“I will kill you!”

Momo roared as a pitch black spell circle appeared in front of her.

“Is that a demon spell?!”

A gigantic black fireball shot out of the spell circle and came straight for Isabel.

“Lunar Forst Cut!”

Isabel cut the fireball with an icy cold slash before scanning the area with her eyes. As she expected, the others made their move while she was defending herself.

“How dare you do that to Miko?!”

Hina had taken her dark form and created a large sinister looking axe. She swung it down on Isabel, who evaded it by leaping back. She then twisted her body to narrowly escape a palm strike from Sora.

“Ahhh!”

Tessa came at her from above and threw a punch. Isabel saw a demonic wolf made of black ice pounce at her. She cut the wolf with a swing of her blade.

“?!”

She was shocked with she saw Kristen emerge from the wolf with a demonic look in his eyes.

“You actually dare to hurt my brother?”

His purple hair turned into a burning crimson and glowing tribal markings appeared on his body. Isabel suddenly felt like she was in the presence of a great demon.

“Beleth’s Fury!”

Kristen’s body lit up and then suddenly exploded with a burst of flames.

*BAM!*

“Ugh?!”

Isabel was blown back with her body on fire.

“Winter Moon!”

Her sword lit up and she was engulf in a sphere of ice. The ice disappeared in an instant later and all the flames on her body was extinguished.

“?!”

Luka was suddenly in front of her with her arm pulled back.

“Infinity Buster!”

She threw a fist and the infinity symbol appeared on Isabel’s. Her fist hit that symbol and Isabel was forced into the earth so hard that a crater opened up underneath her.

“Ah!”

She kicked Luka away and started retreating.

“Hey there, Little Lady.”

She looked her side and saw a smiling Ace running beside her.

“You did quite a number on my friend there. I also see that you’re a swordsman.”

His appearance changed before her eyes and he turned into a bloodstained warrior with a chipped up sword.

“I don’t suppose you can spar with me for a minute?”

Before Ace could say anything more Isabel slashed at him which he deflected with his own blade.

“That’s the spirit!”

Ace swung his sword while Isabel did the same.

*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*

The two started a high speed clash of blades. Ace’s movements were wild and overflowing with killing intent but Isabel was still able to fend him off while still being cautious of those around her. She jumped into the air to avoid an attack from Hina from behind.

“Sonic Cannon!”

Sora popped up in front of her and hit her with a blast of sound that sent her flying in Momo’s path.

(Crap! She’s the most dangerous one here! I gotta dodge anything she has prepared!)

Momo lifted her hand into the air and another pitch black spell circle appeared above Isabel.

“Solomon’s Gate: Astaroth’s Gator!”

A giant alligator head appeared out of gate and tried to eat Isabel. She flipped her sword and made the blade face her before firing a slash at herself.

*Clang!*

A metallic sound could be heard when the slash hit her as if she was made out of iron. The impact from the slash forced her out of the alligator’s path. She then twisted her body and landed on the ground.

“I can’t take them all on in my current condition. My previous fight took too much out of me.”

She looked at Miko who was frozen like a statue and smiled.

“It was fun but I’m sure that he won’t participate in this war for a while, so I’ve completed my mission.”

“You’re not getting away!”

Everyone started rushing towards her at once. She smiled and lifted her blade.

“Lunar Mist.”

She then faded away before their eyes. They activated the Vita and started scanning the area but they couldn’t find her.

“Up there!”

Tessa pointed in the sky and shouted.

“What the fuck?!”

They saw Isabel riding a slash as if it was a hoverboard.

“You can do that with Slaughter Moon Swords Arts?”

Isabel looked down on them and waved.

“Tell Miko that I benefited quite a bit from our fight. I now believe that I can get even stronger. Also, a warning.”

She pointed at Miko.

“You might want to be careful around him. Otherwise, you’ll be killed before you know it.”

With those words being her last, Isabel disappeared from into the night.

“Dammit!”

Tessa and Kristen were glaring in the direction that Isabel went.

“Don’t follow her.”

Luka said.

“But!”

“Treating Miko is more important.”

(She was injured from her battle with Miko and we still couldn’t finish her off….She’s a difficult one.)

She turned her head to Miko, who was motionless the entire time.

“How horrible….”

Sora said while clenching his fist.

“A missing arm, blinded, more cuts than can be counted, severely torn skin…To be honest, it’s hard to believe that he’s still alive. It’s more unbelievable that even under these conditions he was fighting someone like that.”

Ace said.

“Is he conscious?”

“I’m going to check!”

Tessa ran up to Miko.

“Brother, it’s me; Tessa! We’re gonna take you back now!”

“……”

“No response. Looks like he’s really uncon…Huh?”

Momo saw Miko lift his sword into the air.

“Tessa! Get out of there!”

“Huh?”

Tessa looked up and saw a large blade falling down on her.

“Idiot, move!”

Kristen knocked her out of the way and the sword swung down and hit the earth.

*BOOM!*

The impact from the sword burst open the ground and shook the area.

“Did he just attack Tessa?”

Hina and the others couldn’t believe their eyes. Miko attacking any of his siblings was impossible since his love for them was well known.

“Something isn’t right.”

Momo started walking towards him.

“Miko, it’s Momo! I’m going to approach you so don’t attack!”

Miko turned his towards Momo.

“Destroy…Destroy everything!”

He pounced at her and swung his sword. Momo clicked her tongue and created a spell circle in front of her to block the attack.

*Bam!*

The moment his sword hit the spell circle it crack and an overwhelming force hit Momo.

“Since when has he been this strong?!”

Momo had to leap back to decrease the force of Miko’s attack.

“This is bad. He’s completely out of control and his body can’t support that right now.”

Momo started gritting her teeth.

“Listen up, everyone! We’re going to take Miko out to prevent him from harming himself and us!”

“So to help him we must beat him? What a troublesome guy.”

Sora sighed. He and everyone else immediately took a fighting stance.

“Remember, you can hold back if you want, but don’t be careless. He’s a lot stronger and more unpredictable than usual. If you let your guard down, you’ll die. Especially, since he’s using his two swords.”

Everyone nodded.

“If you understand, let’s go!”

They all charged at Miko, who had a savage grin on his face. He roared and welcomed another battle.

“Miko and Isabel Luna fought?”

Newgate City, Bloom was sitting on throne listening to a report from her Silver Crow subordinates.

“Yeah. It ended only a few hours ago. It happened in a small town near Sawyer and Elon.”

Nico reported.

“Was a winner decided?”

“No. It was ultimately interrupted by Miko’s allies before it could be settled but from the footage that we got it’s clear that it was a tough battle for both of them.”

“A tough battle? Are you saying that Miko can take on that woman by himself?”

“Although Miko was obviously the weaker party, he held his own. In fact, it looks like he grew significantly as the fight progressed.”

“I see….Well, I guess it’s to be expected. He is who he is after all.”

Bloom thought about it for a while before asking a question.

“You said that they both had a tough fight, then does that mean that they both suffered serious injuries?”

“I don’t know the extent of Isabel Luna’s injuries but Miko had numerous serious injuries. My prediction is that he’ll be out of commission for a while.”

(Jin said that Miko had recovered from a shot to the heart yet he was severely hurt in his battle? Could it be that there’s a limit to how he can heal himself? Makes sense, because he was in a coma for half a year after his fight with Tang Xian. So he’s far from invincible.)

Bloom smiled.

“If Miko was really taken out like you said, then this might be our chance.”

“Do you mean...”

Bloom nodded.

“We’re going to attack the Red Light District.”

Commercial City, Sawyer. The city was filled with company buildings, stores, and entertainment centers. The tallest building in this city had a golden moon on it and had the words “Luna Enterprise” on it.

“……..”

Luna was sitting on the floor of one of her private elevators, which as heading to the top floor. When the doors open she got up and entered her office.

“Welcome back.”

She turned her head and saw Gear sitting in one of her chairs. Not far away from him was Shòu.

“Now this is a surprise. You’re actually traveling a lot more.”

“Well, Miko knows my identity already and Bloom should’ve figured it out by now, so there’s no point in hiding any more.”

“I see. And why is he here?”

Shòu looked at her with a curious gaze as if he was examining her.

“I heard that you fought Miko. I came because I wanted to know how did it go.”

“In other words, you want to know if I killed your friend.”

Isabel smiled.

“Don’t worry. Your friend is a true monster. Every time I thought that I had him he came back stronger than before.”

“From your tone, it sounds like you had fun.”

“I can’t deny that. Since I’m cooped up in this country, it’s not often that I get to fight with all my being. I suddenly feel alive again.”

“I see. Then that’s good. If you’re finally motivated then we’ll only grow stronger.”

Gear said.

“You had to go all out?”

Shòu asked.

“Yeah, I think I did. I was even preparing to use my trump card to stop him.”

“I see.”

Isabel smiled.

“Looks like that made you happy.”

“Why do you say that?”

Shòu pointed at Shòu.

“After all, you have savage smile on your face.”

Like she had said, Shòu had a beastly expression on his face like an excited predator.

“Ah, my bad. Since I’ve started training with Natasa and Bastian, I’m becoming more and more of a battle maniac like them.”

“It’s seems like your real nature to me though.”

Shòu just smiled quietly.

“Ah, that’s right. How is Natasa? I heard that she got beaten by the queen.”

“Oh, that.”

Gear smiled.

“Don’t worry. Natasa is Natasa, she’s already far stronger now than she was back then. She might give you a hard time just like Miko did.”

“Well, I can’t deny that.”

The two Pillars laughed as if everything was going their way.

The Red Light District.

“Thanks again, Edward. My spells can only do so much to heal him.”

Momo and Edward were inside a building looking at Miko who was laying in bed. His entire body was bandaged up and he had several machines hooked up to him.

“Don’t mention it. It’s only appropriate for me to do this for the Don.”

Edward answered.

“I don’t know much about medicine, so even when accessing these machine all I could do was reattach his arm. I don’t know if he will have any difficulties with it later though. As for his eyes, I wasn’t able to fix them.”

“Don’t worry. Miko should be able to handle those himself. What is important is that you kept him alive.”

“I see. I wonder how long he will be out for this time. I fear that this place will be attacked soon. After all, I doubt Bloom hasn’t heard of Miko’s battle with Isabel. If she’s aware that he’s been severely injured then she’ll take advantage of the situation and attack us.”

“I know, which is why Luka and the others are preparing for an attack as we speak….It’s keeping their mind off Miko.”

“I see. Then I’ll assist them, so if you will excuse me.”

Edward left the room soon after, leaving Momo with Miko.

“Tia hasn’t appeared and Ishma and Regis are still stuck in their sword forms….Something isn’t right.”

She looked at Miko in silence and kneeled at his bedside and held onto his bandaged hand.

“You also haven’t shown any signs of healing either. Just what is going on with you, Miko?”

Meanwhile, Miko who was in his satanic form found himself floating in a dark world with a vortex of colorful lights not too far away from him.

“Well, shit…I’m back here again.”

He sighed.

“The core of the Universe, The Invisible World.”