As Belz crashed down onto the boardwalk with Lucy not to far behind, two figures emerged from the red and blue portals. One was a muscular Oni with overflowing red hair that draped down to her waist, wearing a large, white duster that matched her saintly white skin. The oni slammed down what looked like an oversized high tech spear into the ground as she stared off into the open sea.
The other was a shorter, scruffy haired young man with two long purple rabbit ears. He wore a similarly pure white fur hooded coat that complimented his radiantly pale complexion as well. The rabbit leant against remodelled version of Fatebreaker, seeming content to stare out to the open sea.
"Who would have ever thought we'd see the ocean again, Arti?" The oni sighed, leaning down to her partner's height. The rabbit lightly nudged the oni's arm with a smirk. "Eh. I'd go back to the city." He joked.
Avis was frozen stiff at the sight.
It had been over twenty years since she had heard those voices.
Voices that shouldn't be there.
And as Lucifer emerged from the sea, she looked just as dumbfounded by the sight.
"WHY IS THE RABBIT AND ONI BACK!?" She roared at the top of her lungs.
"Because I figured "Hey, what's a better way to make this more fun? I know, bring back some familiar faces"! Only then can I have a team that'll get me my prize!" Verum called out as she playfully leant over the side of the ship with Nvr and V9 behind her.
Belz, having recovered from his crash landing, let out a loud sigh once he heard the rodent's voice. "Are you serious? You can't leave this star, you know."
Verum's laughter died down, her expression filled with light confusion mixed in with mild amusement. "And what makes you the expert?"
"Years of travelling between stars, more years spent running a business to travel between those stars and of course, my impeccable deduction skills know that you haven't actually GOT a plan to get off this rock." He smirked, leaning against his cane as he stared up to the now flustered Verum.
She gave a dismissive wave before speaking in a self assured tone; "Whatever. I already have someone hunting for a being capable of moving stars. So, I've pretty much already won."
"Yeah... Maybe... No. My ever sweet titanic sized friend has already taken care of the R.A.A.T department."
"What about the fish?"
"I don't know-"
"I ate her."
"Lucy ate her." Belz shrugged before disappearing and reappearing next to Verum in a burst of flames. "Why don't you leave, disappear and never return for a bit and I'll maybe, potentially, perhaps consider... Getting your Mouse."
Verum looked stunned by the demon's words, instantly realising who he was. She suddenly burst into laughter as she put her hand on his shoulder. "Fine. IF you can get me my sweet Lilian, I'll get my revenge/love and then I'll just let you do whatever."
Lucy just stared at the two with her mouth agape. "You will not deny me my revenge, Mollia!" She screamed, her many tentacles raised to strike at a moments notice. Yet Belz put his hand up, signalling her to wait as he began muttering some weird chant beneath his breath.
"So... Whatever I'm supposed to call you, do we have a deal?" He said, turning back to Verum with a smile as he held his hand out to shake. With out hesitation, the rodent grabbed his hand in agreement.
Suddenly, golden ethereal chains shot out between the two of them. Belz gave a grin as he leant in closer. "By the way... I should mention that this is a contract. If you break it, I'll own your soul. Ain't that dandy, neat and down right great?"
The leviathan behind them was cackling with delight, quickly leaning down to Verum's level to revel in the shock of the truth telling Rodent. "Look at your face... I LOVE IT."
As the dust settled on the great battle of Daydream, Lucy had finally managed to transform back into her more human self as she looked at the ruined city with a light bit of delight. Yet as everyone was loading onto the ship, Avis pointed out to the edge of the boardwalk.
"Where did the uh... Where did the copies of Ven and Tika go?"
Verum, who was now sitting on the edge of the deck gave a shrug.
V-9 quickly pinned her against the floor, having broken free of her control thanks to the contract, and yelled for her to tell them where the doppelgangers went.
"I dunno, okay? I just made them from memory, so who knows. You probably won't have to worry about them, okay?" She answered before shoving the fusion off. Lucy was now concerned by the prospect of having to fight the Heartbreak Hero again, yet Sesnhi soon distracted her when she handed the demon a high tech video camera.
With tear filled eyes, The Centipede explained all about how Arachne, along with all of Kiola's crew, had been trapped inside the camera. Lucy looked the camera over before staring down at Senshi with a seemingly hollow stare under her bangs.
"Did you try the button that says eject?"
Senshi shook her head as Lucy pressed the taped on label that read "eject". Instantly, the one hundred and fifty two members of Kiola's crew, along with Pit and Pheya suddenly appeared in a pile, barely missing Senshi as they crashed onto the wooden deck.
"W-Where's Arachne?" The centipede questioned in a worried tone, beginning to fear the worst as she clung to Lucy's shoe.
"I was just making my entrance." The spider idol called out as she appeared with a mystical shimmer on top of the pile of unconscious workers.
"D... Did she have glitter on her?" Lucy wondered. Arachne did in fact keep a small pouch of glitter with her in case she ever needed to make an extra dramatic entrance, like this one such occasion.
With everyone else left recovering and Nvr having to figure out how to unfuse Grey and Vinea, Lucy was left alone with Belz and Verum in the deepest, darkest part of the ship. Kiola's room.
The demon took a seat on the dragon's pile of randomly thrown together trinkets that vaguely resembled a throne and with her signature cold stare, she simply asked;
"What now?"
Belz gave a playful flick of his hat and explained in a chipper tone. "Well, well, well... I think going back to the resort is our best bet. If she wants her little wish granted, the first thing I need to do, handle and all round get to is calming down my dear, sweet, ungodly goddess."
"Yeah, cool. So... After that I get my wish, right?" Verum questioned, crossing her arms as she leant backwards into a pile of oversized clothes. "Once I calm Ennu down, I'll just have to get a handle of a few remaining anomalies here and there, then we can do your thing." He sighed, tossing his cane between his hands.
"Speaking of anomalies," Verum said with a grin as she looked over to Lucy. "You still got that camera?"
"Indeed, Rodent."
"Yeah, toss it here real quick."
"No." The demon answered sternly, though that did little to dissuade Verum. She suddenly, ever so slightly appeared to the right with the camera now in hand. Lucy was somewhat confused as to what happened, yet from both Verum and Belz's faces, she could tell it was something less convoluted then she first thought.
"Time stop, correct?"
"Yep, yep, yep." The two said in unison. After a bit of time, Verum finished fiddling around with the camera. With another press of the eject button, a blinding white light enveloped the room. In front of the demon was a spiked golden halo that peacefully floated in front of her.
"Is... That..."
"Parfait's halo? Yeah. I knew the twins were hiding something from me, so I figured "hey, we're friends now. What's the harm in giving this back to you"? So, we cool now?" Verum said with two playful finger guns and a wink to be safe.
Yet Lucy remained quiet, just staring at her auntie's halo for a few more moments. "We are not friends. In fact, I will end your miserable existence once I've sorted more pressing matters."
The two were quiet at the demon's words, yet Verum just gave a thumbs up and a self assured smirk. "Deal. Mollia doesn't have any other plans after she sees Mouse... So, yeah. Kill me."
"I truly hate you." She snapped back, grabbing the halo that was visibly burning her hand before she left without another word.
"What did you, Rat and Mollia do to that woman?" Belz questioned as he turned to his ex with an awkward look. "Oh... Well, Rat killed her sort of adopted son, Mollia killed her mother and world and I... Have no idea what I've done? She really has no reason to hate me."
"Wow... Okay. You truly are a monster, ya know that?"
"I'm a god, monsters fear me. I'm above you, her and everyone else in the universe. What could possibly take away that part of me." She laughed, blowing a few strands of hair out of her face.
Belz couldn't help but roll his eyes. In the years he had come to know Rat, he had never expected to see this side of her. One that was so arrogant and full of herself to even think she was a god. Perhaps this was a side of a Mollia as well, he never really knew much about who she once was.
But in that moment, Belz felt like it was the perfect time to leave Verum with something to think about.
"You know we have a kid, right?"
"Ha... Yeah. Wait, no? What? You're fuckin' with me, right?"
"How many loops have you gone through to forget that you've given birth?" He groaned, rubbing his forehead as his fox ears twitched. "Mollia and Rat have been locked out of my memories for the equivalent of thousands of years! I'm not even them! I-I'm too great to remember something so trivial."
"Well, you have fun trying remembering, forget or something in between. I'm just gonna leave you here to think in peace." He smirked, vanishing in a burst of flames.
With little else to do as she waited for the ship to take off and go to the resort, Verum was left alone with her thoughts about how truly screwed she truly was.
"You know, I think this a teachable moment in humility." A familiar heroic voice said from behind.
"Oh, shoulda woulda coulda. Hey, at least Biz now has a siblin'." A familiarly smug and uncaring voice also called out.
Verum sighed, turning back to see the familiar reflections of who she used to be. Both Rat and Mollia stood in front of a mirror, both as smug as ever.
"Great... Now there's three of us..."