Standard disclaimer: I don't own the series.

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AN: Hello! How is everyone? *^_^* Heh, it is soooo freaking hot at my house right now! I think the temp got up to like 90 over the weekend ;_; Sooooo hot! Eh, anyway, so, yeah. So, am I going to get mauled after the end of this chapter? Only time will tell… PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!!!!

Hehe, here are the reviews!

Meeerf: Yah for long review!!!!

Hee, wait till we get to the end~! I can't wait to see everyone's reaction to what I have planned ^_~ I bet no one will see it coming ^_^;;

Heh, I thought you'd like that. I wanted to have Legence and Gideon act earlier, but if I did, I felt that Ryu and company would have to put a stop to it early. Cuz, seriously, if Legence had put his plan into action much earlier, the story would have been done by now ^__^;;

Haha, really? I originally wanted to pair Yuki with adult Wyatt... but yeah. I wanted to pair her with "Leon" though. Hehe, is Mina joining them? That would be interesting. ^_^ I wanted her in the story from the very beginning. Mina was always one of my favorite characters. ^_~ Hehe, I was worried that she didn't get too much screen time in this story... so I added onto her role a little bit. Hee, thanks :)

Oh yes! I have always loved Hawkie ^_^;;; Heh, I loved him ever since I first played SD3 ^_~ Hee, did you notice that Nina in her more somber moods acts kinda like Lise? (bonus, did you noticed that the girl's description that Hawk was making out with in the chapter "We've Got to Believe in Something" was similar to Lise's? Hehe ^_^)

Yeah, I "killed" a kid ^_^;;; Hn, really? Yeah. Hehe, I noticed that my story's been getting a little more graphic than when I first started out. I'll be honest. I was worried about the whole sex thing when I first introduced those elements into the story, but when I started reading your stories, I gained a lot of confidence on that ^_~ Heh, I wonder how you will feel about that by the time the final battle starts ^_^;;;

Yup, it's the robot! lol

Nina Windia: Hiya! Hee, yeah. I figured that would be interesting ^_^ There's still one more connection, but that will have to wait. That would be pretty funny, wouldn't it? I bet Manna wouldn't like that much, though lol

Oh yes. Legence is a major baddie. Wait till you find out what he does next! Yeah, I thought that would be funny too ^_^ Hawkeye? Ah, he's a thief from Navare, Karn's thieves guild. The one that Ryu and Yui belonged to back in the day? He's not been in the story before these chapters that he's in. Haha! I wanted to use Hawkeye from Seiken Densetsu 3 in my story ^_^ Yeah, that's a lovely example of blatant fangirlism ^_^;;;

Yup! Rekks is back! I thought it would be kinda sucky to bring Yuki back and not him. You know? I mean, yeah Yuki is one of my favorite characters, but Rekks died to save Ryu, too. It wouldn't have been fair to just bring Yuki back and not him ^_~ Hee, I'm glad that you like Demus a little bit now. Don't worry about it. I get confused too!

Yup! Wyatt and the rest have made their debut. Haha! I'm glad that you like Momo ^_^ Yup, and the Prof's robot is finally on stage!

Hn really? Okie day! The people that are standing around and looking mysterious and talking about destiny are Manna and the other Avatars: Troy, Mina, Mardeia, Rowan, and the avatar before Harmony. Manna was there, but not Deis. The cloaked man was Bunyan, BTW.

Well, thanks for the reviews everyone!

Here's the next chapter! Enjoy ^_^

“Holy fucking shit!” Ryu yelled.

Jin glared at Ryu for using such language around his child, but couldn’t really say anything about it either. Jin was basically thinking the exact same thing as well. It took a few seconds to even realize that Momo was the child that had attacked that Dragoon. How in the name of all that was sacred and holy did Momo get older?

Jin shook his head. He had more pressing matters to attend to. Mainly how on Asparia was there a giant freaking robot holding back that massive dragon? And seriously? The old man had actually gone through with making that robot? Jin rolled his eyes. Okay, now he KNEW that someone was fucking with him.

Jin noticed Momo glance up and look at him. She then pointed to the robot. Jin could only shake his head. He really didn’t know what to say to the little girl. Momo wiggled out of Ryu’s hold and ran over to Jin and latched herself around Jin’s waist. Ryu looked over and gave Jin a grin.

“Hehe, a giant robot…?” Ryu muttered in disbelief. “A giant robot is holding my mother back from trying to kill me…”

Jin frowned. Ryu looked like he was in some kind of shock. Granted, Jin had no idea as to what Ryu was thinking, but the look on Ryu’s face wasn’t a good one. Ryu shook his head once more and struggled to stand. His right arm twitched as he gripped the Dragon Blade in his left.

Ryu looked up at the giant robot and the white dragon. “MOTHER?!” Ryu shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice laced with hysteria. “What… what are you doing?!”

The dragon managed to break the hold of the giant robot. The robot was thrown back, but managed to regain its altitude using the rocket jets on its back. The robot managed to get back into a fighting stance. The dragon looked down at Ryu, then back at the robot. The dragon roared and opened its mouth as it prepared for a breath attack.

This was not going to end well.

The robot hovered in the air for a few seconds before a spray of energy from its jets let loose and launched itself at the dragon. Valerie roared and let loose sprays of fire at the robot. Ryu could only blankly stare at the fight. Jin noticed that he was frozen in place. Jin gently shook Momo off of him and took off after Ryu. Jin grabbed Ryu and shoved him to the ground.

Jin raised his hand and formed a light shield around the three of them just as the fire was released. The fire from Valerie flew everywhere and was bounced off of the light shield. Momo managed to keep down a scream.

Ryu growled and jerked out of Jin’s grasp just as the light shield vanished. Ryu glared at Jin. Jin flinched at the look. Ryu’s eyes almost looked feral.

“What the hell are you doing?” Ryu growled. Ryu’s eyes flashed as his body started to glow gold slightly.

Jin frowned and pointed at the dragon with his katana. “That dragon is trying to KILL us! What do you THINK I was trying to do?! I am trying to keep you from getting killed!”

“DADDY!” Momo yelled. Jin jerked his head around. Momo had a really scared look on her face. She was pointing towards the sky once more. “Look!”

Jin groaned as he saw more and more dragons coming into view. The one that made his blood run cold was the one that Gideon himself seemed to be riding. So, the dragon king was going to make himself known after all? Jin prepared to get into a battle stance once more, but found the mere idea of him taking on all those fire breathing dragons a little crazy.

Jin didn’t have to worry about fighting all of those dragons. The air suddenly got really hot with… something. Jin glanced over and noticed that the air was distorting around where Nina and Manna were standing.

Manna was preparing to cast something. By the look on her face, Jin figured it was something along the lines of tank magic.

He had no idea just how right he was.

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Nina was really pissed. There was a bunch of dragons attacking them. And for what? Yes, she knew that they wanted the Goddess Keys for the Gate or whatever it was they were trying to use it for. But this! This was just wrong.

Nina knew that if they didn’t defend Navare, a lot more people were going to die. Nina inwardly cursed Legence for what he was doing. She wanted to scream at him, rage at him. Nina could feel the anger boiling up inside of her. The anger just kept rising and rising. Nina’s heartbeat started to accelerate and her vision started to dim.

Nina howled from the pain as she was forced onto her knees. Something was very wrong. Through the pain, Nina could feel that anger start to boil over, overtaking her. Nina clutched her chest tightly, as her heart continued to throb painfully in her chest.

Manna looked at Nina out from the corner of her eye and frowned slightly. Nina’s eyes dilated until the iris was almost nonexistent. It seemed like thousands of years of anger and hatred was threatening to erupt from Nina. Nina screamed and it did.

It felt like something snapped in the back of Nina’s mind. Kill them, the feeling seemed to say. They have wronged you, they must pay for their transgressions! Nina howled in pain as she world felt like it was coming undone.

Nina didn’t even notice that her entire body was engulfed in some kind of gold and white light. She didn’t notice that her wings were massive and flared out. All she knew was that her heart felt like it was being ripped from her chest and the anger that she felt.

Manna caught Jin and Momo looking at her and Nina. Manna sighed inwardly and looked from them to Nina. Something was snapping inside of both Ryu and Nina. It seemed like Manna was going to have to get Nina back under control.

“Hark, O forces beyond, seek out the call of your maiden!” Nina screamed suddenly, her voice taking on an ethereal tone to it. Manna froze in place. This was so not good. “Let the stars above shine down and smite the foes I face!”

“NINA, NO!” Manna shouted as she ran to Nina. But it was too late.

Nina raised her hand into the air and pointed it at Valerie. “CELESTIAL STAR!”

Manna howled and was blown back by the sudden feedback from the spell. Jin growled as he grabbed onto Momo before they were both blown away as well. Ryu’s eyes widened in terror as the stream of white and gold light lanced out of Nina’s hand and straight at Valerie and the giant robot.

The white dragon roared in pain as it was blasted back. The giant robot was sent flying as well, various joints starting to spark. Ryu howled right along with the dragon. His eyes went blank as his heartbeat started to fill the air.

That managed to get everyone’s attention on the battlefield. Hawk’s eyes widened slightly as he turned to Sari and Troy for an explanation. Both of them could only stare back with the same look. Something horrible was about to happen.

“What the hell is going on?!” Hawk yelled over the noise.

Sari could only shake her head. “I think Ryu’s finally lost it!”

Troy could only shake his head. “I don’t know what’s going on, but…!?” Troy was cut off when Gideon jumped off of his dragon and started to ascend in midair. The massive form of a black and red scaled dragon came into view. And it was heading straight for the three of them.

Wyatt’s red dragon form suddenly appeared and started after Gideon, but the giant robot was already ahead of it. The robot was already sparking badly from getting hit by Nina’s attack. The movements were jerky at best. Either that robot could handle a lot of crap, or the pilot when was they were doing.

Well, almost. The robot started to spark again, this time smoke started to come from the chest area of the robot. The robot grabbed onto Gideon’s dragon form and held it in a death grip. The robot’s jets started up and hurled itself into the air, Gideon along for the ride.

The robot stopped suddenly and then purposely went into a free fall. The dragon roared in anger and pain as the robot kept its death grip on it. The pilot was going to smash into the ground as high speeds, hopefully taking Gideon with it.

Gideon roared and tried to struggle out of the robot’s grasp, but found he couldn’t. So, instead, he let loose a stream of fire at the robot. Parts of the robot started to catch fire, and it was only too late that did Gideon realize that the pilot had set the self-destruct on the robot.

The chest area of the robot opened and a figure emerged just as the robot was quickly approaching the ground. The dragon’s eyes widened in surprise and shock when he realized who the pilot was. And who the pilot was carrying.

The pilot pushed herself from the falling robot, her charge tightly held in her arms. She strained under the weight, but managed to hold on tight. The woman did manage to free a hand and flip Gideon off as the robot plunged to the ground. There was a sudden pink and white blur, and the Great Bird of Wyndia caught the two occupants of the robot in midair.

The robot and Gideon finally hit the ground with a sickening thud. Wyatt jerked his head over to Mina and her cargo and nearly fell out of the sky. Miyuki and Nunnally were sitting on top of the Great Bird. Yuki sheepishly grinned and waved at Wyatt with her free hand, holding onto Nunnally with her other.

The robot suddenly sparked once more and exploded in a flurry of light. Gideon roared in pain and hate as he was caught up in the robot’s explosion. Yuki looked down and frowned. The dragon was getting back up and it looked pissed.

Yuki hollered out to Wyatt, but Wyatt could not hear her. He didn’t need to. He knew what she was trying to say. Gideon’s wings beat as he shakily took to the air once more. Gideon was heading straight for the Great Bird. Mina seemed to take note and started to flap her wings rapidly, trying to gain altitude. Yuki and Nunnally held on tight as Mina rose higher in the air, Gideon right on her tail.

Wyatt yelled as he launched himself right at the dragon. Gideon took note of the red dragon right on his tail. He turned around and started to breathe fire at the red dragon, but Wyatt dodged the spray of fire.

“Is that all you got old man?” Wyatt laughed. He held his hands out as the serpentine dragon started to glow red. “I will show you how a dragon breathes fire!”

And with that, a burst of red fire erupted from the red dragon and slammed right into Gideon. Wyatt smirked and maneuvered himself right in front of the Great Bird.

“If you want them, you will have to go through me!” Wyatt said with a vicious grin on his face.

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The battle was getting intense. Troy and Hawkeye started to tag team against the dragoons on the ground that had reverted and were heading right for the entrance to Navare.

Sari on the other hand was making great use of that lightning throwing attack that Yuki had given her. However, Sari noticed something strangely different about the power that Yuki had given her. It somehow managed to merge with her rejection powers.

So, one by one, Sari was launching the lightning bolts at dragons, only to have them revert back to their humanoid forms.

And when they did that, Hawk and Troy were on them like white on rice. Hawk quickly launched into the air and sliced at another dragoon in rapid session. If someone had told him that he was going to have to fight this early in the morning, he would have to question their sanity.

But as it stood, his home was in trouble, and these barely strangers were helping him defend it. They had saved him once before from that bastard Transell. Now they were helping him again. Hawk finished off another dragoon and turned around just in time to see another dragoon aiming right for Sari.

Hawk did not make a noise. He lunged forward and sliced right into the dragoon before he even had a chance to even get close to Sari. Sari jerked around and spotted the dragoon fall to the ground as Hawkeye resumed his battle stance. Sari smiled and nodded thanks at Hawk. Hawk nodded and sprinted off to face off against another dragoon.

Troy nodded in approval as Hawk ran over and joined Troy in slicing into yet another opponent.

“Something is bothering about this fight,” Troy said as he stabbed into another dragoon.

“Really? What would that be?” Hawk asked, as he sliced upward.

An inhuman roar answered Hawk’s question for him. Troy pointed to the source of the roar and frowned.

“That is what’s bothering me about this fight,” Troy said calmly.

Troy was pointing to a stream of light that was ascending towards the heavens. At ground zero of the column of light was a comatose Ryu. The sounds of his heartbeat echoed throughout the area.

“Is… is he ascending?!” Hawk yelled.

Troy frowned. “I don’t know!”

Both men were caught off guard as a dragon descended from the skies. Both of them looked up and spotted the dragon too late. Troy braced for the impact, but it never came. Instead there was a stream of lightning and the dragon reverted back to its human form. Troy reacted quickly and sliced into the dragoon before he had a chance to attack them.

“This… is bad,” Troy said as an understatement.

“What the hell are we suppose to do?” Hawk yelled.

“JUST KEEP ATTACKING!” Manna yelled from across the battlefield. “I WILL HANDLE RYU AND NINA!”

“Nina too…?” Hawk asked in confusion. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF LADON IS GOING ON HERE?!”

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Manna growled as she forced her body into a standing position. She glanced over at Jin and Momo struggling to stand as well. Jin’s mid-torso was covered in blood, staining his green robe red. Jin was doing his best to ignore what was happening. Momo grabbed onto Jin’s hand with her small hands and looked up at him.

“They are going to die…” Momo whimpered.

Jin frowned and almost asked Momo what she meant by that. Jin was stopped from asking when he noticed where Momo was looking at. She was looking at the Navare stronghold.

Momo started wailing at that moment. Jin took a deep breath and picked Momo up. Momo wailed as Jin staggered over to Manna. Manna readied her staff and turned her attention to Jin.

“Manna,” Jin said solemnly.

Manna nodded sadly. “This… won’t be in vain…” Manna said through gritted teeth. “But first and foremost, this must end now…”

Jin nodded and turned his back to Manna. He gently pushed Momo’s head against his shoulder so she wouldn’t see what was about to happen. Momo blinked in confusion and tried to raise her head, but Jin kept his hand on her head.

“No, I won’t let you see this,” Jin whispered to Momo.

“Daddy?” Momo asked through her tears. “What’s going on?”

Jin didn’t answer Momo. He just stood there, his back to the carnage.

Manna nodded sadly. “I’m sorry… Ryu…” Manna said in a quiet voice. She looked up in the sky where Nina was floating. The full force of Eternal Session was indeed a sight to behold, but Nina was not in control and she was about to lay waste to everything her eyes laid upon.

Manna steeled herself and prepared her spell. Nina had to be stopped, but Manna could not afford to strike her with an attack that could kill her. Manna slammed her staff into the ground and started chanting. When the spell was finished, Manna made a quick hand motion and sent the spell straight at Nina.

Nina screamed as the light hit her full force. She convulsed as the light around her vanished. Her wings grew back to their normal size. She convulsed again as she fell straight to the ground. Manna was about to move in to catch her, but Hawk suddenly appeared and grabbed Nina from the sky.

“Nice trick, lady!” Hawk yelled. Manna smirked.

“Nice catch! Is she alive?” Manna asked.

Hawk checked Nina’s pulse. “Yup, but she’s out cold. What did you hit her with, anyways?”

“Sealing magic along side tank magic,” Manna said. Hawk gave her a blank stare. “Long story,” Manna said. “My mother is the Goddess of Magicks, after all,” Manna said with a wink.

“What the hell did I sign myself up for?!” Hawkeye moaned.

Manna ignored Hawk and turned her attention to Ryu. She noticed that he was just staring right off into space, the powers of the Kaiser swirling around him. She then turned her attention to Sari and steeled herself once more.

“SARI! REJECT THAT DRAGON!” Manna howled, pointing to Valerie. Ryu’s head snapped up, a snarl on his face.

Sari nodded and aimed her hand right at the dragon. A blast of lightning was launched at Valerie and the white dragon was forced back into her humanoid form. The blue haired Valerie fell from the sky, her draconic wings flailing wildly around her. The Light Key pulsed wildly in her chest as she continued to fall to the ground.

Ryu’s head snapped up and he quickly jumped into motion to catch his falling mother. Sari covered her eyes as the body of her aunt slammed into the ground. Ryu stopped right in his tracks, frozen solid. He had failed to save his mother again.

“No…” Ryu whimpered. There was a sudden flash of light. “NO!” Ryu roared in anguish and despair. The sounds of his heartbeat exploded as the light erupted around Ryu and in his place stood the Kaiser Dragon.

The Kaiser howled in grief and confusion. It flailed around wildly as it launched into the sky. It had no rhyme or reason to it anymore. It started to spray golden fire around wildly, hitting Gideon in the process. The Great Bird flew quickly out of range, but Wyatt wasn’t so lucky. Wyatt was hit and the attack was strong enough to knock him out of his dragon form.

Wyatt wailed wildly in the air as he started a free fall. Mina moved quickly and caught him in midair. Yuki smiled bitterly at Wyatt as he quickly regained his senses. The Kaiser launched itself at Navare next.

Hawk’s eyes widened as everyone watched helplessly as the Kaiser sprayed golden fire at the stronghold. None of them were strong enough to counter the rampaging beast. Momo screamed as waves after waves of golden fire were sprayed at the rock. The rock melted away under the intense heat of the fire and started to burn the people inside.

Screams were heard echoing throughout the stronghold as those of Navare were killed mercilessly by the rampaging dragon. Jin choked as he held Momo against him. Momo flinched with each scream she heard. She cried even harder when she realized that Jin was shaking just as much as she was.

Her mother was still inside Navare…

“Oh, god…” Manna growled under her breath. “I didn’t think that…” Manna’s voice was drowned out by yet another death scream. Manna shook her head. She knew that there was not reasoning with Ryu at this point. She jerked around and spotted Troy picking up Valerie’s battered body. She was still breathing.

The Kaiser glared down at the ground and spotted Troy holding Valerie. The Kaiser roared and launched itself right at Troy. Troy stood his ground, prepared for the strike, but it never came.

An orange blur moved right in front of Troy and Valerie and blocked the attack. Troy actually grinned when he realized that the one that blocked the attack was none other than a really pissed off looking Garr. Manna actually sighed in relief when she spotted Garr.

Garr growled and summoned his halberd. He looked right at the Kaiser and steeled himself. “DRAGON! I AM A GUARDIAN IN THE SERVICE OF THE MIGHTY CREATOR, THE GREAT GODDESS! YOU WILL STAND DOWN NOW, OR BE DESTROYED!”

Leave it to Garr to make a scene more dramatic. Garr wasn’t actually going to hurt Ryu, just get his attention off of everyone so he could fight him. That was what a Guardian was, after all. A dragon slayer.

The Kaiser launched right at the Guardian. Garr readied his halberd as the Kaiser sprayed golden fire at him. Sari’s voice was heard screaming her objection line and the fire was sent right back at Ryu. The Kaiser howled and jerked its head in Sari’s direction.

With the Kaiser distracted, Garr lunged forward and slammed his halberd right into the dragon’s stomach. The Kaiser howled and screamed in agony as Garr withdrew the halberd and struck again and again. The Kaiser finally let loose a painful growl and started to flash gold.

The light died down and in the place of a rampaging dragon, laid the wounded and blooded body of Ryu. Garr walked over and picked up the broken body. He started back towards Manna, but was cut off by another dragon’s roar.

Gideon launched himself into the air once more and was heading straight for Garr and Ryu. Several of the dragons that had survived the Kaiser’s onslaught of attacks seemed to be flanking Gideon from both sides. Seth and Shelley ran over, followed by Wyatt, Mina, who had reverted back to human, and Yuki, who was still carrying Nunnally.

“We…” Shelley started to say, but Manna cut her off with a motion of her hand.

Manna turned to the rest of the group. She looked at Troy, who could only nod in agreement to an unspoken question.

“To the Pearl Kingdom then…” Troy said solemnly. “We have no choice, now…”

Manna nodded as she clenched her eyes shut. There was a bright purple light, and all party members flashed in the blink of an eye.

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Legence growled when he heard the news of Ryu and his party not only gained new numbers, but they managed to escape as well. He did realize several things, however. One of them was that Navare was out of the way once and for all. Karn couldn’t oppose him anymore.

Another thing was that for a brief second, the power of Creation had shown itself. He knew now which Maiden Myria had bestowed her blessings upon. Nina de Wyndia’s powers were going to be his at all costs.

The final stage was set. The final act had begun.

 

To be continued…