had gripped him earlier took hold of his heart once again.

"That power I used, not the spirit power that I used to fight Shin's officer, but the one I used yesterday against the wizards," he said, his words growing faster as the apprehension began to drip through the cracks. "Didn't you wonder what it was? Didn't you ever question why I was suddenly blessed with this ability that allowed me to slaughter our foe despite the fact that I was about to die? Nobody's said anything to me about it since the battle. Not you, not the others, not even Falcoon. Aren't you even going to question where it came from? Why I have it? Doesn't it worry you at all to know that I can control the gravitational spectrum with my bare hands?"

He almost tried to catch himself as the words slipped from his mouth, for he knew that there was no possible way that this world could understand the technological complications of the ability that he had just described. But Mikaeru only chuckled, giggling at him as if he were a child who didn't know any better.

"Shizuru, you've ALWAYS had that power!" she answered as easily as if she were to state that the sky was blue.

Edge's heart simply froze, suspended in time as he watched his comrade laugh free into the breeze.

"What?"

"Really, I think you're just playing with me now," she added, turning back towards the wagon entrance with a grin still hanging on her face. "The cryptic style really doesn't suit you, country bumpkin! Just get some sleep and wear your stress away. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

However, the young boy couldn't move even after the windrider had stepped off the moving cart, her jogging footsteps growing fainter in the distance as she ran off to her own sleeping quarters. Edge's hands shook once more as he stared at his fingertips through a haze that turned the world into a blur. He felt like his head would split open as the sounds of his heartbeat throttled in and out of his temples without mercy, and he pressed his palms to the sides of his head in a desperate act to try to push out the white noise. This world was not supposed to be the life that he left behind. Why did everybody accept this power of death that he controlled with such ease? Why did nobody question him after he tore the bodies of his enemies into a million pieces with a single thought?

Why couldn't he accept that?

Why did he feel so afraid...?

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I want to be accepted.

I want to be loved...

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The sky grew dark as black and pointed spires began to rise in the distance, jutting out from the once flourishing city of Sonarant. The terrain had changed drastically over the past couple hours as the rebels made their slow advance on the black wizard's colony. Much of the land in the empire had already been cultivated into dust from forced overuse and pollution to fuel the creation of Shin's war machines, but the taint that stained the earth here was far more severe than any touch that man might have granted it. The plains might have simply been sifting fields of dirt before, but now the upper crust of the earth's flesh seemed to peel away like black ashes from a freshly burnt piece of wood. Sparse weeds and brambles dared not populate the corrupted land, for no life could be seen for miles around as a putrid gas filled the air with a thick and acrid odor that forced the weaker of stomach to their knees with the sheer intensity of the stench. Fat bolts of lightning rained down from the heavens and lit up the tops of the far away city before their eyes, and even though the fireworks were indeed a marvelous spectacle to behold from afar, one could only wonder in fear as to what kind of creature inhabited this place that had become one with the shadows, for it seemed that even the planet itself rejected the existence of this unholy municipality and its inhabitants.

Edge had climbed up to the top of his wagon after he woke from his slumber, watching as an enormous bolt of azure energy streaked down from the sky and crashed into one of the town's many towers. The black steeple did not burst into flames upon contact though, but instead seemed to light up with the raw electricity that had made contact with it. The darkness quickly moved to hide the scintillation as quickly as it appeared, but it was still a fascinating sight to behold, dozens of similar cases happening with each passing second.

Why did Mikaeru accept his new power so easily? Edge mulled over the inquiry as he sat and buried his chin into his forearms in frustration. He hadn't even had that power in this world until just yesterday, and already she seemed willing to accept it as an inherent property of his being. She wasn't the only one either, for once he began to question others as to the nature of his mysterious abilities, they simply looked at him as if he were trying to tell them a joke, replying only that it was a gift that he had always employed throughout the war. Nobody had thought the recent battle to have been strange in the least. Nobody questioned the force that he had exerted so naturally, even though last evening had surely been the first time he had ever employed it on these lands. Why? What was going on around here?

His eyes watched as the dark towers rose in the distance, and slowly he realized that the train of wagons was finally coming to a halt. They were still a couple miles out from the city, but to go any closer with so many people would simply create an unnecessary slaughter. From here on, the assault teams would split off into separate groups and storm the gates in their own carts, dropping off just at the entrance to the city and splitting up to create chaos while he himself sought out the source of the wizard's life force. Falcoon had even accounted for his gravitational control in planning to break through their enemy's defenses, and holding back the enemy spells with his own power would play a vital part in allowing them to move on. It seemed like they had a chance, he should have been grateful for the strength that had unexpectedly returned to his hands. Instead, he could only fear what such a thing meant, and his entire body trembled with uneasiness as Sonarant loomed closer in the distance.

"This is not me," muttered the young boy beneath his breath, even as a small, stray bolt of electricity played along his body towards the earth below, prompted by the fierce electrical storms swirling overhead. "This person... is not me."

He wasn't supposed to have this power in this world. He wasn't supposed to be the mechanical device that fled the government's grasps to try to forge his own life outside of their control. He was supposed to be a human being named Shizuru with a wife named Yu-Lan and a poor, deceased son named Sanjuroh. He was supposed to live a happy, normal life and do all the strange and wonderful things that human beings did to themselves and to one another. He was supposed to have dreamt a horrible nightmare in which he did not understand the workings of the real world, in which people were driven to hate and kill without reason for their horrible actions, in which he himself had no place for his dream could only remain that- a dream- in a world where hope did not exist...

He was supposed to have everything here. He was supposed to be free.

And yet, when the strength that he needed to reclaim his happiness came to his hands, why did he tremble so? Why did he fear that it would break him apart?

He shook his head as he felt the wagon slowly roll to a halt beneath his bottom, forcefully pushing the troublesome thoughts out of his mind. He shouldn't need to worry about those things now. This was his world, his place, and what he needed to focus on was winning this war so that he could save his beautiful wife and move on into the future. His power would help him achieve that, and all that he needed to do was move forward and embrace the breath of victory so that he could live his life of happiness.

Everything else was just the past, and he needed to move on if he ever wanted to pick up the pieces of his life again.

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I'm going to overflow

I can't hold it in anymore.

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...

The wind rushed in Edge's face as he rushed towards the gates of Sonarant on horseback, and he gripped the reins as tight as he could half out of anticipation of the upcoming battle and half out of anxiety of having to ride on top the animal itself. It was not that he didn't like horses, but it was still a very foreign concept that easily made him nervous. Standing several feet away from one of the creatures was enough to rattle his nerves. To ride on one's back speeding over the ground like a rocket nearly froze him in fear, but he was too focused on the assault now to back down. Nearly a thousand other men raced on behind him in horse-drawn carts as they followed his fleeting figure into the city to destroy the dark wizards, and every one of them depended on him to get them through. Mikaeru was among them as well, fighting by his side just like she always had. They were all there together as they strove forward towards a single, burning goal, and he would be damned if he failed their hopes and dreams. Those aspirations were his own now. The war would be ended one way or another, and he had already decided that he would be there to celebrate the rebels’ victory in the end.

The hard clay beneath their feet was so black with corruption that it barely chipped away beneath the heavy beats of the horse's hooves as they drove forward towards the town. Even as they approached, Edge felt his heartbeat quicken as several enormous figures began to emerge from the front entrance and spread themselves along the perimeter of the city's twisted walls. Their hideous heads rising up in the air to glare at their foes, a low rumble escaped the Knoll's mouths as they began to trudge towards the approaching warriors, and even beneath the wild movements of the beast beneath him Edge could already feel the earth quake in fear as the behemoths began to summon forth the cursed flora that was molded by the fires of hell.

"Not this time," muttered the young boy to himself as he slowly released the flailing reins and spread his hands out on either side. The air began to crackle with energy as the atmosphere contorted about his body, and slowly he could feel the world bending to his will as he grasped the gravitational spectrum firmly and tightly. This time, he was fully rested and completely prepared for the battle that lay before him. The energy molded itself easily in his hands, and he knew instantly what he needed to do. The Knolls would be a brutal force if they were able to sink themselves into the midst of their attack force, but their immense strength was also limited by their range. The iron thorns that they were able to summon forth from the cold earth could prove to be a deadly power if they got too close, but Edge had no intention of allowing them to even accomplish that much.

Seconds ticked by as he rode to the front of the charging brigade and watched as the lumbering beasts strode towards them without fear as the city doors closed at their gnarled backs. Bristling bushes of barbed wire broke through the crust of the earth as their snakelike tendrils began to crawl forth from the corrupted soil that bred them, but Edge simply ignored their paths, watching the eyes of his enemies as the energy continued to crackle about his body. He counted eight of the creatures as he drew closer, and carefully began to twist the atmosphere around him to his liking. Today, the power did not drain him as it had before. Rather, embracing it within his burning figure now only fueled his vitality further, and even as the Knolls readied their cursed gardens to defend against their attackers, the young boy felt confident as he drew aim and released his blows without regret.

The air split apart with a loud pop as the heads of all eight Knolls suddenly burst open without warning, the gravitational pressures about their craniums increasing at such an intense rate that their skulls split open instantaneously. Several continued to aimlessly mull about on their knuckles as showers of blood and broken flesh splattered into the stained soil, but slowly the last of the life fled from their bodies and their massive forms toppled to the ground, one by one falling before the mysterious power of the rebel before them. The cracked earth grew crimson with the life blood of the fallen beasts, littered with broken organs that had been ruptured apart by the force of the impact. Without their masters to obey, the iron vines grew limp and motionless, encased forever as statues in memory of their ruler's last command. And as the rebel forces leapt forward with zeal at seeing the monsters so easily overthrown, even these sculptures began to dissolve into dust, no longer able to survive within the sterilely corrupt lairs of the black wizards.

The front gates of Sonarant towered over fifty feet into the air and were fortified with layers of solid steel, but it only took a small push within the molecules of their hinges for them to shake loose to the ground with a groan of defeat. The rumble that emerged from the crashing doors seemed to shake the entire city as the young boy watched the rebels raise a cheer for victory, and the world seemed to grow hazy as Edge hunched down over his ride and urged his already speeding mount faster through the break in his enemy's defense. As soon as he entered the town, he was immediately swallowed by shadows as the towering buildings rose up above him and blocked his view of the dark sky above. The wild cries of his fellow soldiers echoed from the tops of the mythical, gothic structures that majestically rose high above his head as he continued pushing as hard as he could for the center of the citadel. He could hear a few scattered explosions resound in his ears now, the earthen extracts that the alchemists had provided their teams with earlier shaking the ground with their mighty force. However, the ebony mist only seemed to thicken as he pushed on, and slowly Edge began to notice just how thick the haze had become as he finally began to slow down his tired mount.

"I can't hear them anymore," he muttered aloud to himself as his horse slowed to a steady trot. The once enthusiastic voices of his comrades had completely faded into the distance, replaced only by the mysterious silence that permeated the thickening fog. It was not as if they had been silenced by means of force, but rather that their cries of enthusiasm had been obscured by an unseen filter that had cut him off from the outside world. Edge whirled about in his seat as he tried to find a familiar face, but there was no one there no matter which direction his eyes sought out. No rebels. No Mikaeru. Nobody.

A few beads of sweat graced his brow as he became aware of how dense the intoxicating mist of the town had become. The dark substance curled around the spires of majestic, gothic clock towers and pillars, hugging the massive stone monuments as their liquid-like substance flowed between the intricate ridges and carvings. Every building seemed to tower high above his head and block out the sky with their outstretched limbs, and yet precise shadows never seemed to hit the cobbled street beneath his feet. Instead, the ground grew black with darkness beneath the eves of the mighty statues, and the air itself seemed to grow thick with grief as the young boy hesitantly took it into his lungs.

His horse abruptly lurched forward with a loud shriek, and Edge felt the animal careen forth as its front legs suddenly lost all support. Quickly freeing himself from the saddle, he flipped backwards and planted his hands on the creature's rear end as he cleanly cleared the animal's flailing hind legs with a backflip to the street. Even before he had a chance to raise his eyes from the dismount, a sickening crunching sound filled with the air with smashed muscle and bone tissue as his ride's body was suddenly torn apart, and when he looked up once again, he was shocked to find his once able mount skewered on the ends of several iron spikes that jutted up from the ground. It was not the device itself that surprised him in particular. The thing that truly stunned him was the way in which his horse's corpse had been twisted with so much torque that its body had literally been twisted in half, the ends of its front and back torso still curved from the immense force that had cleaved it in two as its bodily fluids spilled into the ground and seeped between the cobblestones to nourish the cursed earth below.

Edge instinctively recoiled back at the sight as he leapt up from his landing spot and forced himself to stay calm as his heartbeat thundered in his ears. The wizards must be watching his every move, but he still hadn't seen a trace of their existence in this supposed colony of theirs. He was going to have to watch his steps unless he wanted to end up like his horse, but how was he going to combat an enemy that he couldn't see? If his opponent could watch and strike at him from beyond this mist, how would he know where to aim for himself?

He shook his head and quickly began moving away from the gruesome scene before him, following a wide road that continued in the direction that he was heading in before. Though he continued to keep his eyes sharp as he watched closely for anything that could prove to be a danger to himself, he couldn't help but gape in awe at the magnificent structures that lined the streets so ordinarily. Curving Victorian architecture lined the roofs and windows of every house while towering columns of marble guarded the front of mansions and stores alike. He passed by a grand statue of an ivory oval supported by elevated spirals twisting in upon one another again and again and craned his neck back just to take in the entire spectacle. If nothing else, the town of Sonarant was surely a thing of beauty to behold, and he could not help but wonder how the city must have looked at its peak beneath the warmth of the living sun high above.

Movement suddenly caught in the corner of his eye and Edge swiveled about in response with the threads of gravity close at hand. It seemed to have come from the sky, but when the young boy looked for himself, the only thing that hung in the open air was a massive clock tower that arched high above the already overwhelming buildings that lined the roads, its spiked corners reaching even higher into the cold black heavens as the gigantic minute hand slowly turned about the face. The edifice must have been at least a half a mile away, and Edge simply rubbed his neck in disdain as he pushed down the rigid tension that welled up in his breast. He was letting his problems get to him, and being excessively cautious was only going to get him hurt unless he relaxed a little bit. Letting imaginary shadows attack him from behind was nothing compared to the enemy that lie ahead. He needed to focus on finding the wizard's source of power and destroying it as soon as possible, whether or not he had lost himself in this maze of darkness. The rebels were depending on him. Yu-Lan was depending on him.

Edge turned to go once more, but just as he turned his head back towards the misty road, the same faint movement flashed across his peripheral vision, and this time he was sure that it was not simply his own apprehension playing tricks on his mind. His feet kicked up dirt on the paved road as his entire body swirled about and the air crackled with electricity. Again, only the clock tower seemed to peek up over the regal rooftops, but this time the young boy did not let his gaze waver as his eyes narrowed, his pupils focusing hard on the face of the massive timepiece as they sought out an answer to the vexation that continued to relentlessly hound his every move. Nearly a minute passed as he glared at the clock hands tick across the clean circular face, and he began to wonder if he was simply going crazy when he saw nothing out of the ordinary. However, the same exact movement passed in front of his eyes once again, and he finally understood why he had found no such stalker when he had turned back before.

As if waking from a deep sleep, the top of the tower suddenly bobbed back and forth ever so slightly in the heavy, black air, and though it should not have been possible, two massive, globular eyeballs emerged from between the cracks of stone on either side of the clean, white front of the clock, flaky chunks of brittle gravel raining down from the open wounds in the building's side. Enormous pupils rolled inside the massive spheres, and just as abruptly as it had come to life, the behemoth's gaze bore into Edge's own eyes as if the thing immediately realized the small human's presence upon the town's soil.

The young boy flinched as he felt the earth shift beneath his feet, and as he watched on, the clock tower reared back and below with anger as its circular face stretched vertically into the sky and shook with fury. Almost as if called forth from their slumber, the rest of the town began to gently stir from its rest as loud moans filled the air with horrible cries. A five-story mansion on the side of the street stretched its pillars as the rigid stone bent outwards with a loud crack, and several grotesque eyeballs pushed their way through the once pristine side of the house. The front door, a massive double gate of furnished oak, splintered and cracked as a huge gash the size of the entire width of the house emerged upon the first floor, and the once flawless front of the buiding split open in a gapping mouth filled with row upon row of teeth as large as a man's torso. All around him the town came to life as giant, pulsating organs and puss filled blisters of dark slime grew forth from the once quiet neighborhood. And as Edge watched on in horror, the monsters that had come up from the bowels of hell to consume him began to rise up higher and higher into the freezing atmosphere, converging on the single prey that had emerged within their midst down below.

Edge's body rebelled fiercely as it stood its ground and rattled uncontrollably, his eyes helplessly turning towards a thumping heart that had spurted forth from a church entrance on his right as the four chambered device pumped acidic blood into the air. Small drops of the corrosive substance fell near his feet and the acrid scent of burning rock wafted up towards his nostrils as sweat poured down his brow. This place was dangerous. He knew it in his mind, but terror had gripped his bodily functions so tightly that it would not listen to his commands. He swallowed hard and bit his tongue as his hands shook uncontrollably, barely aware of the power he possessed any longer. A thin trickle of blood ran out from the corner of his mouth as he clenched his fists tightly and closed his eyes to block out the world. He had to run. He had to get out of there. Because if he didn't, then he would surely perish.

Turning a clean one hundred and eighty degrees, he ignored the living city and ran as hard as he could into the misty haze that covered the streets. A loud crash resounded behind him and when he looked back to find out what it was, he found that an enormous ribbed tentacle that easily topped the highest buildings had smashed into the place where he had been standing only seconds before, the street torn up from the sheer impact of the blow. High above, the root of the monstrous thing was already rearing back again as the blind deformity wound through the cobbled streets. All around him, the living city howled and slashed out at him with their twisted limbs and curved jaws, and though Edge ran until he thought his chest would explode from the pressure welling up within, there seemed to be no end to the rows of creatures that lined the streets.

"This can't be real," huffed Edge to himself as he dashed into a large circular area where several other streets met, the inns and showrooms shrieking at him as they gnashed their maws and scratched impatiently at the ground with lengthy claws that grew forth from all over their bodies. "This has to be some kind of illusion. It's just another trick of the wizards to intimidate me..." But no matter how many times he said it, the illusion would not fade away. Instead, the screaming only grew louder and louder until the noise became unbearable and Edge dropped to his knees with his hands clamped over his ears in defeat. Yet, even then, he could not block out the madness that surrounded him, and slowly he too became drawn in by the monster's satanic chants as their jumbled words suddenly made sense to his ears.

"You are lost, are you not?"

Edge perked up at the unexpected question, and raised his head towards a pulsating brothel in front of him that had come to resemble the intestinal tract of some foreign creature upon its transformation.

"You're talking to me?" he asked aloud, amazed that the seemingly random screams now lined up into a language that he could comprehend. "Why can I understand you?"

"You must have been mislead somewhere along the way, for you cannot even recognize your own true face anymore."

"What are you trying to say?" demanded Edge as he pushed himself to his feet on shaky knees. "You're the one that's supposed to be an illusion. None of this is real and I'm probably just shouting to myself in the streets!"

"No, young one. You are mistaken. You have simply pulled the cover over your own eyes in your efforts to find out what reality is for yourself."

Edge clenched his jaw shut as he heard his teeth clatter against one another. Looking around, the circle seemed to be growing smaller as new growths emerged from the fronts of the buildings, bulbous tumors and limbs birthing themselves from the sockets of stone and flesh that were already embedded within the structures' sides.

"This is just the dark wizards' illusion," he said firmly, keeping the brothel in his sight as he shook his head to reassure himself. "This is just another attempt to stop us from winning the war, but I'm not going to let you fool me."

"You cannot see yourself for what you really are..."

For some reason, Edge could feel what they would say next. He knew where their words were leading, and he covered his ears in vain once again to try and block out the voices from his mind.

"This is nothing... you are all nothing..."

"... for perhaps you simply deny our existence..."

He no longer paid heed to the creatures as they slowly oozed towards him along the pebbled ground, even as their eagerly snatching limbs began to close in upon their game. These monsters had to be artificial constructs of his enemy, things molded and sent out against him to play with him before they tried to take his life away. There was no reason why he should be able to decipher any sort of meanings from their howlings, for they were just nightmares spawned to kill and destroy...

"...only because you know that you are just like us..."

... to kill and destroy...

Edge clamped his hands even tighter over his ears, but the howls still echoed throughout his head, driving him over the brink of insanity.

"... only sadder."

"SHUT UP!!!" roared Edge as he bolted to his feet, the air shimmering all about him as the atmosphere suddenly lost its stability. He spun on heel and lashed out wildly with an open hand as an invisible force slammed into the deformed growths that reached out for his flesh, the sound of broken bone and shredding tissue filling the air along with a mighty crash as a huge mass of the writhing creatures was thrown back into one of their own brethren. A psychotic bellow exploded from the young boy's mouth as he turned back to the brothel and slashed down with both arms, increasing the gravitational pull beneath the structure so much that it's living body literally collapsed on itself with a groan of defeat, blood and puss spilling everywhere as skin and membranes tore open, helpless to stop the life flowing from its body. He grew lost in rage as he danced upon the world's field and tore apart countless numbers of behemoths, despite the fact that the festering piles of flesh left behind seemed to rise up into mockeries of their former structures after their downfall, if only weakly. By the time he grew tired enough to find himself once again in the middle of the massacre, he could only gulp in air wordlessly as he watched the once swelling town circle shed back in fear of the power that he held in the palm of his hand. Soft moans of pain still wafted through the air, but they were weak in voice now and their utterances did not form the pungent words of intelligence that had so fiercely buried beneath his skin before.

"I'm... I'm not like you," he panted as his hands shook uncontrollably, his fingers gently clenching into white fists as he tried to calm himself down. "I'm not like that. I'm not that kind of person."

A memory suddenly flashed across his mind, a memory of Akuji, of the world that he wanted to forget. There, he had been an android, an artificial construct of human beings built to do their bidding. Before he had gained his freedom, he had been granted the power to twist gravitational forces to his own will. He had been granted a power to fight his master's enemies. He had been created for the sheer purpose of destroying lives.

But Edge shook his head as he continued to stare down the monstrous buildings, their once ferocious stare now shedding away in panic and respect from this being before them who had slaughtered their kin with just a wave of his hand.

"No," said Edge, finally clenching his hands as he took in a deep breath and stood up tall. "I'm not like that. I was never like that."

"This one speaks so sure of himself, and yet he continues to question whether or not the reality that meets his eyes is real or but a trick of smoke and mirrors."

Edge quickly turned around to find several floating shapes emerging from each street to which the circle connected. Each one wore a dark hood hiding their gaunt face as well as purple and red robes that covered their skinny bodies. They all levitated in midair as they moved in his direction, sitting cross-legged with their crossed hands resting in their laps, and each one seemed to radiate with darkness as their shimmering numbers emerged from the black mist without end.

"You and your kind were foolish to follow us here," whispered their voices in raspy breaths. "Humans never did have a very strong sense of judgment when it came to realizing when they're outmatched. But you are somewhat different from the others, aren't you? You possess a power beyond their understanding and, to a certain extent, beyond our own."

"That doesn't matter," replied Edge, his eyes circling the area warily as he watched his foe steadily increase in number. "You should be more concerned with your own welfare considering the situation."

"We beg to differ," came the voices, and though the young boy listened closely, he could not tell which of the mysterious figures was the one who spoke to him. "We have not seen an anomaly such as yourself for thousands of years. The things that you can do and the things that you know possess value beyond even your own imagination. Indeed, your existence is a threat to our kind, but we have ways of getting what we want, even from the dead."

"You don't know anything about me," laughed the young boy as his body sparkled with electricity, his hands growing bright blue as he anticipated an assault soon to come.

But the air only filled with a silent laughter as the wizards suddenly stopped their advance, and one directly before Edge lifting a bony finger and pointed it towards the single warrior within their midst.

"Your world has already become ours, my poor deluded friend. And soon, the memory of Akuji will join our scriptures when you disclose to us the secrets within your troubled mind."

"What...?"

However, that was all Edge was able to get out before he felt the air shift behind him in a cataclysmic mixture of brimstone and fire. Several searing balls of flame hurtled themselves at his back as the black wizards began their assault, but they collided harmlessly with a shimmering blue shield of energy that the young boy had erected at the last minute. Why did the wizards even know the name Akuji? That was supposed to be a simple label that existed within a dream only he had visualized, there was no reason why anybody else should even conceive the place that he had seen in his nightmares. And yet, these men certainly did know the appellation that marked the world that he himself sought to escape, and he was at a loss of knowing anything about them in return. How far did their knowledge extend regarding the wasteland planet and its inhabitants? How far could they actually see into his mind?

"No, you're all lying!!!" shouted Edge as a thick bolt of azure lightning erupted from his hands and cooked several of his enemies to a crisp as the pungent stench of burning flesh filled the air. "You don't know anything about me, just as I know nothing about you!"

"And yet you continue to so eagerly deny our accusations as if you have something to hide. No, my friend, you are indeed an aberration of this environment, more so than we ourselves are to the human race. Even now, we see how your being does not fully contort itself to the makings of our world, how it continues to rebel under the influence of another. Is this because you do not belong here? That you are a foreign entity who has come seeking sanction?"

"You know nothing!" said the young boy in fury as he leapt within into the crowds of his enemy, brandishing thin blades of gravitational force that tore his floating opponents in half before they even had a chance to realize his presence. "I fight you now to find peace, not only for these rebels, but also for myself. I fight for my life and my happiness. I belong here as much as any of you do, and I will destroy you all to protect that no matter what the cost!"

"Those words come so easily from your mouth," laughed the voices into the empty air, and the ground suddenly cracked open like a gigantic maw as a teeth-rimmed mouth split the cobbled circle in two. Four thin legs reached up and braced themselves on the sides of the slippery opening as a yellow, oblong creature the size of a car suddenly emerged from the hole, skittering about on its four stilt-like legs as its rotund body bristled with newfound energy. Several vertical black stripes decorated its back with an almost hypnotic pattern, and though the summoned monster's threat did not seem readily apparent at first, Edge found himself shaking more than a little when two enormous orifices opened at what appeared to be its front, each one filled with jagged molars that were surely used for the grinding of its prey's meat.

"You seem so sure of your goals in this place, but what will happen if you cannot attain those goals? You will have nowhere left to run then."

The bulbous creature charged Edge with amazing speed, and he leapt to the side just in time to avoid being devoured by the gnashing jaws as they drove themselves into the ground. His energy blade tore into the fleshy side of the monster as he swung past the thing in a flurry, but the skin tissue already seemed to be weaving itself back together even as its innards spilled out to the ground in a smoldering heap of steaming guts. The monster bellowed in rage as it quickly spun about on its thin appendages and charged towards its quarry once again. This time, he didn't bother trying to hold back as he swung low and chopped off its slender legs, sending the creature toppling to the ground as it rolled to a rough stop on the cobblestones. When he looked back, new members already appeared to be sprouting from the bloody stubs that he just rendered apart seconds ago. However, the monster never got a chance to get up again as a shimmering gravitational field suddenly enclosed it in a crackling blue ball of energy, and as the spherical walls quickly closed in on the monster's exterior, a pinpoint force focused in the center of the deadly globe ate away at the beast from within, a hideous scream piercing the air as monster and field alike quickly shrunk to the size of a baseball, the gravitational residue of Edge's power still surrounding the young boy as his closed fist concentrated on his opponent's demise.

"What are you talking about?" said Edge as he wiped his cheek with his thumb. "Whoever said I was running in the first place?"

Beneath the shadowy hood, the silhouettes only smiled.

"Don't you remember? You came here of your own volition, it would make little sense for us to have brought you here by force considering your obvious discontent with our objectives. No, you sought something that you could not find in your own world when you came to this place, and you ran to this city to escape the troubles that you faced in your former life."

Something in Edge snapped loose as he suddenly felt detached from the world around him. Clef had told him that this was just a program, an illusion that was playing tricks on his mind. He himself thought that perhaps this was his real world, his real destiny, and that the images of Akuji were only a dream. Either way, why had he come to this place of war? Of hope? He had simply fallen out of Yoshiki's mansion and into the bed of his own dwelling where his wife was cooking contently in their kitchen and their child was playing out his fantasies outside in the field. It was this image that he sought, was it not? It was this kind of experience of being human that would finally fulfill his heart's desires and satiate the loneliness that festered within his body. But was that truly the reason why he had left it all behind? Was he only just running away...?

"I ran from nothing!" said Edge as he swung his hand outwards, the small globe that held his crushed victim shooting out into the crowd of wizards and releasing the condensed force in a mighty explosion of blue light that shook the town circle like a toy. "There was never anything to run from in the first place because this has been my home all along. This is my world, and I have already achieved the greatest happiness that any human being can accomplish on this earth. All I am doing now is fighting to protect it."

His hand shot out towards another group of mages and a blue lightning bolt streaked across the square and instantly turned their crippled bodies to ash in seconds. Broken corpses laid strewn about the plaza now as he turned to the last dozen of the floating sorcerers, their bodies scintillating with deep red light as forbidden chants filled the air. Yet, despite their decreased numbers, their presence was still strong before Edge's lone figure, and their voices continued to tower higher and higher into the sky as they continued to pound him with their accusations.

"You still dream of a place that you're convinced is nothing more than an fallacy, and despite the denials that spill forth from your own mouth, you cannot rid yourself of the desire to see it again. You are not only unsure of your position in this world, but also of your position in life itself and where you stand upon the great branches that support us- the budding leaves. The question you should really be asking yourself now is are you really as happy as you imagined yourself to be?"

The final words almost seemed to implode upon themselves as Edge crashed into their midst, grabbing one of the wizards by the skull and driving his head into the pavement. The others quickly took the opportunity to fan out about the circle, but a sudden wave of the boy's hand rendered two more of the mages dead as he drew their buoyant forms to him with a quick burst of his ability and smashed their bodies to the ground with a reverse roundhouse kick.

"I've already told you that this is where I belong," he hissed as he prepared himself to take on the last of his foes, a blue aura erupting around his body as he focused all of his energy for the next attack.

"What happens when you realize that this place will not bring you what you seek?" came the voices as crimson bolts of light whipped out from the wizard's hands and smashed the road to pieces, just barely missing Edge as he flung himself out of harm's way just in time. "What happens when we slit Yu-Lan's throat and leave you with nothing left to fight for? Will you flee back to Akuji? Or will you simply realize that your trivial fairy tale dreams cannot be fulfilled within the bounds of your existence?"

"Yu-Lan---" stuttered Edge, rage building in his chest as his body suddenly picked up speed, slamming into three more wizards as he hurtled his armored shell across the plaza at dizzying speeds and tore their bodies in half with a frenzied swipe of his hand. "What did you do to her?!"

Two more of the dark mages met their end as their shifting bodies entered a gravitational particle field, the molecules of their gaunt skeletons torn apart instantaneously upon impact. Yet, the remaining sorcerers only seemed to grow brighter, their bodies filling the empty square with a dark light that seemed to bathe the ground in despair.

"Don't you see? You have no possible way to win over us. We can pick away at the pieces of your life like carrion until there is nothing left but the bones. Once we have ridden you of your precious aspirations by deriving you of all hope to achieve them, what left do you have? What more is there to fight for? How is this place any different from the vision of your past? The answer is simply that it carries no such distinction. You will have nothing left but to run again, if you truly wish to risk another lamentable crash down to reality. In other words, we hold the very meaning of your existence in the palm of our hand, my dear friend. You are helpless to stop your inevitable plunge into the sadness that is [life]."

"Stop it! STOP IT!!!" screamed Edge, and the entire circle quaked with rage as massive shockwaves throbbed out from his torso, his body twisting backwards and letting go of all the restrictions that he had held on to for so long. Conflicting forces crashed against one another in booming succession as carefully chiseled stone from the streets and the hideous rotting flesh of the houses alike blew apart in midair within the heart of the gravitational storm. Stray bolts of electricity tore massive wakes through the once smoothed pebbles that paved the roads and debris flew in every direction as everything exploded outwards all at once from the young boy's howling form. When the tempest finally died down, Edge could barely stand as exhaustion locked itself about his limbs and dragged him to his knees. He gulped in huge breaths of air, looking at the chaotic destruction that his outburst had caused. Most of the nearby buildings had been completely demolished to either piles of rubble or shimmering puddles of putrid organic muck. All around him, the streets had been pounded with invisible force to the extent that they looked as though they had been pressed nearly three feet deeper into the hard crust of the earth. The ground beneath his own body had been flattened into a small crater that spread out approximately ten feet in diameter, and the young boy was finally beginning to feel fatigue from the overuse of his power as the energy residue trailed off the ends of his heavy arms. Yet, despite the mighty display of ruin that he had wrought upon the cursed town, a single wizard continued to stand in the middle of the rising smoke of destruction, abandoning his floating posture as his legs wobbled on the crooked soil and slowly waddled towards his single enemy through the devastated land.

"Do you really want to know why we know so much about your past, my friend?" cackled the final enemy as the cacophony of voices suddenly merged into one, a single piercing thunder that shook the ground with its presence. Though Edge had plowed through his foe's cohorts until only this single opponent was left, he felt completely dominated by the staggering man even as he himself unconsciously stepped backwards to await his adversary's next move. "Do you really want to know the truth?"

The red-slashed cloth suddenly bulged on all sides as the once emancipated figure swelled like a balloon, its body mass growing out of proportion as the feeble robe tore away to reveal a bulbous chunk of flesh that seemed to be feeding upon itself. Yet, even as the figure stretched up nearly seven feet high, the malleable tissues finally began to settle in upon themselves in a humanoid form, though nothing like the semblance of a human that the mage had once been. Instead, the epidermis had grown dark and purple as though the skin itself had grown old and rotten from years of negligence. Each part of the thing's body now resembled an oblong piece of polished material, much like the sections of a wooden puppet, and each seemed to be connected by small joints that rattled as the digit-less, round feet of the thing clattered upon the ground. The body itself resembled a massive, muscular man who might have challenged the size and physical intimidation of Yujin himself, but it was also heavily deformed in that the upper torso was so bloated and large in comparison to its lower sections that it should have toppled over long ago due to the forces of gravity. Yet, the thing continued to waver up in the air on invisible strings, and atop the mysterious monstrosity's shoulders lie the fearsome head of some animal that Edge could not recognize, but which frightened him nonetheless as its huge, round eyes lolled in their sockets without direction.

Edge took another step back as his loose hands balled into fists and grasped the gravitational spectrum tightly in preparation for any kind of assault that his new challenger might initiate. No matter what, he couldn't let himself get distracted from the mission at hand.

"You know no 'truth,'" he said bitterly as he began to circle around the plaza, paying no head to the debris and cadavers that littered the black streets. "You know nothing."

"Your words prove an interesting irony, my dear friend," said the husky voice of the puppet, its enormous right arm lifting into the air as its mass began to fold and twist once again. "... for though you may not realize it, you should already know everything."

Metal clicks resounded in the air as the sections of the monster's arm suddenly detached themselves and began tumbling over one another in rapid succession. Blue lines of energy streaked out of the heavens and twisted in intricate weaves about the transforming limb as the pieces began to multiply in number, and when the limb had finally resituated itself once again, it was nearly as big as the main body itself, towering into the air like a mighty hammer meant to smite the insect that lie upon the pavement below. Edge was temporarily stunned in awe before realizing that the blunt weapon was rapidly descending in his direction.

"Damn---!" he spurted out as launched his body to the side with a burst of gravitational energy that sent him flying into the air just seconds before the crude mace smashed into the street behind him. Earth and rock flew up in all directions upon impact, but the creature was already moving towards him again with unearthly speed, this time bringing its massive weapon about in a horizontal arch that nearly clipped the young boy in the head as he fell backwards and narrowed avoided the assault.

"You were right in assuming that we would not risk using the destructive powers of the Knolls in our own camps," rolled the voice thickly across the air. "But they are hardly the only weapons that we have at our disposal. This Clockwork Orange will be more than enough to handle your extermination."

The air was filled with the methodic clatter of rolling dominos again as the thing's hips suddenly sprouted another pair of legs, and the club came down once again into the pavement as the monster skittered wildly in its opponent's direction.

"So this is how you work, eh?" muttered Edge as he thrust his hand out and slammed the creature into an invisible wall of force to little avail. "You may have many minions, but you yourselves are helpless and weak in battle? Are the fabled black wizards nothing more than infective viruses that prey on the flesh and strengths of other animals for their own insidious needs? Perhaps I should have learned to respect the abilities of those you infest rather than the disease itself.

But his taunts only went unnoticed, a toxic moan of laughter filling the air with a sarcastic tone that chilled him to the bone.

"No, young one," said the voice. "For how do you know that this beast you see before you is not actually we ourselves?"

The clicking noises resumed themselves as the monster's head abruptly began to expand vertically at astonishing speeds, the top of its jaw unhinging as wide as a man's height as the gaping molars arched back to reveal a glowing fire that burned forth from the creature's throat. Edge barely had time to summon enough energy to his hands as a monstrous laser of orange brilliance shot out in his direction, and only seconds before impact was he able to erect a gravitation field strong enough to keep the blast from flaying his own hide. Even then, his human body could not withstand the impact of the ferocious beam, and the young boy nearly fell over as he twisted his body just enough to direct his opponent's attack in another direction, the laser tearing into stone and putrid flesh as it carved its way through the remains of shattered houses. He immediately bounded backwards and landed lightly on the opposite side of the square, but his options were running out. He had been pushing himself for nearly twenty minutes without rest now and fatigue was catching up quickly. The Clockwork Orange didn't seemed fazed in the least as it immediately whirled about and began moving in his direction again, its massive arms already taking on a new form. Edge knew that he needed to end things as soon as possible or his body would give out before his enemy's did. At this point, he wasn't going to have many more chances to administer a finishing blow, so he would have to make every single bit count if he wanted to make it out alive.

The monster suddenly stopped in its tracks as one of its legs stumbled in the earth and a sudden wave of gravity forcefully rooted it to the ground. A menacing growl escaped from its lips as unstable eyes whirled around the plaza in search of the perpetrator, but Edge had already moved out of its line of vision, flying all the way around to the creature's backside as he dug his feet hard into the ground and reared back with his right fist as he prepared to make his move. The air exploded with rage as rock and debris flew up from the sheer force with which the young boy launched himself at his foe, and the atmosphere shook yet again with the impact of his fist smashing into the beast's mutilated face. Even as the thing reeled back on unsteady feet from the powerful impact, Edge continued to flow with the momentum that he already had as he wrapped his other hand about its neck and quickly swung up on its shoulders, digging his fingers into the monster's eye sockets as his entire body suddenly lit up like the sun.

"Die!" he shouted desperately as the luminescence suddenly flowed all into his hands and a horrible wail of agony wafted up into the air as a powerful singularity suddenly opened up within the creature's head and began to eat out its cranium from the inside. With all of his energy concentrated on his one point of attack, it didn't take long before the moans faded into silence as the skull imploded and tore free of the neck with a sickening pop, Edge quickly leaping clear of the monster's grasp as exhaustion took hold of his body. He struggled to his feet and quickly turned to face his enemy as soon as he felt the pavement beneath his boots, but the beast was already teetering on uneasy legs as the last of its vigor began to flee from the empty shell. Eventually the gargantuan titan fell to the ground with a mighty crash and its bulky upper torso finally tipped over and collided with the earth beneath it, blowing up billowing clouds of dust in its wake. The young boy could only gulp in huge breaths of air as he bent over in exhaustion, but it was with a quiet appreciation that he realized the town circle had become quiet once more. The wizards had been vast in number with a lot more tricks than he had originally anticipated. A grim look of satisfaction crossed his face when he realized that it was only because the power over gravity had returned to him that he had been able to defeat this dangerous foe. And yet, he felt vaguely uncomfortable as he glanced over at the bulbous purple corpse, almost as though he could still feel the animal hunger coursing through the cadaver's dead body...

The attack was swift, but Edge was ready for it this time. The sections about the monster's abdomen melted into a fleshy substance as it whipped out in the young boy's direction with a wicked barbed tip quickly congealing on the very end. The air sparked violently as he deflected the assault with a small push of energy and immediately leapt forward for the second round even as the Clockwork Orange shot up to its feet once again. The clicks of falling dominos filled the air as the creature's body fell in and out of itself over and over, and even as he looked on the thing actually seemed to grow in size as its enormous arms now reached down to grace the broken street with their knuckles. It made little difference to its assailant though, for Edge had already launched himself high into the air for the next blow, leaving trails of electricity in his wake as he sped down to meet his hated enemy.

"How much is it going to take before you fall?!" he shouted, bring both of his arms before him even as a new, putrid head rose up out of the shifting segments to take the place of the old one. A solid bolt of blue force shot out and smashed into the creature's jaw with full effect, broken teeth and large splatters of blood flying up into the air as its entire cranium reeled back from the whiplash. Yet, even as the damage to its face settled in, the rest of its body was already moving in for the next assault. The air shuddered as the monster's hands suddenly slammed together about Edge in a powerful clap, and as the shock of the blow forced him to retch violently between the appendages, he barely had enough energy left in his failing shell to protect his bruised body from having its bones snapped like twigs. The glazed eyes of the twisted architectural monstrosities around him popped open in explosions of puss and organ tissue as the shockwave rippled through the square, and though Edge felt the grip around him loosen, he could only watch helplessly as the ground rushed up to meet his face with a bang.

"Even though you entrench yourself in it so deeply, it isn't fighting that you really want, now is it?" said the dripping voice, looming over Edge and casting him in its shadow. "This is actually the antithesis of what you desire, a lifestyle filled with constant violence and the infliction of pain upon your fellow human being."

The young boy perked up as he heard the lumbering beast's imminent approach and desperately rolled to the side just in time before a mammoth foot embedded itself in the street where he had just been lying. He bounded to his feet in desperation, but even as the distorted images before his eyes refused to focus, he slowly began to realize just how weak he really was.

"I fight because I have to," he said as he wobbled back warily, keeping his eyes on his opponent and trying not to stumble over the broken cobblestones. "People don't necessarily fight because they want to, but rather because they need to protect their dreams."

"And all of that is just another lie that you use to delude yourself within, just another cover that you pull in front of your eyes because you're too afraid to face the viscous, stagnant truth," and one of the monster's arms suddenly shot out to nearly three times its length as the end bulged with thorny spikes, the powerful mace catching Edge in the side of the head and sending him crashing into a pile of rotting flesh and stone. Smoke and dust wafted into the air as the Clockwork Orange approached him once again, and this time a third arm began to spring forth from beneath its right side as it prepared for yet another attack. "You would like to consider yourself so noble in your actions when in reality you are something much more base that drives your animal instincts." The monster's flat tongue lolled out of its mouth and its head suddenly seemed to explode upon itself, but the inner segments of the organ simply flew outwards and rebuilt upon themselves instead of flying in all directions across the plaza. A small, humanoid torso began to take shape as wooden, digit-less limbs clanked about on a small, naked torso, and though the facial cast was flat and static, Edge could still make out the vague expression of youth and innocence on the juvenile shell that marked it as a mockery of his only son. "You fought so hard for this young one, did you not? The memory of his life and death still plague you in your waking hours as well as in your dreams. Part of you still fights for him, am I correct? Part of you burns like the molten core of this planet that can only be satiated by a black fuel whose volume threatens to swallow your whole as well, and you do not even know why."

"S... stop it," spat out Edge weakly, but he felt the air in his lungs cut off abruptly as the new appendage hauled him up by the legs while the other two smashed into him like a jackhammer.

"You are afraid that you will become like this one, who had lost all meaning in his narrow-minded attempt to ascend into divinity when he finally gained acceptance of the real circumstances of reality."

The young boy's face skidded into the ground as the arm casually tossed him aside, and as he wiped the caked blood from his eyes, he watched as the puppet's body spread out into two glorious pinions that stretched across the entire square. From one dripped the dark ooze of hell's brethren while the other marked the holy presence of God's own warriors. And between the two massive sails of sacred and unsacred flight was born the wooden image of a long-haired angel, a man who had gone insane in his fall from grace. The Black Wyvern of Armorica.

"You... you can't possibly know about that..." breathed the young boy as his eyes widened with animal fear, his arms instinctively wheeling back in response to the image that should not have crossed the boundaries between his worlds. "You can't possibly know..."

"You are afraid of being proven wrong, that those things which you thought you could once enjoy are merely a bane upon your own existence," continued the voice as it ignored the warrior's reaction, the clicking growing ever faster as the creature's body began to move in and out upon itself with increasing velocity. The growths from its trunk began to become erratic as stray limbs and ambiguous faces began to click into place just as quickly as they were disassembled back into the body of the whole. Vague details of anonymous people popped out for seconds before being sucked back into the monster's shifting girth, and more than a few seemed familiar from behind the haze of caked vital fluid that covered Edge's face. "You are afraid that there is no place for a person like you in a world like this. You are simply afraid of relinquishing your idealistic doctrine to accept the harsh conditions of the real world."

A long, multi-segmented whip lashed out and sent Edge flying with a fierce slash across his face. His body instinctively cushioned the fall with a small burst of gravitational power, but his situation was growing increasingly dire as the battle wore on. No. This was hardly a battle anymore. He had lost any semblance of a chance long ago.

Edge swiveled about in the broken gravel and tried to get to his feet, but the best he could do was wobble on uneasy legs for a couple seconds before falling to his knees once again, watching as the writhing mass slowly stalked its helpless prey.

"I'm not afraid..." he said weakly, but his voice was cut off as he took another blow to the face, the monster's massive fist driving his head into the ground.

"Even now, you find yourself unable to deny the mere existence of the circumstances I set before you, though you still delude yourself with visions of resistance." The figure grew tall as a flowering cape sprouted forth from its shoulders, a wobbling mockery of Toy's massive general towering up before his very eyes. "This one was built for the same purposes that you were. Do you fear being molded into a semblance of his shadow?"

"NNn...no, I'm nothing like him," said Edge weakly, but the Clockwork Orange was already shifting to another form, the segments falling faster and faster until the echoing clicks suffocated his mind.

"Ah, but you already are! Perhaps you believe your conditions to be different because of a certain variable which has allowed you to deviate from his path, but that is only a single variable nonetheless. In the larger scope of the world, its meaning is virtually useless, and in time you will simply be sucked into the whole if only because you are overwhelmed by the staggering odds against your favor." The figure folded in upon itself as it grew smaller, and as long hair flowed forth from its head and twin katanas latched themselves to its back, Kouryuu's ghostly figure floated towards him on unsteady legs, her stony features only more horrifying in their stolid indifference. "You surround yourself by 'friends' and 'companions,' but even you yourself know that there are factors outside your petty ambitions that you cannot control. Hope is a malleable human creation that suits their needs as they see fit, but it can never guarantee the goals that it is meant to drive. Why do you think this one's rebels have never succeeded in their liberation? It is merely the same principles that hold with the fruitless endeavors of Falcoon's own assault now."

"Nnnn.... nnnoo..." moaned the young boy, his voice sticking in his throat as he looked up helplessly to the monument of despair.

"You do not even recognize the world you live in," said the voice, booming over the transformations of its own body. Likes pieces of a puzzle rapidly falling into place, Edge watched everything he thought to be true in his haven away from Akuji fall apart as Double's sleek form floated before his eyes for a fleeting second, immediately followed by the demonic shell of Zero, and then a frail mockery of the proud warrior, Asimov. "And once you do, you will simply fall from grace, dragging along all you know with you so selfishly."

"P...please... don't..."

"You are nothing, just like the rest of us, my friend. And in this meaningless world, somebody like you can only destroy everything that touches his wandering path. Isn't that right..."

And as he looked up one last time, he saw a marionette of the young girl Yoshime leering down at him maliciously with an expression of pure animosity plastered on her face. Even though he knew it was fake, even though he could tell by the lack of perfect human detail upon its body and the unrealistic movement with which it hung in the air like a broken doll, he somehow knew that the emotion with which it glared at him was real, and that made his blood run cold.

"...EDGE?"

And the world finally broke apart.

"nnnNNNOOOOOOO~!!!" screamed Edge as his shriek tore through the air like a knife. The earth shook with the force of an explosion as he tore himself free from gravity's omnipresent pull and launched himself at the scornful grin of contempt that his enemy had dealt him sprawled upon the ground slowly bleeding his life away. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as his clawed fingers slowly tore holes into the young girl's face, sheering away the layers of fleshy skin as easily as slicing through warm butter. No blood spilled forth, no hot liquids gushed out from the open wound. This was only a toy, pure and simple, as cold and heartless as he himself had once been...

The monster's face imploded on itself as Edge drove it into the ground with a bloodcurdling scream, driven by the force of the physical blow as well as a gravitational wave so powerful that it completely tore through the entire plaza as well. The puppet's body immediately bloated outwards into a semblance of its former, hideous self as soon as it felt the first impact, but the young boy did not stop then. With each thundering punch that he pounded into the creature's skull, another wave of pure force smashed into the marionette's body. Yet, no sounds of impact escaped from the soundless vacuum, no mangled cries for mercy could be heard from the beaten animal, for the tormented screams tearing from the young boy's throat shut out everything else in the open sky with his fury. His eyes blazed pure white even as the beast's frenzied struggles grew limp and silent, and after nearly ten full minutes of mutilating the broken corpse before him, Edge finally let himself rest as he loomed above his fallen prey, gulping in huge breaths of air as traces of humanity finally began to come back to his animal eyes. He no longer felt tired. He no longer felt weak. However, no matter how much he tried, his body would not stop shivering from the cold and his breathing would not fall steady as hiccups nearly choked the air from his lungs...

"And so we finally see the true nature of the mysterious warrior within our midst. You are quite an amusing thing to play with, I will assure you that much."

Edge didn't even rise as he heard the mocking voice echo through the empty courtyard, for he already knew that is was Shinnuki who mocked him from the edge of the town circle's remnants. The voice was still deeply burned in his mind after their last confrontation, no matter how hard he had tried to forget it.

"You see, I am Shin's sole tie to the black wizards, for I am actually one of their own brethren. And naturally, I have also been the one chosen to protect this relation since it is- as you and your rebel folly seem to have noticed- a vital part to our stratagem. But did you actually think that we did not anticipate your attack on our city? Surely, you must have been foolish to make such an unhealthy presumption, as you can clearly observe that we've taken the proper measures to detain you specifically."

The young boy did not answer as he picked himself up from the carcass of his foe, bits of dust and gravel falling to the ground as they slid off his blood-caked body. Shinnuki only grinned with malice, his arms crossed confidently as the tails of his black trenchcoat fluttered in the wind.

"It seems that our tactics have worked as well," said the officer nonchalantly, and the ground beneath him flared to life as a faint crimson aura suddenly blazed up about his body. "The only thing left is to finish you off, just like I did to your kid---"

The two had been separated by nearly a hundred feet of overturned pavement, but it only took a fraction of a second for Edge to cover the distance and strike his hated opponent with a right cross that sent him flying into the air. And even before the dazed general could figure out what had happened, the visage of the boy's wide, bloodshot eyes was already looming over him before he even hit the ground.

"What's the---?!" sputtered Shinnuki, his eyes round and open with newfound shock and fear. "How can you still do this? The wizards should have---"

Edge's clawed hand tore into the man's skull and sliced all the way to his throat before he could finish his thoughts, blood rushing into the open wound and choking back Shinnuki's final words even as broken bone flakes and chunky pieces of his brain flew up into the air, freed from their cardinal cavity. The officer's cranial center was smashed into a deranged oblong shape as it hit the ground with a sickening splat, but even that was split in two as Edge's other fist immediately launched straight through the broken head and shook the ground with tremors that rattled the heavens.

"Why did you know about it all? WHY?!" roared Edge as he continued pounding away at the shattered face. Even as his blows grew more and more forceful, the organ tissue and scattered bone still seemed to mock him with a twisted smile that haunted him beyond their master's death. "Why did you know about Yoshime, about the Black Wyvern, Kouryuu and Double, even my name?! Why was I brought here in the first place?" Rage slowly began to slip through his fingers no matter how hard he tried to hold it close, and though the bloody stain of what was once his enemy's head met his eyes as his sanity took over once again, he felt no comfort in the death of his foe, and the tears would not stop as they flowed freely down his dirtied cheek. He had thought that he had been brought to this world to escape from the land of Akuji and be free. He had thought that he had been given a chance to live out his dreams and ambitions. But was that really the case? Nothing had really been fulfilled for him, had it? Was this world no different from the place he ran from? Was he truly oblivious to the horrible reality that surrounded him?

The young boy's unsteady hands griped his shoulders tightly as his head fell to rest upon the cracked ground, his knees curling up tightly to his chest as he shivered under the dark sky. The acrid taste of blood filled his mouth, and he almost had trouble telling if it was his deceased opponent's or his own. But did it really matter? Either way, it was just another form of violence, violence that he could never escape no matter how far he ran. Whether or not it was reality, did any of it make any real difference? No matter where he looked, people were always content with living amongst murders and war-mongers, where killing was normal, where hate was only ordinary. Even at the moment when he thought that he had finally been able to claim peace for himself, it had been cruelly torn from his hands by someone who he had not even known. And even now, as he journeyed out to try to reclaim the solace for himself, he could only watch it be destroyed from behind his wall of struggle.

Falcoon had told him that he had needed to make a choice in order to move forward. But even if he did, would that direction offer any more than he had now? Was there any greater meaning waiting in the distance at all...?

Maybe it didn't really matter that anyone had known about Akuji, for neither that world nor this one seemed to be able to fulfill the idealistic dreams of a fool.

"Why...?" he whispered softly, his voice shrinking to a squeak as he shivered on the cold, hard ground. "Why..."

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End "Death"