"Rei!" Lyria struggles to free her arm from the thick mist grip from Celeste who is emitting an aura similar to Rei's four wings.
"Celeste, let me go!" Lyria repeatedly commands Celeste to release her grip by using her powers, but Celeste completely ignoring her.
Lyria sees Rei with his six wings stabbing Freesia's abdomen with Celeste's weapon. She doesn't know what that weapon's effects or even care about Freesia's fate who is convulsing with a horrifying expression since the dagger pierced her.
Strangely no blood coming out from Freesia's wound, the dagger seems to penetrate her stomach without harming her flesh. But Lyria is more worried about Rei, who seems to be losing control again and wants to get closer to him to absorb his power just like she did previously when Rei lost control.
But Celeste preventing her from getting close. "Celeste!!!" Lyria shouts again this time using more of her power causing her long blue hair to shimmer.
As Lyria does this Celeste's purple aura begins to diminish though not entirely, and Celeste still restrains Lyria and Orchid.
"He's an Astral...?" Orchid mutters to herself.
She clearly hears the man in front of her refer to himself as an Astral. It all makes sense now why he can wield Primal Beast's power and control Celeste so easily that Lyria can't regain control.
"Orchis, please help me!" Orchid suddenly hears Lyria's shout, causing her to turn towards her.
"Lyria?"
"Please help me take control of Celeste. I need your help, please!" Lyria desperately calls out to Orchid, realizing that her power alone is not enough to overpower Rei's control over Celeste.
Seeing Lyria's desperate expression and her plea for help, Orchid is convinced that this man...no, this man named Rei is someone very important to her.
Without hesitation, Orchid nods and lifts her left hand reaching out to grasp Lyria's right hand.
Since they are close to each other they easily join hands and combining their powers together. "Let's do this, Orchis!"
"Umm!" Orchid nods, and her silver twin-tailed hair falls free transforming into shining long straight silver hair just like Lyria's.
Not only is their hair glowing, but their eyes are also shining—Lyria's with her blue eyes and Orchis's with her red eyes.
"I request, under protocol of Arcus!" Orchid exclaims as she feels their power combining.
"Transferring half administrative privileges."
Lyria without hesitation responds, "I accept! Transferring half of administrative privileges completed!"
After this Lyria is enveloped in a blue light while Orchid's body is surrounded by a silver aura making their hair shine even brighter.
They both raise their hands towards Celeste. "I Lyria Orchis, command you, Celeste! Use all your power to eliminate the aura controlling you!" Both of them said at the same time
Celeste's body is immediately enveloped in blue and silver auras, which begin to consume the purple aura previously emanating from her. Soon Celeste is seen clutching her head trying to regain control of her body.
The three auras clash, fighting for control over Celeste but it isn't long before Lyria's blue aura overpowers and eradicates the purple aura from Celeste's body.
The mist that has been restraining Lyria and Orchid gradually dissipates as Celeste regains control of herself. Once Celeste is back to normal, she vanishes into fragments of light and returns to the blue crystal necklace on Lyria chest.
Without delay, Lyria releases Orchid's hand and runs towards Rei who is still stabbing Freesia. Unfortunately, due to both of taking too long Freesia is already unconscious though her body continues to convulse.
"Rei!!"
With no obstacles, Lyria easily approaches Rei and hugs him from behind. "Stop, Rei, you will lose control if you keep using those wings!"
Lyria immediately begins absorbing the purple aura surrounding Rei's wings, channeling it into her necklace.
Thanks to Lyria, Rei four wings that enveloped in the purple aura slowly start to disappear little by little. However, her necklace begins to change color from blue to purple as it try to absorbing Rei's power.
"Ughhh!" Lyria feels overwhelmed because the power she is absorbing is too much for her to handle.
"Lyria...?" Suddenly, Lyria hears Rei's voice followed by the sound of something falling, making her think that Rei has released Freesia from his grasp.
But Lyria is not yet finished absorbing all the raging aura from Rei's body and continues to try to absorb it all, but she is at her limit.
Her body sweats and trembles, becoming weak as if begging her to stop absorbing the power, but Lyria continues to absorb it all to bring Rei back to normal.
The necklace on Lyria's chest becomes increasingly purple and looks like it might explode from holding all that power. But suddenly, someone else hugs Rei from his side.
Lyria immediately feels the power flowing into her cut in half, making her open her eyes to see what happened.
"Orchis??"
"This...is...heavy..." Orchid struggles as she feels Rei's power.
"Hang in there, Orchis, we're almost done!" Lyria shouts to the overwhelmed Orchid while refocusing on absorbing all the power.
With Orchid help, the two of them manage to absorb all of Rei's uncontrollable Astral power. And then Rei six wings immediately vanished causing him to collapse.
"Uwaaaa," Lyria and Orchis are slightly thrown back after they finish.
But Lyria after seeing Rei fall immediately runs to him and tries to check his condition.
Meanwhile, Orchid feels Rei's Astral power inside her making her feel much stronger than before.
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
"I'm really sorry for what we did!" Pommern bows to us along with all the soldiers who have regained consciousness.
"We know that saying sorry isn't going to change what we've done to you," Pommern bows even deeper as a gesture of apology to Lyria.
"But I will make sure that in the future, we won't make the same mistakes and will focus on improving the lives of the people that suffer because of Freesia fake order."
After I wake up, Lyria tells me what happened because I don't remember anything after showing Freesia's memories to everyone.
I didn't expect my four wings to be enveloped in that purple aura... I don't know how to control this power and I'm really scared that if all my wings are covered in that aura I will fully become an Astral.
Right now, I'm lucky that I had Lyria and Orchis here so they both managed to stop me... But what if Lyria isn't around me next time? I could completely lose control.
So I need to do something about this, but I don't know how... Either I need to find another Astral or find Lucifer because this body is technically half Lucifer's body.
"It's fine, at least now we know who the real culprit is," Lyria says while looking with disgust at Freesia who is being carried away by two empire soldiers.
"Thank you very much for accepting our apologies! We'll make sure to punish the culprit severely!" Pommern lifts his head, feeling relieved that Lyria forgives them.
Then Pommern turns to Orchid who is standing behind me hugging her doll. "I'm sorry too, Orchis... We don't know how to fix you, but if you need anything, please tell me so I can do something for you."
Orchid just nods while continuing to hug her doll then looks away. Pommern jsut sighs after seeing this but he understand why Orchid is like this.
He then turns to me. "You too, Mister Astral, if you need anything, don't hesitate to tell us," Pommern says politely to me.
After everything calms down, they begin to process what I said earlier about being an Astral, and because of that their attitudes change drastically becoming very respectful when talking to me.
Because the Astral built their Empire and is their King before Freesia caused his disappearing...
"Yeah... No problem. I already got what I want, but if you want to help me, just don't tell anyone I'm an Astral," I say to them while massaging my head.
I didn't expect that I would shout that I'm an Astral when I lose control... I know Astrals are full of ego, but this is just too much.
"Yes, if that's your order," they all shout while saluting me.
Then the soldiers carrying Freesia start moving to transfer her to the holding cell while the others begin talking to one another.
"Now what, Rei?" Lyria who's holding my hand asks me.
"I just want to end this already... Let's just go get Akasha," I tell Lyria because I'm tired and want to rest on the Grandcypher.
"What about you... Orchid?" I turn around to see Orchid still hugging her doll, looking as if she doesn't know what to do.
Orchid looks startled when she hears me speaking to her, but after a moment she replies "I don't know... Maybe I'll go with them..."
Ahh that's right. I forget that at this point, Orchid is still the doll that just follows orders... Orchid only changes when she defies Freesia's command to use Akasha to erase Djeeta and the other in the game.
But since we foil Freesia's plans here, Orchid is still a doll who obeys orders without hesitation.
"By the way, Rei, why do you keep calling her Orchid? Isn't her name Orchis?" Lyria asks me.
Orchid after hearing that seems interested in my response, as I notice her slightly turn toward me.
"What do you mean why? That's because Orchis is the other one, right? The one trapped inside Deus ex Machina? So this one isn't Orchis but someone who doesn't have a name," I say to them.
I then use my hand the one not being held by Lyria to touch Orchid's head. "So, since she doesn't have a name, I decided to call her Orchid. Besides, you can say they are like twin sisters."
I finish speaking while stroking Orchid's long silver hair.
"Oh, you're right! This isn't actually Orchis, so we can't call her by that name, and I actually like Orchid for her name too," Lyria says happily upon hearing me. She then lets go of my hand and approaches Orchid.
"Hehe, then nice to meet you, Orchid." Lyria extends her hand to Orchid for a handshake.
But Orchid just stares at us with wide eyes and doesn't respond to Lyria at all.
Seeing Orchid stay silent make Lyria tilts her head in confusion. "Orchid? Do you not like that name? If you don't, we can think of a name that suits you."
Hearing this finally breaks down Orchid's walls and tears start flowing from her eyes. "Uhhhh..." Orchid tries to wipe away the sudden tears.
"Orchid???" Lyria is so confused when she sees Orchid suddenly crying.
"No.... I actually like it...." Orchid tries to answer Lyria, but her crying makes it a bit difficult.
Seeing this Lyria immediately hugs Orchid tightly letting her cry in her arms.
"Well, there you go, Lyria... Her answer," I say to Lyria while stroking both Lyria's and Orchid's hair.