Inside an abandoned bar…
A group of monstrous bandits were gathered in a bar. Each of them had various misshapen heads or bodies, and their skin ranged from various colors such as green, black, and even blue.
A giant green monster with 3 deformed heads and 4 arms sat in the middle table. He looked around at the monsters, each of whom couldn't seem to stay still.
"Don't worry, my brethren! Vapron and his allies will let us loose soon!"
A spider-like monster crawled up to him. "Sir Triune, they've killed the last bandits we sent out! Are we ready to take them on?"
Sir Triune stood up, knocking the table over. "Of course we are! Vapron will give us the signal, and we shall take and ravish as we please!"
This seemed to stir up hope in the monsters, and they began to cheer.
BOOM.
They heard a noise, and immediately an alert rang through the bar.
"Warning! Warning! Attack at the Tech Expo!"
"That's our cue!" Sir Triune yelled. "Let's go!"
"YEAH!" the monsters shouted.
They threw open the door to the bar, leading into an empty street, and they saw a massive amount of smoke in the distance.
"There!" Sir Triune pointed. "Let us join the fight!"
They ran towards the smoke, as fast as they could.
Meanwhile, outside the Tech Expo…
"Hey, guys! Stop!" Dachii exclaimed.
Dachii jumped onto a roof, dodging the attacks from the Zharians. Vapron tried to hit him with a fist of smoke, but Dachii managed to avoid it.
"Shit! They're crazy!" Dachii thought.
Prismar landed next to him, forming a blade out of pink crystals.
"Stop running. You have a purpose to serve."
Dachii ducked as Prismar swung the blade at him. "What purpose? I don't even know what you want!"
Alterna appeared behind him and grabbed his arm. "Don't worry, we'll show you, dear."
Dachii tried to wrestle his arm free, but Alterna's grip was tight.
"Let me go!"
"Aww, but I thought you liked girls!"
"Yeah, but I don't wanna get kidnapped in the process!"
Alterna leaned in and whispered into his ear. "But don't you want to see your dear old dad again?"
Dachii immediately stopped. "W—what?"
"I know what REALLY happened to him. I can tell you if you come with us."
Dachii rounded on her. "No way, you've got to be lying…"
"Would I lie to you—-?"
Immediately, her head was blown off. Dachii looked back and saw Shu and the Protection Force, with the officials standing behind them.
"Shot landed!" Shu said.
"Good, now kill the rest of them!" Akira ordered.
They continued firing, but Prismar lifted his hand. "Pests. So ANNOYING."
A storm of sharp pink crystals emerged from his hand, firing and hitting various soldiers.
"AHHH!"
Just as Dachii managed to break free, Alterna regenerated her head. "The audacity!"
In the blink of an eye, she took a gun out of a soldier's hand and whacked him across the face with it. Shu tried to shoot her but she kicked him back.
"Damn, she hits so hard!" Shu remarked.
In an instant, Raylon and Prismar were by her side, and Vapron had Dachii trapped in a massive fist of smoke.
"How…is…this…so…thick?" Dachii wondered.
"Father, what do we do?!" Akira shouted, as the Zharians began to walk towards them.
Shōtarō looked around, seeing the severity of the situation. "We've got to fall back! Grab Dachii and retreat!"
"We can use the robots! Azura remembered, just as Prismar summoned a large crystal to fire at them.
Just as he was about to release it, a chain threw him into a nearby building.
"What the—-?"
Before Vapron could react, he saw Dachii being yanked out of the smoke by someone. When the figure landed, they saw:
"General!" Shōtarō said, relief on his face.
Morino set Dachii down, who began coughing from the smoke.
"Grandfather…they're strong!"
Morino tightened the grip on his axes. "Trust me, kiddo. I know."
"Grr!" Vapron lifted his arm. "Get out the way—-!"
BOOM.
His arm got shot off. All around the Zharians, military soldiers landed. Nakada pointed her gunblade at them.
"So that's what you look like," she said. "Pitiful."
Kai, Obara, Yuri, Mina, Nishiyama, Tomoko, Oyakawa, Mashimo, Luca, Marachii, Atomu, and the rest of the squads stared them down, weapons ready.
"Stupid worms." Alterna spat out.
Morino pointed his axe at the enemy and shouted: "ATTACK!"
The soldiers all rushed at them, but just as they did, Vapron began to laugh.
"Heheh. Do you think it's THAT easy?"
A mountain of hot smoke came from Vapron's body, firing out in all directions and sending soldiers flying.
"Ahh! It's so hot!" Nishiyama exclaimed.
"Obara! What is this?" Kai asked, covering his face.
"I…don't know!" he responded.
"Don't…lose sight of Dachii!" Atomu said.
"It's filling my lungs! I can't…think…" Dachii sputtered out, weakly.
After the smoke cleared, all the Voltians were in different places, and Vapron and the others remained unharmed.
"You guys can have your way with the rest. I'll go handle the Holder." Vapron remarked.
They all nodded and jumped in different directions. Towards the right, Dachii had landed, spitting and coughing.
"I can't believe this! Attacked by one of them AGAIN, in the same week!"
Vapron touched down next to him. "This can be all so easy if you just COME WITH US!"
"I don't even know what you want!"
Dachii tried to throw a nearby lamp post at Vapron, but he used the smoke to catch it easily.
"Where's the Dachii that fought Nullus? Why do I get the weak version?"
Just as he attempted to grab Dachii, Atomu kicked him back.
"Apologies, Dachii. It seemed I underestimated their boldness."
"Prince Atomu!" Dachii felt relieved.
Vapeon growled, but he was hit with a barrage of cannon fire, which passed straight through him.
"You're not taking my brother!" Marachii said, defiantly. "Get back!"
Vapron stared at the three boys in front of him. "Pfff. Is this all I get? A cursed Prince, an awkward nerd, and a former cripple?"
He lifted his hand, and in glowing purple lines, they all saw his rank: 15th.
"His rank! He's much stronger than Nullus!" Dachii realized.
Before anyone could say anything, Vapron slammed his hands into the ground and the entire street began to fill with smoke, sending the boys flying down the street.
Just as he did, he noticed civilians evacuating.
"Go! Go! Go!"
"We've gotta get to the mainland!"
"Monsters! It's monsters!"
Vapron turned toward them. "You're one to talk. CLEARING SMOKE!"
With a swipe of his arm, a storm of smoke arose, and it trapped and suffocated numerous people inside of it.
"For the weight of your sins, your wrongdoings shall be cleared. Through your deaths!"
As the people fell to the ground, dead, Nishiyama watched from the window inside of a building, hiding.
"What do I do? What do I do?"
She looked out the window just as Atomu stood to face Vapron.
"Look at the innocent lives you just took! How can that be anything but a monster?"
Vapron hardened his face. "Those lives were anything BUT innocent."
Atomu shot his plasma rifle at him, but all of the shots passed through Vapron's body.
"Speaking of, you're by no means innocent EITHER, Atomu. Or did you forget your place?!"
Atomu's eyes widened, but Vapron formed a fist of smoke from his hand and whacked Atomu with it.
Nishiyama peeked out again, but this time, Vapron was looking right at her.
"EEEK!"
On the left side, Luca, Yuri, and Tomoko landed. Luca got up, dusting himself off. "Where the hell are we now?"
Tomoko pointed at Prismar, who landed a few feet away from them. "I think he knows!"
"Aww, Tomoko! It's good to see you again!"
Tomoko turned around and saw Alterna sitting cross-legged on a roof, blowing him a kiss.
"Oh, who are you?" Tomoko asked, confused.
Alterna chuckled and immediately her form shifted back into Rumi, waving.
"Remember me?"
Tomoko waved back, excited. "Rumi! Yay, we can fight now!"
Alterna shifted back to normal. "Mhm! And when I kill your friends, how about we go buy more snacks?"
"Yes! Haha!"
Yuri elbowed him. "Tomoko!"
Prismar formed a sword out of crystal. "Enough of this. Time to die."
Without warning, he moved towards Luca and tried to slash him in the chest, but Luca just barely managed to block the attack.
"It took our all just to Ossix and Nullus, now we have to beat even stronger opponents?" Luca thought.
Yuri touched the ground below him and liquified it, and Prismar sank chest-deep into it.
"Oh. What a tragedy."
He punched the ground so hard it collapsed, freeing himself. Yuri watched in shock.
"That's impossible, no one has—-"
Alterna kicked her in the face, sending her flying. "Nothing is impossible, little girl."
Luca swung his axe at her head but she dodged and took it out of his hands, impaling it into his head.
"Poor, poor wolf."
She batted him aside, just to find Tomoko aiming his gun at her. "Aww, how cute?"
He shot it but she effortlessly dodged the attacks, before tossing his gun aside. He threw a punch at her but she caught it.
"I like your guts! It's…admirable."
Prismar was busy holding Luca and Yuri by the necks. "Enough playing, Alterna. Let's handle these two and get the Holder."
Alterna rolled her eyes. "Can't you see me and my human are having a chat? You kill them."
Southwest of the battle, Mina, Kai, and Obara had landed, right near the shopping district.
"Oooh! Something smells good!" Kai noticed.
"Focus, dimwit! We've got a battle on our hands!" Obara ordered.
Mina stood up, looking around. "I don't see anyone but those people over by the shops—-"
In a flash, light as hot as sunlight flashed through the district, burning numerous people to death.
"What? What was that?" Kai asked, frantically.
Raylon appeared, casually walking toward them. "No generals. Makes this much easier."
Obara pulled an orb out of his pocket and got just the right angle.
"Probability: 98.6%!"
He threw it at the ground and it bounced off, heading right for Raylon's head…
But he caught it in his hand.
"Nice calculation."
"That defies math! My probabilities aren't wrong!"
Raylon crushed it with ease. "It made contact. Just not with what you'd hoped."
"Get down!" Mina warned, and Raylon held up both of his hands, emitting a bright light from them.
People running away got blinded by the light and fell to the floor.
"Can't see! Help! Help!"
"What happened? What the hell happened?!"
Mina, Kai, and Obara, covering their eyes, got up. Raylon tilted his head. "Smart. You avoided being permanently blinded."
Before he could unleash another attack, Mashimo and Oyakawa fired a barrage of shots at him, which he avoided.
"Sorry, rookies! No need to worry!" Oyakawa assured. "We've come to put this dog down!"
Mashimo shook his head. "Just shoot him."
Raylon used another blinding flash of light, forcing the two Vice-Generals to cover their eyes.
"Hmm. Maybe this might be interesting.
Towards the left, Prismar was prepared to stab Luca and Yuri.
"I'm stuck, Luca! Do something!"
"Can't…!"
Just as he was about to finish them off, he noticed something behind him.
"FURY!"
He jumped out of the way of the axe, dropping Luca and Yuri in the process.
"Sir Morino!" They all felt overjoyed.
Morino used his axe to slice off Alterna's hand, freeing Tomoko. "That's right! This old man…has come to save the day!"
Alterna giggled. "Another human! This is gonna be sooooo fun!"
Toward the right, Vapron used a coil of smoke to snatch Nishiyama out of the building, who struggled in his grasp.
"Get this smoke off me! You'll…regret this! You hear me?"
"Nishiyama? What are you doing here?" Dachii asked.
Vapron held her close to his face. "That's a good question, Dachii. Let's get rid of her."
Just as he was about to strike her, something phased through him and grabbed Nishiyama.
"Are you okay?" Nakada asked, setting her down.
"General Nakada! Where did you—?"
"No time for that!" She drew her gunblade. "The time for talking…"
She turned toward Vapron, who gave her a malevolent smile.
"…is over."
Vapron laughed. "Wow! What a speech! I'm almost moved. Almost."
He snapped his fingers, and a cloud of smoke enveloped them. Once it cleared, all Dachii and the others could see was an army of monsters behind Vapron, with Sir Triune leading the way.
"You boys what to do. Kill them all and get the Holder. The General's mine."
And just like that, he rushed toward Nakada.
—-