The jungle was now any children’s nightmare. Once a lush forest, now a desolate, burning Hell Incarnate. A graveyard for the wildlife. An oven for the living.

  The sky was still a shade of orange and red as ash and fire resides in the air. The ground was cracked and molten, the trees were burned to a crisp, and the air was thick with the smell of smoke and death.

  And Heios was amongst all of it, trapped in his subconsciously, albeit panic-ridden placed barrier. He was still healing from his leg wound, but the heat was making it worse.

  "...If I didn't pop my barrier, my feet would've been toast... Literally and figuratively. Heh."

  Heios said, looking around at the destruction Mikael caused.

  He looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was starting to set. The sky was turning from orange and red to a dark shade of purple and black. The fire was starting to die down, but the heat was still there.

  "That was smart... that was smart... Spear Man..."

  His anger started to bubble up inside him. His own turrets. His own plan. His own masterpiece, destroyed by a single attack. He truly felt like he was on the winning side this time.

  Having the ability to kill Mikael would definitely break Nanasu entirely. That's how he would win. But Mikael was always one step ahead of even the mastermind Heios.

  This one plan proved that no matter how smart and level-headed he could be, anyone will be unpredictable. That's why he needs more power. Not just physical power, but mental power.

  Heios's mind was not as strong as Avu's, nor was it as strong as Jasper's. He didn't have the same kind of cunning as Aria. But he had something they didn't have. Pride.

  He took pride in his work. He took pride in his creations. He took pride in his strength. He was a Venusian, after all. And Venusians were known for their strength and their pride.

  But this time, he felt pride in someone else. Not Avu, not Jasper, not Aria, not even Lord Veyron. It was Mikael. For the first time in his life, he felt a sense of respect for his enemy.

  His leg was almost healed, but his pride was wounded. He felt like he was back to square one. Back to being the brute that everyone thought he was. It felt truly disheartening.

  Frustrating, gut-wrenching even to develop forms of personality that everybody accepts as a norm but still being viewed as a brute from Venus.

  Everyone in Venus was seen as a monster. They only knew how to fight, scream and cause war.

  Heios wanted to break from that stereotype that deemed him a monster.

  He was asking too much, though. He has killed people; he likes killing and he likes fighting. It's all he has ever lived for. Betrayal, war and death is all he ever knew.

  Kyuga was his only true friend he knew who didn't treat him as some Venusian monster. He treated him like human, accepted his flaws and acknowledged him as a friend, nonetheless.

  That is what it means to be human. That is what it means to be someone that isn't who they think they are. That is his pride. Pride in being different. Pride in being someone else.

  But that is all gone now. Kyuga is gone, and Heios is left with nothing but his own pride and his own anger. And his own loneliness.

  "... I wish killing wasn't all I knew."

  He didn't have a hobby like Jasper, nor a sense of justice like Aria and Avu. His hobby was clawing at people. That's it. It wasn't a hobby; it was his job. His job was to kill.

  Right now, the only thing on his mind was if it was too late to learn how to love. Heh, that would be a funny phrase coming from a Venusian.

  Heios looked around before disintegrating his Soul-Barrier. The ground under him had a minute to survive before the fire consumed it. He had to move.

  His leg was fully healed now, and he started to walk through the charred forest. The heat was still intense, but he could tolerate it better than most. He looked at the sky, which was now a dark shade of purple and black. The stars were starting to appear.

  "... Kill or be killed, that’s just how it goes."

  -

  ...

  ...

  "WAI-" Mikael extended his hands to what was now the roof of a rescue shuttle. Mikael was lucky to see the rescue team he called still standing and unharmed.

  He tried his best, but even his best wasn't enough to put the remaining UoK down for the time being. Before falling completely unconscious, he felt himself getting healed by his enemy, Tadao Obuchi.

  At the same time, he saw Tadao tending to Jasper's wounds as well.

  The two of them were on opposite sides. Tadao was a Support-Type as well, but his support was different. It was more of a debuff than a buff. Tadao's gas, his wisps, his mist, all of it was a form of debuff. But he could also heal. A strange type of Support-Type. He was a jack of all trades.

  This left Mikael in awe. A Support-Type who could heal his enemies but also kill them with a single touch. You could call this an oxymoron, a contradiction.

  "Mr. Asger, you are safe now." A paramedic said, putting a blanket over him.

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  Mikael looked at his hands, then at the roof of the shuttle. He was alive, but he felt dead inside.

  "What... about... Mervio...?" He asked, his voice weak.

  The paramedic looked at him with a sad expression. "He didn't make it."

  Mikael's eyes widened in shock. Anger and guilt washed over him in an instant. The failure of protecting the one person that could uphold the integrity of the eastern route to Soul-Core's influence hit him harder than he could imagine. He had one job, one job to secure a life and protect integrity.

  He failed.

  "... Fuck me!" Mikael slammed down on his own thigh; his voice filled with rage.

  "Mr. Asger, please, try to calm down. You're heavily injured."

  "... They can turn the entire city into a glass floor whenever they want and we're running away from them! With Mervio dead, Dark Intrinium might topple the entire scales in their favour, and our efforts to protect this planet were all for nothing! Not just the planet, but thousands of star systems!"

  Mikael wanted to curl up into a ball. He failed his team, he failed Soul-Core, he failed everyone. He's always been the reliable one, the one who never failed, and now he felt like a complete loser. A loser who couldn't even protect one politician.

  It wasn't really his fault though, was it? That's what he wanted to think. If someone so clandestine like Tadao wasn't there, he would've succeeded. But the fact of the matter is that Tadao was there. And his failure was a failure, nonetheless. He could've done things differently. He could've broken the one rule he should not break and secure victory.

  He knows he has the power to annihilate Jasper Emerson and Tadao Obuchi. After all, he was the one who cooked Heios in a sea of flames. But he didn't. He was bound by rules. Rules that were meant to protect people, but in this case, they protected the enemy. He looked out of the shuttle's window, seeing the once-beautiful city of Armada now a chaotic mess. Fires, smoke, and the occasional explosion painted a dark picture.

  Was this no-kill rule really a good thing? Wars kill people, Soul-Core should be no exception. They are at war, right? War is the death of many people for the sake of something bigger. The Uprising of Kytron is an organization of many evils, why the hell would leaving them alive do the galaxy any good?

  "... Any word from my squadmates?" He asked, his voice a little calmer now.

  "We're trying to establish contact with them, Mr. Asger. The comms are jammed due to the ongoing chaos in the city. We're trying our best to get a signal."

  Mikael sighed and leaned back, closing his eyes. He wanted to sleep, to forget everything that happened. But the screams of Mervio, the sight of Jasper's regeneration, the smell of the burnt forest, and the cold, dead eyes of Tadao haunted him. It was a living nightmare.

  "Radio contact Flamewall Station while we look for Nanasu... I need to report everything."

  ...

  ..

  .

  -

  Nanasu was crashing from tree to tree, subconsciously creating Soul-Barriers only to shatter them with every hit. Aria Fujimara, the Second Follower, gave her no time to breathe and no space to regain her balance.

  How did Nanasu put herself in such a bad position? She is an Elite, who used to be of extreme power, but Aria is kicking her around like a football.

  Aria was slicing trees down to prevent herself from crashing into a tree, so nimble and precise. Nanasu had to rely on her Soul-Barriers to cushion her falls. This is no longer a fight; it's just Aria playing with her food.

  "You know... it's kind of pathetic that you call yourself an Elite of Soul-Core," Aria's voice was filled with condescension. "You're nothing but a weakling who relies on cheap tricks."

  "Oh yeah? Pick someone of your own size, then!" Nanasu's frustration was apparent in her voice, her body still crashing. She was trying to manifest a counterattack, but Aria was too fast.

  "I am picking someone of my own size. You and I are the same height. If you're referring to power, then I'm sorry to say that you're not even close." Aria vanish-stepped behind Nanasu, grabbing her by the hair and throwing her into the ground.

  "Kgh!" Nanasu punched a tri-laser onto the ground to propel herself upwards, grabbing Aria by the leg and throwing her into a tree. This was the first of many retaliations from Nanasu, if she survives, that is.

  However, much to Nanasu's dismay, she landed sideways before moving perpendicular to the ground. Aria was quick to recover, she landed on her feet with no trouble at all, and she was already charging at Nanasu.

  Gripping Enk-X tightly, a 2-meter long masamune, she charged Soul-Energy into her Signature Weapon to perform a vertical slash that can damage the Soul. The wave moved rather quickly to Nanasu, giving her no downtime in between attacks.

  "Fuck!" Nanasu had to move down and duck just low enough to narrowly miss the wave. If the slash had touched Nanasu in any way, her Soul would've overridden any defensive tactics she had in store and move into a panic state where even Nanasu couldn't even recover from.

  That was the money shot right there, Aria was just unlucky enough to underestimate Nanasu's speed. Nanasu, the one who has to use her speed to her advantage. She's not as durable or tanky as Mikael or Claude, so she has to make do with her agility and finesse.

  But that was the thing, Aria was just as fast and agile. Even though Nanasu's Soul is based on speed and agility, Aria makes up for it by just being a nimble Weapon-Type.

  And that is what infuriated Nanasu. She had to rely on her Soul-Barriers just to survive. Not to win, but just to survive. If she could take out Aria right here and right now, she could turn the tides of this battle.

  This moral code that they had to stand by were not helping them in any way. Kill or be killed, that's how it is. But if you're not allowed to kill, will you be killed before you could kill what wants to kill you?

  It's a vicious cycle. Nanasu couldn't get over it. How come she had to fight the Uprising of Kytron, who actively try and kill her and her teammates, but not be allowed to kill them?

  No, it's not because they're not allowed to kill. That kind of rule can be broken at any time if it meant their absolute survival.

  Soul-Core, or better yet the Star Gazer Squad, didn't want to brand themselves as killers. They don't kill, because they don't want to kill. They're not allowed to kill, because they simply don't want to.

  That's all there is to it.

  Aria vanish-stepped once more, grabbing Nanasu by the back and kicking her down. Nanasu was forced to the ground again, where she needed to pop another Soul-Barrier to minimize the damage that she deals by hitting the ground.

  Since the ground is coarse and rocky, a Soul-Barrier would be the best way to go about it if it meant not having to break every bone in your body. Though, that didn't stop Aria with her Enk-X, following with an attempt to lethally slash away at Nanasu with fast-paced thrusts and slashes.

  "Ascentius Spiral!" Aria yelled.

  "Shi-" Nanasu rolled away from the slash before shooting 2 consecutive tri-lasers to stagger Aria in her continuous offensive.

  Nanasu was basically surfing the ground. Both were moving at an incredible speed faster than a sports car. It was a race to see who would get to the finish line first. The finish line being the one to win the battle. Nanasu's tri-lasers were the only thing keeping her from being killed, and the same could be said for Aria's slashes.

  The laser and the slashes were both so fast and so powerful that even the sound barrier was broken. Nanasu could feel the wind in her ears, her hair flowing behind her. Aria was the same, her hair flowing in the wind behind her, her face showing a mix of focus and enjoyment.

  Both were nimble and acrobatic, able to dodge most of the trees that are in their path. They were both on the same page, and it was only a matter of time before they would collide.

  .:. If only I had such a cunning mind like my teammates, I would be able to formulate a plan. But this is it. This is all I can do. Fight, just fight. .:.

  Aria met Nanasu once again, but downwards this time, hopping from tree to tree to even the distance.

  "I got you now!" Aria yelled, following with 5 mirages of herself.

  "Are you kidding me!?" Nanasu yelled back with a voice screaming concern and frustration.

  Aria was going to trap her in a 6-point attack formation, that was for sure. If she couldn't dodge the first slash, she would get hit by the next five. She had to move, she had to run. But where could she run? She was in a dead end.

  The only way out was to take the risk, and hope for the best. Or...