“Ugh…”

Momo woke up groaning. She looked around. Everything around her was blurry. It was then that she realized that she was being carried.

“Oh? You’re awake.”

A familiar voice. She looked up and saw Edward’s face.

“….What happened?”

“I found you lying in a pool of blood. Since I found ashes with Bastian’s DNA I assume that you defeated your opponent.”

“…Yeah.”

She tried to get out of Edward’s arms but her body stiffened when mind-numbing pain assaulted her.

“I wouldn’t move if I were you. I checked your injuries with my system and it’s a miracle that you’re even alive. I treated some of your wounds but there are some serious ones that I couldn’t do anything about. To be honest, I don’t even know how you’re conscious right now.”

Momo remained silent and started circulating the mana in her body. Her eyes narrowed.

(This is bad….Really bad. I won’t be at full strength for months or maybe even years after this.)

She thought about it for a bit before speaking.

“Edward, bring me to where Miko is. I’m sure that he’s still fighting. I want him to hurry up.”

“….Are your injuries that bad?”

Momo nodded.

“I need to go see Alec and Kirika urgently.”

“Then, I’ll try to find him as quickly as possible.”

“…What about the others?”

At the same time.

“Dammit…why do I have to do this?”

Tessa was dragging two bodies behind her and had another over her shoulder. The ones that she was dragging were Ryker and Nico and the one over her shoulder was Kristen. She originally left Nico behind after defeating him but she turned back for him after some thinking.

“Miko wants him alive so I can’t just leave him defenseless in the middle of a war.”

So dragged him along while she searched for allies. As if fate, the first ally she found was her twin.

“Fuck…”

The problem was her twin and his opponent were in really bad shape. They needed urgent medical attention and couldn’t be left alone like this. This brings us to her current predicament.

“I’m exhausted as it…”

She dragged herself and the bodies she was burdened with under the hot sun.

“It must be a full day since this war started. Look at this country….It’s nothing but rubble now. Is it even worth risking your life over anymore?”

She stopped and looked up at the sky.

“I hope Miko got some rest and isn’t fighting non-stop for more than 24-hours.”

She sighed and took a step forward.

“?!”

Suddenly, her body froze in place. Her heartbeat slowed down as if it was afraid of making too much noise. Despite being hot moments ago, she was now trembling. This was rare considering that she practices ice magic. At first, she was confused as to why her body was behaving this way but she soon realized the cause.

She was in the range of absolute death.

She had no idea where the threat to her life was coming from so she had no way to deal with it. She wanted to run but her body wouldn’t listen to her.

“What the hell?! What the hell?! What the hell?!”

She heard footsteps behind her but she couldn’t turn her head to check who they belong to. The footsteps were unnaturally clear to her. It was as if someone was pounding a nail through her heart with every step they took. As the steps drew closer she realized that it wasn’t that she couldn’t turn around, it's just that she was too afraid to do it. If she did turn around she’ll have to stare death in the face and she wasn’t prepared to do that.

The steps drew closer and closer and closer and closer and then stop. Complete silence. Even her heart forgot to beat. It was as if time had stopped. What broke that silence was a simple but ominous question.

“The war hasn’t ended already, has it?”

*************

The battle between Miko and Bloom had become intense pretty quickly. Miko moved through the air while avoiding spinning purple orbs that were being fired at him by Bloom. Whatever the orbs hit would be compressed into nothingness without exception. Miko gathered green static in his palms and fired back at Bloom. She waved her hand and the static became distorted and disappeared before reaching her.

“Gravity and Reality Manipulation is one hell of a combination.”

Miko’s sword changed into a chain gun.

“I always wanted to use this!”

The chaingun fired a hailstorm of

green light bullets. Purple light gathered around Bloom’s hands. She swung them and the space in front of her distort and the bullets changed its trajectory and flew past Bloom.

“Do you think it will be that easy?!”

The bullets changed trajectory again and accelerated towards Bloom. She took to the sky to avoid them. They destroyed the earth when they hit the ground and kicked up a large cloud of dust. Bloom’s eyes widened when she saw a green light shot out of the dust clouds. She was slow to react and the light hit her in the chest and blasted her.

(Did the bullets fused into one big blast?!... But!)

“Hm?”

Miko’s eyebrows rose. The green light that was supposed to hit Bloom was floating at her chest.

“You can have it back!”

The green light disappeared and hit Miko the next instant.

“Huh?”

The next thing Miko knew he was being propelled back.

“Incredible. It takes a lot of skill to do what she did.”

He twisted his body and stopped in the air. He saw Bloom flying towards him. He fired his chaingun. She maneuvered through the storm of bullets and gathered wind in her hand. She thrust her hand and a serpent-shaped twister clashed with the bullets. The bullets clashed with each other and exploded inside the twister. Miko changed his gun into a cannon and fired. A green blast destroyed the twister. Bloom flew through the explosion coated in Vita. She thrust her hand out and the space around Miko distort. She clenched her fist and Miko’s body started bending unnaturally. It looked like he was going to be snapped in half. Bloom accelerated toward him.

“Ishmavael Original: Imperial Prestige!”

Miko’s body released a wave of green demonic energy. An oppressive pressure fell on the area. Bloom’s speed was reduced to a snail pace. It had become hard to move. The distorted space around Miko straightened out along with his body.

“Such terrifying demonic power….!”

Bloom spread out her Vita and the pressure she was feeling disappeared. Her speed increased again. Miko turned his cannon into a sword and sheathed it. He took a deep breath and erased all emotions from his face.

“Hybrid Sword Style:….”

A black dragon emerging from a blood moon appeared behind him.

“Hm?”

Bloom saw this and narrowed her eyes.

“Is that…?”

She summoned her sword in her hand. Miko used his thumb to slightly push the sword out of the sheath. He took a step forward and vanished. A second later, the black dragon emerged from the blood moon and rushed towards Bloom. She vanished just as the dragon was about to devour her. A thunderous sound reverberated in the sky. A second later, something crashed into the ground.

“Cough! Cough!”

Miko laid on the ground holding his chest. His shirt was torn and a large bruise stretched across his torso.

“You’re really incredible, Miko.”

Bloom descended from the sky and stomped him into the ground so hard the earth burst open and a crater opened up under him. She spoke to him while pressing down on his chest with her foot. Miko looked up when he felt something drop on him. He saw blood flowing down bloom’s right arm. Droplets of blood dropped on his face.

“I’m familiar with the Five Supreme Sword Arts, so I know how hard it is to use one of them. So naturally, I was surprised when I saw you using two of them at once. You even fused them together so perfectly.”

She pressed down her foot.

“To bad for you I know how to counter both the Slaughter Moon and Raging Dragon Sword Arts.”

She lifted her disfigured arm.

“Although I couldn’t stop it completely with my first try.”

“Nah, you’re pretty incredible. I never thought that you’d be able to see through my Lunar Black Dragon and even counter it in your first witnessing.”

Miko laughed and Bloom increased the pressure on his chest.

“What’s so funny?”

Several impressions appeared on Miko’s body along with the sound of bones crushing.

“Guh!”

Blood flowed from his mouth and nose.

“Don’t you realize that I’m in control here?”

“Really? Then what’s stopping you from killing me? Fear of my family’s retaliation?”

Miko shook his head.

“You made a deal with MYTH when you were a kid. You’re not the type to buckle under fear. Is it because you think I’m not worth killing?”

He shook his head again.

“I’ve committed some severe crimes against you. If I’m not worth killing then no one is. So why haven’t you killed me yet, Bloom?”

He lifted his upper body up despite Bloom trying to keep him down. He looked up at her.

“Say, Bloom. Just what is going on in your head right now? Are you hearing voices telling you to push forward? Or is everything gray and murky and you just can’t seem to think clearly?”

The look in his eyes and the low but hurried tone of his voice made Bloom’s skin crawled.

“Tell me, Bloom. Come on, tell me.”

“Shut up…”

“Do you wake up screaming at night?”

“Shut up…”

“Do you have visions of your pathetic future?”

“Shut up!”

“Or did you see yourself dying alone with your freedom stolen?”

“I said, SHUT UP!”

She put all of her strength in her foot and stomped Miko into the ground so hard that it felt like the city was hit by an earthquake.

“What do you know about me?!”

“Nothing.”

Miko lifted his upper body so fast that Bloom stumbled back. He sprung to his feet with her footprint in the center of his chest.

“I know nothing. That’s why I want you to tell me.”

He pointed at her with a twisted smile.

“Tell me what’s going on in that twisted mind of yours.”

She clenched her sword until her hands started trembling.

“Die!”

She kicked off the ground and rushed towards him. Miko smiled and gathered a black light at his fingertips. He fired the light the moment Bloom swung her sword.

“!”

Her body froze up and a dull look appeared in her eyes.

“Since you won’t tell me. I’ll go take a look myself.”

Miko’s consciousness faded. The next thing he knew he was in a white world.

“I haven’t done this since Darius.”

He looked around and saw a colorful vortex that had black sparks coming out of it. Miko stared at it in silence and took a deep breath.

“No reason to chicken out now.”

He approached it and stepped inside. It was like his soul was sucked out of his body and transported to a different place. When he opened his eyes he was floating in space and surrounded by stars.

“What the hell….”

In front of him was a beautiful blue planet that looked like a gem. Miko stared at it for a while before smiling.

“I was right.”

He spread his arms.

“So this is Mundus’ mirror counterpart!”

The blue planet reflected in his eyes as he spoke its name.

“This is Earth!”