CrimZon Universe

Season 1 Guideline - Rebirth

 

Episode 1 – 14 (Already posted)

 

Episode 15 – Warning

Within the hour of putting Shade away with his fellow comrades, Neva finally meets Erb with everyone who was present inside the president’s office excluding Eve and Jav. Secretary Hatric is present as well. They all lend their ears to the young kai, warning them of Thunderwing’s coming, and insisting they need to evacuate the planet. She will personally teleport all the inhabitants of the world to a refugee planet which is her master’s homeworld - he had asked a friend in advance to help them out. However, Hatric didn’t believe her and made wild accusations about all of this being a trick, sent by the enemy. But Eleanor chooses to play along with her story, wanting to know if it was possible to defeat the calamity – to keep it out using the planetary shield.

The answer is a resounding no; from what King Kai had told her, Thunderwing’s current strength could potentially wipe out their entire system in no time - they had no chance of winning nor keeping it out, boasting his capabilities are far beyond what any of the Saiyans and herself could produce. With that said, Eleanor slowly considers her suggestion and wishes to let her people do their own research for confirmation. This did not settle well for Neva – the time to gather proof had long since passed and they need to decide now. But Lilith barges in with her own solution which was the city itself, revealing the fact that it wasn’t just any ordinary city – it’s a starship with a warp drive that can enter slip space.

Everyone besides the newcomers knew the city was capable of flying but performing such a task would drain their power supply significantly to the point of losing it all upon midflight or even before. Eleanor notes they used to have 3 power sources – zpms - but they had long since been used up. Now they run on a different energy which once belonged to the ship the humans used to escape their home world’s destruction. Still, they have no idea how much power they would need to make the trip. Eleanor, considering what the off-world goddess said was true and with the coronal mass ejection imminent, chose to take her word and thought it is best for them to run, rather than stay and fight a losing battle, or be incinerated if the derelict satellite were to fail. But instead of making Neva teleport them all, they will first attempt to use the warp drive to make their way to the nearest habitable planet they have on record.

 

Episode 16 – Coronal Mass Ejection

Hours afterward, the city underwent power-up procedures, activating it’s shield and engines simultaneously. In the central tower, Neva, Erb, and Bulb wait beside President Eleanor, Director Eve, Lilith and Jav – Eve and Jav never left for the satellite due to the commotion. Everyone braces themselves as the city ascends for the first time in a long while and after less than a minute pass by, they find themselves in space. The red fighter peers outside, viewing the scenery in safety thanks to the shield retaining their atmosphere and the city’s air filtration. However, after a few quick announcements from Eleanor regarding their departure to a new world, the city’s deep space radar detected the coronal mass ejection occurring earlier than expected. From out the observation windows, a stream of hot plasma courses towards them from the sun. The control room staff members calculated its arrival in 3 minutes.

President Eleanor orders evasive maneuvers but the stream curve its trajectory accordingly. Erb bolts out of the room with an oxygen mask given to him by Jav and bursts through an opening in the shields, courtesy of Eve. Outside, he hurdles a Dragon’s fist straight at the stream. His attack makes contact and manages to halt the ejection until his energy dissipates and the stream rushes forth. Neva teleports in front of him and summons forth a large mirror. The coronal mass ejection hits the mirror but is then absorbed into it. Still, a single, smaller stream, splits off and makes its way to Atlantis. The city’s underbelly was grazed, causing the thrusters in the warp drive to become temporarily inoperable. Unfortunately, the city continues to expend energy, wasting what little power they had left despite it is not in use. Unable to slow their descent, the inhabitants experience violent quakes as they reenter Aeon’s atmosphere.

Erb jets past the city and positions himself underneath it. He charges headfirst in his Super Saiyan form, pushes against the gigantic installation with all his might to buffer its fall. Neva, leaving the mirror still active, joins him in his effort. With her assistance, they safely decrease its descent speed to the point where it glides down to the ocean surface on its own. With the shield still running, Neva teleports herself and Erb back into the central tower next to Jav and learns of the coronal mass ejection having ceased, and they are safe for the time being. However, as for the city’s warp drive, they require extensive repairs. And to make matters worse, they all suddenly hear the voice of King kai, anxious to warning them of another grave danger.

King kai, after the coronal mass ejection was finished and the solar interference that was hindering him before now gone, was finally able to communicate with Neva and the others and is warning them they are in even greater danger now after discovering what is powering the city they stand on. King Kai senses what he believes to be the presence of an ancient level dragon within the city.

 

Episode 17 - Inevitable

In the city’s engine room, Erb, Lilith, Jav, Gabriel, Bulb, and Eleanor find a large crystal, and King Kai calls it a Dragonheart; the physical essence of powerful dragons. He was familiar with this one; it was the same dragon which Thunderwing fought, that specialized in sealing powers away. Eleanor, though baffled to hear a voice from the sky, mentions they had found the crystal from their old world alongside skeletal remains of a large creature. This key piece of information helps explain why the kaoticon is weaker; despite the dragon’s passing, the seal remains in the form of the Dragonheart. If the crystal is destroyed, then the seal will go and the kaoticon would have access to its full power once again. Additionally, if the calamity knew the Dragonheart still exist, it would shift its aim to destroy it including the city.

Neva attempts to solve their new problem by teleporting the crystal away to Other World for safe keeping but King kai stops her, pointing out distance may play a factor in the seal’s strength and with it near depletion, it may not matter. She still tries to take It away with instant transmission, but when she did, she arrives in Other World empty-handed. Perplexed, she returns to the others to find the Dragonheart still where it was and then repeats her attempts several times, even taking a chair with her in a round trip to make sure she can bring an object with her – which she could.

In the end, she gives up and hears King Kai hypothesize the crystal’s properties may be resisting her technique. He explains the instant transmission takes the user through a pocket dimension to reach their destination in an instant - the crystal may not be able to enter the pocket dimension for an unknown reason. Eleanor speaks up about their old ship not being capable of going into slip space, so in order to travel over the vast distance between them and Aeon, it was outfitted with a faster-than-light engine. This leads to a revelation that if they chose to enter slip space with the Dragonheart on board, then they may have very well been destroyed – everyone cringed at the thought.

Now, unable to use their old power source, Eleanor takes Neva’s offer in teleporting them all to the world as initially planned. However, King Kai expresses now they had 2 options put before them; the first, finding a way to leave the world with the crystal and hide it elsewhere; the second, defeating the calamity once and for all - now was the best chance they will have at ever defeating the behemoth when he’s at his weakest. Eleanor processes the plan and notes if they are to choose the first option, they still require something to replace the crystal and time to fix the city’s warp drive. But to their good fortune, Jav had already found a method in reviving the zero-point modules thanks to an epiphany inspired by their plans with the derelict satellite.

Within an hour, Erb, Jav and the rest of the engineering staff stand outside on one of the city’s piers where a mobile charging platform is set up with only 1 zpm set inside a make-shift charging station. The idea Jav came up with was using Erb’s own internal energy to charge the zpm; the same solution they were going to implement on the satellite. Everyone else was far enough to observe the experiment from a safe distance.

The red Saiyan places himself next to the machine and his hand on top of the zpm. Gradually, he channels his aura out and Jav’s hunch proved correct, but only for a moment. As soon as the zpm was gaining energy, it suddenly decreases back to zero – Jav hypothesized they would require a large quick initial charge for the zpm to sustain itself. Erb decides to transform into a Super Saiyan and after performing the same procedure, he succeeds in sustaining the energy storage. Within a minute the zpm was fully charged. He then did the same for the other 2, and afterward, the city has its new power.

 

Episode 18 – Sliver of Hope

As the city was undergoing repairs and the military brass formulating their plans on defense, Erb meets with the other aura users out by an open pier. Zeph, Roza, Tya, and Raix are being taught by Neva in the art of flying. Earlier in the day, after Neva was done teleporting the non-combatants to another world, other than the repair team, Gabriel, and Hatric, she was approached by Roza for the sole purpose of learning how to fly - her teammates had no means to fight against a colossal enemy from the ground, and gaining aerial supremacy is vital for their victory.

In the service tunnel, Jav tapped into every system across the city and his female compatriot, Lilith watches him from behind, looking out for any unwanted eyes. The 2 kids managed to slip away from the non-combatant groups who were being taken off-world and hid in the tunnels. Jav wished to fix one important feature in the city and Lilith wanted to watch his back. Almost done with his task he heard her asking as to how he was able to cope with all that had happened in the past few days and he replies by returning the question back at her. Lilith rebuttals with the fact that they’ve stumbled upon a new reality where they now associate themselves with super-powered beings and were about to enter a battle that could shatter the entire planet apart – she found it to be both exciting, and frightening. Jav came to the same conclusion himself, though this isn’t his first. He recalls having watched video feeds of the harbingers first attack Alpha site 13 years ago. His parents, both scientists, were killed by giant ape monsters sent by invaders, and the only person to have stopped them was Lilith’s father. Jav then realizes he brought up some bad memories for Lilith – that day was the same day she lost him; the man who she couldn’t even remember. All she knew about him was from what her mother, Roza, and Gabriel – her father’s father.

Outside, after an hour of instructions by Neva, Zeph had managed to soar around with ease thanks to his cybernetics gauging his aura with machine precision. Sadly, the others had little luck in achieving the same results. From what the kai could guess, the time they would need to master flight would take longer than they currently have. Zeph, wanting to know how he stacks up in terms of fighting power, asks Erb to measure up his full power as he transforms. Erb watches him turn super Saiyan and states his level is on par with his own but wonders if he could ascend to the next level. Zeph could not and had no recollection of being able to. This leads the red Saiyan to believe he might have ascended unknowingly. Neva joins in on the conversation, asking Erb if he meant super Saiyan 2, and which he confirms. Raix and Tya also cut in, saying they could turn into the so-called Super Saiyan. The 2 of them changed form, and Neva was albeit impressed until she yelped out of fright from the sight of Tya’s golden color tail. After that embarrassing moment, Neva apologizes and tries to explain herself until Roza jumps in, interrupting her by failing to fly herself after jumping as high as she could. Then, Eleanor’s voice reaches their ears through the city’s broadcast system, announcing the city’s warp drive repair is nearly complete. Afterward, Roza advises they all go in the city and enjoy one last good meal, and they all agreed except for Neva who teleports back to Other World to have a few words with her master.

As Zeph, Raix, and Tya went on ahead, Erb pulls Roza back, wanting to know what she was hiding – he knew she interrupted Neva on purpose regarding Tya’s tail. At first, she played ignorantly, but Erb told her that he knew of the alternate Saiyan transformation, the oozaru.

 

Episode 19 – Secret

Hungry and burnt out, Jav and Lilith sneak out of the service tunnels and into one of the SWORDS facility – the food hall. At the same time, Zeph, Raix, and Tya went inside the same building for the same reason. In the middle of its food hall, Bulb was spitting out jokes and tales of his adventure through space to some drunken soldiers and even Hatric who had taken a liking to the alien’s humor. However, one of them accidentally opens a corked bottle, hitting Bulb and sending him flying. Skulking out of everyone’s view, Jav and Lilith acquired several sandwiches and bottled drinks and were about to go back into hiding until Bulb’s sudden entrance gave them a jump scare. As the sound of footsteps approaches, the children were almost discovered, but Bulb, looking at their worried faces, dashes out all jittery, laughing off his fall, leading them away, and then came back, inquiring why they are here.

Down in an empty area, Roza explains to Erb on what she knew of the oozaru. Around 15 years ago, her father had found the three Saiyans on the mainland outside of the first alpha site and secretly adopted them as his own for 3 years by himself. He had taught them how to read, write, basic math, and acted like their father figure; eventually, letting them meet his wife and 2 daughters – she was the same age as they were but Lilith was a baby. Eleanor initially discouraged him for the secrecy but understood his position and was willing to take them into the city as full-fledged citizens. But when the 3 kids were taken to the Alpha site, the harbingers attacked. Roza and the three Saiyans hid deep in the forest per Eleanor’s order but encountered harbinger foot soldiers who were in the area. The Sayians fought back but were beaten down. Gabriel arrived soon after to deal with the soldiers, but he and Roza witnessed the Saiyans staring at Aeon’s 3 moons – all of them fully visible - and then go berserk with newfound strength and brutality, attacking the rest of the harbinger soldiers, and later transforming into giant beasts, the Oozaru.

Her father had witnessed their strange behavior before when it was only 1 full moon out and actually saw them transform. For their safety he placed a seal on them, inhibiting physical transformations of any kind, and ever since then they were able to see the moon with no problem. But that night was the first time all 3 moons were out and their combined effect broke his spell.

As a result, driven by pure instinct, the 3 giant apes indiscriminately ravaged everything and everyone. The alien attackers were forced to retreat, however, this left alpha site being the lone target. Roza remembered begging her father to save them, and he did. Using a powerful spell he learned from his own master, he roared out 2 words and encompassed the entire area in an intense white light, enveloping both the Oozaru and whatever harbinger ground forces remained. The Saiyans turned back to normal, but because of the extensive amount of magical power he expended in dealing with them, he had to use his life force as well; this caused him to rapidly age. Later on, the 3 children were taken in by Eleanor, and their identities were kept secret – they were reported to be gifted humans born from one mother.

Roza tells Erb that Gabriel is, in fact, her father; no one else knew except for Eleanor, Dyne, Eve and herself. Lilith was too young and wouldn’t understand, so they told her Gabriel was her grandfather. Zeph, Raix, and Tya didn’t know either. Upon finishing her long exposition, Erb questions as to why Tya’s tail remains. Roza believes whatever magic Gabriel used left an after effect, making her inability to transform into the Oozaru, permeant, except for her super Saiyan form. Zeph and Raix had removed their tails for different reasons – Zeph lost his due to an accident and Raix took his own off for aesthetic purposes. Roza requests the red fighter to not reveal any of this to anyone – she only trusts him because he knew what the others were and their capabilities. This left him feeling burdened, but at the same time, this gave him a small glimpse as to why his own memories have been erased or sealed. Underneath their feet, however, down through a manhole, Jav and Lilith heard everything as well as their green companion, Bulb.

 

Episode 20 – What to do

In the vacuum of space where the harbinger fleet used to reside, Director Ardyn’s ship exits out to find their target absent. His navigators detected 2 recent slip space ruptures having taken place within the vicinity – each within a short span of time from one another - and from information was gathered from the Harbinger’s flagship, Ardyn guessed the scout ship that was left for the ancient city had returned but most likely encountered Thunderwing by accident and left. With no leads to go on, the director asked his navigator regarding the duration of their trip to the ancient city’s coordinates and was told they would be able to arrive there within several hours. He chose to go to the ancient city in hopes of finding Thunderwing there, believing that was where he went; if his idea proves fruitless, he would have to resume his search elsewhere.

In the underground tunnels, the children continue to contemplate the new yet un-wanting knowledge they’ve gained on a small part of their history they didn’t know about. Lilith, sitting quietly on a pipe with Bulb next to her, worries for her friend who is tinkering away with his tablet. She guesses his silence is a cover his conflicting feelings towards the others – whether to hate them because they were responsible for his parent’s death or to hate the president and the others for lying to him, playing him for a fool. She went ahead and questions him, ready to hear him venting his frustration at her. But instead, he confesses in a calm voice but doesn’t believe Zeph and the others were solely responsible for what happened. His response leads Lilith to start venting herself, thinking he was lying to her. She causes Jav to finally yell out, but only for moment, which was enough to make her pause, and what soon follows are tears streaming down his eye, admitting he wishes he wasn’t their friend but doesn’t wish it so at the same time – knowing the president and everyone else influence him to become the person he was, and he cherishes it. So now, he wants to focus on his work, and after getting through the battle that is to come, he will then figure out how he was going to move on from there. With that said, Erb unexpectedly pops out around the corner, supporting his answer, though made them all yelp out of shock. The red fighter detected their energy signature upon midway through Roza’s explanation and suspected they heard everything. So, after breaking away from her, he follows the kids down the tunnel and awaits their reaction. Currently, he didn’t want to know why they stay behind and left them to their duties, keeping another secret on hand.

Later Erb went to the food hall to acquire a meal for himself. However, a sudden commotion filled the cafeteria and he watches SWORDS members confronting the alien mercenaries.

 

Episode 21 - Cooperation

An hour earlier, Eleanor and Gabriel paid a visit to the aliens and offered to hired them as additional muscle for the upcoming battle. In return, they would have their freedom under the condition that they would leave their city and its inhabitants alone. Ouros took their offer and his subordinates followed without question, but many SWORDS members still held resentment toward his group, and now a was about to occur in the food hall. Luckily, Zeph breaks it up at the right time, stating the importance of their cooperation, and reminds the aliens to uphold their promise if they too wish to live after this. With the tension now gone, Erb meets Zeph again, congratulates him in dealing with the situation calmly, and after they grabbed their meal, Zeph leads him to where his fireteam is eating – outside by a balcony.

As they consume what could be their last dinner, Bulb soon joins them, sparking a conversation and noting their silence. Tya confesses her silent mood was due to fear of the upcoming battle. Roza suddenly comes up with an idea to help them cope; they should all share the last time they ever felt nervous – butterflies in the stomach. Raix starts first with his experience in eating a baseball size yellow crystal; he thought it to be just one large rock candy and it oddly tasted good. Tya went next, revealing her moment was from their recent fight with the Cyclops, Azure; when she turned into the so-called Super Saiyan form. She was cautious of her strength and was afraid that she might kill her by accident. She was glad of the outcome, even though the aliens should deserve a far worse punishment for what they did. Roza’s was the fact that her sister, Jav, the people of Alpha site, and Zeph were in danger. Zeph states his most recent exposure was when he let his machine take control of his body, but then brought up a humorous joke regarding the time he mustered up the courage to ask Roza out on a date. She, in response, rushes his face away in a joking manner. Bulb comes in, telling his story on how he had slept inside a shipping container to go to another world, only to wake up to find the entire vessel crawling with face hugging parasites and forcing him to creep his way out of to an escape pod and to safety. Erb finally comes in but is unable to share something – his fight with Zeph was intense but not fear-inducing. However, he does mention when he first awoke, with no recollection of anything, he was confused and scared – though Yuuko helped ease his worries albeit elaborately. It was there that he reveals he saw a message he left for himself, and Raix bombards him with questions about it. Erb blurts out he has a girlfriend he doesn’t even know about but is then saved by Tya’s intervention.

The next morning, every pair of eyes are stuck in the sky, watching for any signs of abnormality. The cyclops position themselves in the sky around the city and have thus far made no hints of betrayal. Erb stays on the city’s port area with Neva. They both sense a large power level approaching and out of the blue, a slip space rupture opens. The harbinger scout ship exits out, only to be destroyed by a beam strike seconds later from behind them, with a titanic humanoid figure – Thunderwing has arrived.

 

Episode 22 – He’s here

Everyone was put in awe and shock by the monstrosity hovering over their heads, including the cyclops – Thunderwing’s presence was enough to even make even Ouros shed nervous sweat drops. They were supposed to fight kaoticons, but never have they met a foe such as him.

Meanwhile, Erb immediately turns into a Super Saiyan and flies up to meet the danger. Using a face mask provided by Director Eve, he went into space and cautiously closes in on the giant – measuring the beast’s overall height topping over 150 meters. But the Saiyan notices the monster’s confusion, looking as though it had not intended to arrive here – not aware of the Dragonheart’s presence whatsoever. The plan was to use himself as bait, get Thunderwing’s attention away from the planet and pray that he manages to trick him into letting his arrogance blind him – if the monster can destroy the solar system, then Erb needs to make sure they appear weaker and yet stay alive and take advantage whenever possible. Currently, the city was shielded and with it, the presence of the Dragonheart is concealed as an indirect effect – if they move it out, it would be detected.

Erb powers up to grab the monster’s focus. Thunderwing’s eyes set upon him, and the Saiyan hears his voice in his head, asking why was he in his path? Erb couldn’t find a proper answer, and the beast makes the first strike – already the plan starts off successfully.

The kaoticon’s eye flashes red with energy beams and the Saiyan begins to dodge them while taking him through a nearby asteroid field. As Thunderwing’s attack became more scattered, Erb found the opening he needs to get close. Throwing a dragon’s fist to the monster’s face, blinding it temporarily, Erb lands on his back and teleporting beside him is Neva. Together, using her instant transmission, they move themselves to a new battleground.

More than 200,000 miles away from Aeon, on one of the 3 moons orbiting around it, Juniper – a habitable planetoid which was supposed to be used as a research outpost - Neva accomplishes to bring the titan to its surface, where the rest of Charlie team await them.

Erb and Neva back away from Thunderwing, where heavy bombardments envelopes the giant, courtesy of Zeph’s Blitz Shots. Raix and Tya, both hovering on an energy disc, propel towards their enemy as he marches out unscathed. Raix propels Tya with a kick to reach the beast at extreme speed. From her right hand, she takes out a small black iron rod which then expands instantly into a staff by her command. She swings it and at the same time, an astral form of her staff was created out of thin air, equal in size to that of the monster’s limb, amazing Erb, and Neva in the process. Her weapon, the Bang Staff, had been with her since Gabriel found them, and with it, she can project a separate staff without having to use any of her own power and can expand its size, alter its weight, and even extend its length with just a thought. Before, she couldn't wield it in public due to its sheer destructive capabilities. Now, with nothing restricting her, she pummels Thunderwing to the ground, and repeats her strikes, giving Raix enough time to reach Erb and Neva and hand them earpieces to wear so they could hear Roza issuing commands from on top of a mountain in her jumper.

 

Episode 23 – Fight to the end

In the city, Eleanor, the rest of the SWORDS and technical staff prepare for liftoff upon completion of the necessary repairs. Jav, Lilith, and Bulb are still hiding in the access tunnel, and just when the young boy finished his own little project, they felt the entire structure around them vibrating violently – the city’s engine is being primed.

On Juniper, Tya’s ongoing smashing quickly ceases when Thunderwing catches her astral weapon and crushes it with one hand. Raix takes her place by throwing his spiraling discs into the monster’s face and sped off on his nimbus ring with Tya back on. The calamity blew away the dust cloud only to find his own feet stuck onto the ground. Below is a brown tar-like substance and made it difficult for the giant to move. Thanks to Roza’s guidance in leading her team to trap him in the tar area, Zeph restarts his attack, always mobile, whereas Raix and Neva assault from the air and far. Erb and Tya stick together to hit him at close range, using Zeph’s explosions as smokescreens to cover their movements, mainly aiming for his legs.

Thunderwing, irritated by their tactics, charges an energy blast from his mouth and lets out a roar straight at Zeph. But Neva stretches out her hand, summons her mirror, and absorbs the blast into it and reflects it back at him, staggering the beast. Finally having dealt a major blow, Erb fires his dragon’s fist at the monster’s right cheek, causing the giant to sunder on its knee. Thunderwing retaliates with its own shot, only to be dealt with again by Neva’s mirror. This time the kaoticon was stunned and took a wide step back, and swarms of yellow energy discs gather around him. They shatter into thousands of tiny pieces, chipping away at his defenses. Raix, having conjured the hail storm, effortlessly controls them while giving Tya the time to make her weapon as large and heavy as possible. When Thunderwing breaks out, she swung her weapon down, pinning the beast in place, forcing him to hold it up with both hands. Neva, Erb, and Zeph lash out their signature techniques – Zeph’s super mac buster, Erb’s dragon’s fist, and Neva’s Kamehameha wave, at the pinned giant.

With the bombardment inbound, the kaoticon channels out a shockwave blast powerful enough to shield itself and rebound everything back. The colossal pillar crumbles away from the explosion, and his feet are free from any hindrance. All opposing combatants are knockback, but Raix sees Neva not moving and the kaoticon’s hand moving towards her. He races over and snatches her away. Yet, the air pressure produced causes him to lose his balance midflight. Thunderwing drags his hand to them, digging up the earth. Raix had little time to dodge, but Erb crashes in, finally unsheathes his sword and plunges it into the side of the hand. The red fighter stops him but realizes his weapon wasn’t suited to successfully parry large objects. Just when Thunderwing brought his hand back and threw it back in the form of a fist, Neva quickly gains consciousness and brings out her mirror, large enough to take in his hand, and then closes it off, essentially cutting his arm off. As confusion takes over Thunderwing, Neva teleports herself and Raix away and then points out how surprised she was to have cut his arm off in such a gruesome manner.

But the beast snaps back to the battle and in a few seconds, his arm regenerates back to normal. Erb, present to witness it, had heard from King kai of high-level kaoticons – level 4’s – having the ability to regenerate. He flew upward to avoid an inbound fist but quickly meets another, too late to avoid it. Forced to deflect the blow once more, Erb puts his sword back in its sheath and performs an upward slash, hoping the bluntness of his weapon’s cover would suffice. Upon contact, he struggles, until his katana changes shaped, fusing into one large black ivory sword. Surprised by how he performed it, he still accomplishes in pushing off the kaoticon’s fist with more efficiency.

Back in the city, near the engine room, Hatric roams through the corridors finding a safe room to stay in. But as he rounds a corner, he spots 2 SWORDS soldiers, dead, covered with large stab wounds, lying in the hallway in front of a door leading to where the Dragonheart is. He looks inside to find a tall, well-dressed man with red velvet hair and a fedora.

 

Episode 24 – Next move

Zeph and Tya, both having recovered, note Thunderwing is stunned by Erb’s parry, and so they fire devastating shots to its leg, causing him to fall on his knee once again. Erb retreats down to them, both surprised by his new weapon. They then hear Roza sounding off a roll call, which they part take. Zeph informs her their attacks had no effect on the giant so far, but Erb mentions he could harm it with his weapon and that it can change shape, as well as the kaoticon’s regeneration powers being true. The thought of him being able to pierce his armor gave Roza an idea and asks if he could change the size of his weapon like Tyas. Erb could not, but he had a gut feeling he didn't have to - all he needs is a minute to prepare. Putting little thought into changing his sword's shape, Erb manages to revert it back into its katana form, power up into a Super Saiyan 2 and flew somewhere safe for him to get himself ready. In the meantime, Roza orders the others to keep the monster busy.

Thunderwing stands tall after his fall but is stop yet again, this time by Raix. Creating hundreds of his discs he connects them all into one long and sturdy chain and bound the titan with it while shredding away at its armor. In a few seconds, it broke free once more, but Zeph blasted the areas around its body where it was the weakest. His effort exposed the monster’s flesh on its left chest plate, and Tya lands on him with Neva’s help. She drove her Bang staff with hardly any trouble and fires off an energy blast through her staff, blowing a large hole in the beast’s chest. However, Thunderwing let out a roaring aura blast across the entire landscape, blowing everyone back. Neva’s attempt in escaping the wave with Tya failed, with only herself having teleported. Thunderwing found Tya and was going catch her and then crush her to death with his vice grip. But out of the blue, an energy blast impacts his open wound, stunning him in place with pain, and another golden warrior swoops down and flew the girl away to safety. Zeph, having seen what happened did the same and fires upon the open wound, not giving it the chance to regenerate.

Erb, having charged most of his energy into his katana blade and condensed all of it as a paper-thin layer, signals to Neva he was ready. Neva creates a mirror in front of him and several more in a circle. Erb dashes in and then through the ring of mirrors where he gains even more speed as he circles through them. Eventually, Neva went on ahead to create another pair of mirrors, one in front of the kaoticon and one behind it. Erb went through the first, unsheathes his blade as fast as he could, and slashes Thunderwing in half through the waist and reenters the second mirror, only to arrive back to the first. From there, he continuously cuts away at the titan before any of sliced off pieces could touch the ground. In a few seconds, Thunderwing was minced meat, and all the fighters hurdle their attacks at the defenseless being. Erb, after exiting the first mirror one last time, tries to stop himself but was only able to thanks to Neva’s and Trunks’s using themselves to buffers for him. Erb finally met Trunks again, and Trunks told him he arrived not too long ago thanks to Yuuko after running a little errand himself and saved Tya.

The three of them met up with Charlie team who sent a message to the city, telling them Thunderwing is defeated – no traces of him are left. However, Erb could sense the beast was still alive and upon further inspection in the air, he spots lakes of the beast’s blood scattered everywhere. He immediately destroyed them all, except for one. He was too late, and from the pool, a pillar of dark purple aura erupts, catching them all in it. The explosion escapes the moon’s atmosphere and resonates through space, traveling far enough to impact the city’s shield, knocking out power once again. At the same time, the children turn up in the jumper bay and Jav checks on his tablet on the status of the city. He learns the main power station was offline but is horrified to know a secondary power station went online – the only other power source other than the zpm was the crystal, and he was correct.

In the control room, Gabriel had heard Roza’s report before it was cut off and assumes the worst. He radios in Ouros and his members, wanting to request a favor from one of them.

 

Episode 25 - Awaken

Erb survives the eruption and is the first to witness Thunderwing alive and standing. All the others follow suit, but Zeph found Roza bleeding out from a head injury and lost her left foreleg. He panics over her injuries and his teammates try to make him focus on the enemy. But Erb notices Thunderwing turning his gaze to Aeon; the young man knew he’s sensing the Dragonheart because even he detects it – and it’s in use. Thunderwing blasts off into space and rockets towards the city. Erb and Trunks follow, and soon after Zeph did too, while the rest were taken back to the city by Neva.

Inside the city, Ouros subordinates are reluctant to fulfill the old man’s request, but Ouros himself volunteers, saying he owed a debt to the red Saiyan and hopes his actions would give them some measure of repentance. However, Gunnar then volunteers, and before Ouros could reject, the others held him down, and Teal knocks him out, allowing Gunnar and Gabriel to go on their way. Gabriel had asked Gunnar why they restrained their leader, and he responds with that fact that he is their leader and they are his cannon fodder – their lives meant nothing without their leader.

Jav, the first to arrive at the Dragonheart, is with Lilith and Bulb and inside is Hatric, near death, with a large stab wound through his chest. He uses his remaining strength to convey who activated the Dragonheart and begs them to save the city. He dies soon after, and then Jav furiously unlocks the cables and clamps connecting to the crystal. But then Gabriel enters the room with Gunnar. Gabriel, surprise to find the children here and Hatric dead, did not question their intentions and instead ask for Jav’s assistance. After Gunnar rip off the crystal, Gabriel drags Jav with them and went on ahead to the jumper bay and tells Lilith to stay with her mother. But Lilith ran to control room while asking Bulb to go with them in her stead. He did as she wished.

Less than a minute away from the city, Thunderwing prepares to roar out an energy beam, only to be hindered by a barrage from his Saiyan pursuers.

Lilith runs into the control room, rushes past her bewildered mother and enters another room where a chair laid. She sat in it and before her mother could stop her, she acquired control over the entire city in seconds and could use all of its function.

Gabriel, Gunnar, Bulb, and Jav show up at the bay and enter a jumper. The ceiling doors open, allowing them to drive out and soon after through the city’s shield. Atlantis was nearing escape velocity so Gunnar rockets towards the planet while the jumper proceeds to entry.

Thunderwing, sensing, and Dragonheart is moving, shifts his course away from the city, and flew even faster, anxious to retrieve his full power. The Saiyans chasing behind the behemoth could barely keep up. The kaoticon then charges one last beam from its eye and it sears through the sky. Gunnar, unable to dodge in time, met his fate, and with his vaporization, the crystal broke.

The kaoticon crashes on Aeon, and upon the Dragonheart's destruction, his entire body burst into a gigantic blaze, causing a planet-wide earthquake in the process. Erb, Trunks, and Zeph brace themselves against the shockwave and cover their eyes from an intense bright purple light. When it ended, they found themselves staring at the kaoticon’s gigantic back.

From the city, everyone sees what appears to be a colossal object with equally colossal wings unfolding outward, blanking the land below with a height exceeding the planet’s lowest orbit.

 

Episode 26 – Sacrifice

With the Dragonheart destroyed and Thudnerwing’s power returned, Erb and the other Saiyans continues to fight, throwing whatever they could while the monster stays immobile. Their assault yield no damage, and Thunderwing was finally making its move, aiming an eye beam at them. Neva teleports in, using her mirrors as shields. Sadly, the amount of energy overpowers her weapon and shatters it. Erb and Zeph dodge the stray attacks, but Trunks is hit by one, knocking him out cold. Neva caught him and brought him back to the city. Facing a nearly impossible obstacle, Erb and Zeph are powerless to do anything as it readied another blast. But then hundreds of tiny golden lights impact all over his upper body like moths to the flame. Zeph uses his visor to zoom in on the strange weapons and tracks them back to the city.

During the short time span they had before the battle, Jav fixed the function of the what is known as a control chair – a device that gives the user full access of the city; the very same one Lilith now sits upon - along with the city’s main weaponized arsenal, yellow drones resembling a type of mollusk, which can attack either individually or as a swarm, and are even able to avoid incoming countermeasures. Lilith, firing away all the projectiles at her disposal, ignores the fact that her titanic opponent isn’t being hurt the slightest, and felt the entire city quake from an eye beam strike. The shields held but drained half of the total power supply. Thunderwing repeats his same attack, but Ouros, in his meteoric burst form, musters all his strength into a singular blast, fending it off momentarily. Shade, Azure, and Teal join in and together they divert the beam off at a small angle. Lilith soon hears Gabriel communicating with her from his jumper, ordering her to take the city into slip space. Shortly after, before Thunderwing’s beam overpowers Ouros’s, Lilith got the city to enter slip space just in time and avoids destruction.

Erb and Zeph gather by the jumper as per Gabriel, and they both watch him stand nearby the rear door. Thunderwing spots them and was charging its entire body to produce an energy shockwave, strong enough to destroy the entire system. With imminent demise around the corner, Gabriel asks Zeph and Jav to take care of his daughters before uttering out a spell, Fairy Law, engulfing everything in a white light, even causing the kaoticon to let out a painful roar.

As the light fades away, Erb senses Gabriel’s life force now gone and in return, he subdues Thunderwing, reverting him back to his base form, but is plain white. Zeph rushes to Gabriel’s side to find him lifeless. Unfortunately, Thunderwing though weakened again, let out an ear-deafening battle cry fueled by vengeance. Zeph on the other hand finally snaps; with Roza losing one of her legs and Gabriel losing his life, both caused by the great calamity, Zeph charges at the behemoth, ascends into a Super Saiyan 2 and sends a powerful hammer strike against his head.

Despite his power up, Thunderwing counters with a mouth blast. But Erb performs an upward swing with his large ebony sword, closing his mouth at the right moment for his own blast to self-destruct. Together, the 2 Saiyan warriors collide against the calamity, forcing him back down to the ground. They slowly overpower him, and yet, the beast made a last-ditch effort by attempting to destroy Aeon by punching the ground - letting the vacuum of space to finish his work. Each impact drew the planet closer to exploding. Zeph and Erb combine their two attacks, Super Mac Buster and Neva’s Kamehameha wave, in hopes of stopping him. The calamity used what little energy he had to erects a barrier around himself and their attacks struggle to push through. It was only after Neva assisted the young warriors by opening her mirror and making it into a narrow oval shape with a single energy string attached vertically across its backside. Its new appearance resembles a bow and she let loose a neon blue arrow. It flows through their attack and punctured a hole over Thunderwing’s barrier and armor. The resulting blast eviscerates the titan and sent the burnt remains into deep space. But the victors are too late in stopping the destruction of the planet. Neva, bringing Erb and Zeph back to Jav and Bulb, pinpoints the city’s location but instead, teleports them to Other world out of desperation.

 

Episode 27 – Forgiveness

Traveling through slip space, in the control room, Eleanor along with her staff are maintaining the city’s overall systems. Lilith, Raix, Tya, and Trunks wait for their friends to pop in at any moment. But instead, out of nowhere, a man unknown to everyone walks out in the open. Everyone was up in arms against the stranger, but the man didn’t come to fight. He wanted to thank them for completing his own task, which was finding and subduing the calamity known as Thunderwing. He did mention he had a hand in their battle, which was the activation of the Dragonheart – removing a hindrance to his own plans since he needed the calamity at his best. Eleanor immediately pulls out her gun and shot him in the head out of spite – he was the reason for Gabriel’s sacrifice and suspects him for killing Hatric. But the man, unfazed by her action, still lives, and his wounds instantly heal. Despite the hostile welcome, the man elegantly makes his exit upon the arrival of his ship, entering the city’s very own slip space. He opens a black portal out of nothing and paid his farewell. His ship soon left slip space directly causing the city to violently tremor. The small quake, however, damaged the inner workings of the control chair, leading to the power regulating through it to overload, and giving an electrical shock to Lilith. Eleanor, hearing her daughter screaming, ran in, only to find her unconscious.

On Other World, Erb, Zeph, Bulb and Jav venture out of their jumper to find themselves in the middle of a green plain with an orange sky directly above. Right next to the jumper, Neva is being scolded by King Kai for nearly crushing him under the vehicle. He changes his gaze to the rest of the team and went on to congratulate them on their hard battle. He also gave good news regarding their city’s safe trip. Still, Zeph was depressed over Gabriel’s death and more so on what he meant by daughters. At the same time, Goku arrives back from a checking station with a guest. It was Gabriel, but as a middle-aged man instead of an elderly geezer. Zeph remembers him to be the man who he thought to be a father figure long ago.

With King Kia’s permission, Gabriel could retain his living body and spend his new life on Other World, training as he pleases. His old body that was once lying in the jumper suddenly disappears too. He sat down with Zeph, telling him the truth regarding who he was and of the fateful event 15 years ago. Erb stands by Neva and Jav who is diagnosing the jumper’s systems – the Saiyan knew the boy was doing all of this to preoccupy his mind from what he learned yesterday. He questions the kai on how she broke down the kaoticon’s aura shield, and she clarifies he didn’t, but rather, she erased a small part of it, allowing their attack to break through. Her weapon in its mirror form can reflect energy attacks and can act as a mobile portal, while it’s bow form can erase whatever it touches – hence, being able to pass through energy attacks, unimpeded. She, unfortunately, critics the arrows used are the size of regular ones and is mainly an anti-personnel weapon – it wouldn’t work well against a regenerator and a giant. Then, out from their view, Goku approaches them and bombards the red warrior with both praise and questions regarding who he was – Erb felt tired of answering the same questions over again. Afterward, the red Saiyan wishes he could bring Gabriel back with them just so Lilith and Roza would have their father back, but then Goku mentions they could if they had dragon balls – 7 wish granting orbs found on his homeworld. But King Kai suddenly barges in, lecturing Goku for providing a pointless endeavor; people should cherish their lives and accept their end; there are no workarounds. King kai soon informs them their city has finally exited out of slip space and so Zeph and Gabriel said their last goodbyes, and Neva brings them all back including the jumper.

The moment the four of them appear in the control room, Eleanor and her staff are still fiddling with the city’s system, not having noticed them until Zeph spoke out. She quickly greets them and gave her praise for their work. However, she has grave news for them.

 

Episode 28 – We’re Leaving

While Neva returns all the evacuated citizens back into the city and returning herself, Erb, Zeph, Raix, and Tya were in the hospital together, paying Roza a visit. With one leg remaining, Roza felt lucky she only lost just that but admits losing Gabriel left a deep pit in her stomach. And what’s worse, Lilith is in a coma. Currently, with the young girl, are Jav and Bulb. Jav blames himself for making his best friend use the chair and had been silently cursing at himself out of guilt.

Zeph, having been told of what really happened 15 years ago, went ahead and tell Raix and Tya. They didn’t take it well, but eventually, they got around it, though approaching Eleanor and the others – lying to them of such a crucial part of their lives - especially Jav – for being responsible for his parent’s death – was difficult to bear, yet as adults, with responsibilities now, they have a small understanding on their reasoning.

Then out from Raix’s radio, Eleanor requests Fireteam Charlie including Erb to come to her office. They did as she said and upon entering her office they meet Trunks who had already spoken to both the president and director Eve beforehand. He wanted to discuss with them an item he was supposed to give to Erb – the same item which Yuuko tasked him to find from a long abandon city resembling what they were currently standing on. According to Yuuko, the item in question is a metallic ring with 36 glyphs all around it and 9 arrow marks equally spaced between though one of the marks had a red gem installed on it. The purple hair Saiyan further explains it’s function is to create portals resembling large machines known as stargates which allow interstellar travel from one world to another almost instantaneously - Erb's new means of traveling to different planets without Yuuko's aid. Due to its size, Erb adequately names it the wristgate – everyone expresses their discontent for the name. Eve says the symbols on the device match with what they have archived thanks to Lilith’s diligence. So, treating it as another gift from her, Erb accepts it and wears the device. He quickly felt it tightening around his wrist until it fit perfectly.

After that subject was settled, Eleanor then moves on to the remaining Charlie’s members – she orders them to accompany Erb and Trunks on their journey. Zeph and the others immediately object. The president discloses she wants them away from the city because of the committee’s intention – with Hatric dead, the rest of them plan to take their freedom away and make them as living weapons because of their planet busting abilities. She was opposed to it, but as of recently, she was quietly taken out of office – the committee unanimously voted her out and intend to make the announcement public later in the day. Still, while Eleanor had some influence, she got Ouros and his comrades off world with some help from Dyne, thus fulfilling her end of their deal, and plans to do the same for Zeph’s team. With time not on their side yet again, in a few short minutes Zeph, Raix, and Tya reluctantly took her offer. Trunks had already agreed to Eleanor’s term, deeming the 3 Saiyans to be an asset to their team. Erb and Bulb help much the same. But before they could depart, Zeph wishes to say his last parting words to Roza, and Eleanor gave him that chance. Elsewhere, Jav had been eavesdropping on their conversation with a bug he planted in Eleanor’s earpiece and devices. But learning of the Saiyans – his friends - was going to leave, has changed his current plans.

Zeph went to meet Roza and said his farewells, vowing he would return. Her response is a kiss, and a request stating for him to not change and to get rid of any worries he had of her disabilities – she would be able to get back to work as soon as Eve gets her prosthetics ready.

Later, the cyborg went to one of the city piers in secret to find his new team already gathered, accompanied by Eleanor and Dyne. Eve and Bay were elsewhere, keeping things busy in the city, leading the eyes of the committee away from them. After being provided the team with supplies for their journey, Erb then turns the ring dial back and forth, inputting one of the coordinates written inside of Lilith’s notebook, fiddling it like a lock. From one last click, out from the red gem, a blue beam of light pierces out and forms a holographic ring in midair. Then suddenly, a geyser surges from the middle and reenters inside to form a calm puddle. The Saiyans and their green companion look back at the city one last time, hoping to see it again under better circumstances, and then leap into the gate. Eleanor and Dyne stare at the puddle for a moment until one of their radios chime in regarding a jumper being unaccounted for, and soon after, Eve communicates to them regarding if they had seen Jav anywhere. Then, just before the ring disappeared, they notice something else has gone through from the way the puddle ripples.

2: Season 2 - Naruto Saga

CrimZon Universe (Re)

Season 2 Guideline – Naruto (Pain arc)

CrimZon Universe (Re) 

Season 2 Guideline – Naruto (Pain arc) 

  

Episode 29 - Troupe

In the system where the planet Aeon once existed, Ardyn's ship exited out of slip space to resume their search of the calamity known as Thunderwing, knowing full well it was still alive despite the destruction. Not far away, they locate the titan on Aeon's furthest moon. After Thunderwing was nearly killed by Erb and Zeph and was reduced to burnt flesh, his remains crash-landed on the planetoid and were able to avoid the same fate as the neighboring planet he himself destroyed. Since then, he was recovering from his injuries, and now, he was close to regaining his full strength. But a vessel close by caught his eye. He roars out a mouth blast out of spite, yet a large red wall comprised of more than a hundred different bladed and non-bladed weapons blocks it. On the ground, a black man-size portal spews forth, and Ardyn walks out exposed to the vacuum of space, standing before Thunderwing. Having conjured the wall of weapons himself, he dispels it and readies to accomplish his original mission - subdue the beast.

On another world, Erb, Zeph, Tya, Raix, Bulb, and Trunks exit out from the other side of their artificial wormhole, created by the wristgate, yet, with a full meter of air between their feet and to the ground, they accidentally pile on top of one another. Although Bulb remains on top and not squished, from behind, a largely invisible object hits the poor guide and flings him to a tree. The object itself crashes into another, catching everyone's attention, except Bulb, tending to his large bruise. They quickly discover the object to be a once cloaked jumper. The rear hatch opens and walking out of it is the young engineer, Jav, nervously greeting his new traveling companions. Erb, dumbstruck by his presence, hastily looks to the portal, only to see it vanishes right before his eye. Zeph angrily questions the boy's rash intentions. Jav states his reason for following them was assuming they would require someone of his technical expertise when it came to alien technology. The first to doubt his usefulness was Trunks and then both Tya and Raix fell in line. Meanwhile, their new leader grumbles over deciphering Lilith's notebook, figuring out how to make the wristgate connect back to Atlantis. Suddenly, Jav snatches it away from him and translates everything written inside, loudly mentioning there are no descriptions of any coordinates that lead back to their home. Zeph takes the journal away to make sure himself, and although he found Lilith's terminology somewhat difficult to comprehend, he confirms Jav was telling the truth. He is now stuck with them whether they like it or not.

Trunks shift the conversation along by bringing out the rest of the items he brought with him from Yuuko's gift shop - all provided by Yuuko herself. He takes out 4 items from a normal black plastic bag – also given by the witch – and the first he takes out is a pouch full of beans, 20 in total, native to his world – Senzu Beans. After explaining the properties of the bean to the others – capable of restoring one's stamina and healing all physical ailments – he then shows the rest of the items; a small black ball, a transparent marble with a blue swirl shape droplet embedded within, and a normal-looking monocle. He then instructs them all to get together in a circle, and when they did, he threw the black ball at the center. It explodes into a large black cloud, causing everyone to cough. When it cleared, their attires changed. Erb, Zeph, Raix, and Trunks are now wearing long trench coats, each with varying sleeve lengths and different colored outlines – red, blue, yellow, and purple respectively. Tya dawns a black and white short-sleeve jacket over a beige tank top, with black shorts and black cloaks covering the bottom half back side of her body. Jav's attired remains much the same, though his gray jacket become nearly black with green outlines. Bulb has on a gray skin suit with green outlines, and a green scarf around his neck. As everyone was admiring their new attires, Trunks takes out the marble and places it gently on the ground. The object's exterior cracks open, allowing the blue droplet inside to escape as another dust cloud, swiftly forming into a projection of Yuuko. The purple swordsman notes it has a pre-recorded message, and it begins with Yuuko congratulating them in defeating Thunderwing and gives her sincere condolences to the newcomers over the loss of their planet and someone who was a father figure to them. She moves the topic over to their new outfits, each made of the same material as Erb's combat outfit; light, yet extremely durable and capable of self-repair. She draws their attention to the miniaturized Stargate, wristgate, going into detail regarding its power source being unique in the atmosphere of many habitable worlds, and its functionality - when fully charged, it will activate by itself and open a portal to one of many coordinates in its database. However, she states, due to it being an unfinished prototype made by the same people who build Atlantis, manual input is not possible and all other coordinates that were used are then erased afterward. Still, she believes this to be best for Erb's case, and at that point, the red fighter bluntly reveals the fact that he was being hunted down by an evil organization for reasons he doesn't know. They weren't too happy to learn of that, but continue to listen to the message, now leading into the monocle; a magical artifact that can bestow the wearer the ability to understand any language, both verbal and written, and its effects remain indefinitely when worn once. Finally, the dialogue ends with Yuuko saying her farewells, wishing them safe travels, and encouraging her new friend to continue moving forward - to never look back.

Trunks brings up the monocles, telling them he had worn it himself but shares its experience to be painful yet quick. Bulb collaborates his claim - hesitantly. Erb is the first to use it; from one glance through, an agonizing shock travels through his eye and into his brain. The trauma lasted for a moment, yet the red man felt no different afterward. Zeph went next with the intention of getting it done with and ended up the same way. The others held off on using it out of fear. Everyone then looks to Erb for what they should do, and as he utters confusingly on that, Zeph takes over, issuing their first order of business should be to find signs of civilization, so they could settle down and make a temporary base for themselves until the next jump. The red Saiyan hopelessly seconds his plan.

 

Episode 30 – The Shinobi World

Using 2 of Jav's miniature surveillance drones stored in the jumper, combined with Zeph's long-range sensor, the group mapped out a small portion of the region they are on; a dense forest, not much different from Aeon's mainland. Shortly after, the cyborg finds several life signs equal to that of humans several miles away. He volunteers to scout the area. Tya, an expert in ground reconnaissance, joins him and drags Erb along since he can sense life force. Raix cuts in by stating Trunks could do the same. She simply replied he came first in her mind but sends an apology over to Trunks. Not taking it personally, the purple hair man chose to stay behind the jumper, keeping both it and Jav safe until their return. Raix felt the same and stays back. Erb, sensing if he went, trouble won't be far away, reluctantly gone with them.

Traversing through the forest with relative ease, the Saiyans stumble upon a battle currently in-progress, one side made up of a group wearing light tan cloaks, and the other being a single dark cloak man with an orange mask.

Before their arrival, the group in question - Shinobi's; the current fighting force governing the world - hail from the hidden leaf village, Konoha, and had been fighting against the individual before them, Tobi – a member of a criminal's organization called Akatsuki. Leading the group is a white hair man named Kakashi - a jonin shinobi - and his group was tasked to retrieve a rogue ninja back to their village to await punishment. But Tobi made that impossible; regardless of their numbers, the leaf-shinobis were unable to lay a hand on him. He soon looks to one of the other fighters amongst them, Shino - a chunin who specializes in using insects as weapons – and orders him to trap him. Shino surrounds Tobi in a swarm of bugs, engulfing him in seconds. Kakashi calls out one of their female comrades, Hinata – a possessor of the byakugan, one of the most powerful eye powers in the world – to see if the target was still stationary. She confirms the enemy's presence, and the co-leader of their team, Yamato – a wood-style shinobi – summons forth tree roots underneath their feet to further contain him. However, with no warning, the man disappears, evident by the swarm suddenly shrinking. Hinata swiftly pinpoints him above a tree branch high above, but she also discovers an unknown team behind a large fallen tree. She lets everyone know, and one of the other younger members, Naruto – a blonde hair genin (lowest rank) – wearing a black and orange jumpsuit, calls them out. When no response was given, Yamato manipulates the roots underneath a fallen tree, and spook them out of hiding.

Erb, Tya, and Zeph, flustered and nearly caught by the roots, leap into the open, catching both side's attention.

Tobi rematerialized on top of a large tree branch, spots them, but then sides steps away to avoid a spiraling tornado from another of the younger bunch, Kida. Then, by his side, sprouting out of the ground is one of his own comrades, Zetsu – a black and white humanoid wrapped in a large Venus fly trap - with news of a battle conducted by 2 other shinobi's, Sasuke and his other brother Itachi. Just as Zetsu mentioned Sasuke's name being victorious but collapsed out of exhaustion, Tobi takes advantage of the newcomer's presence and uses them as scapegoats to cause a ruse, hoping to fool some of his hot-headed opponents into thinking the strangers were in league with him. His trick paid off; Naruto, taking the bait, suddenly attacks Erb and the others. Before Kakashi could stop Naruto, knowing it may be a trap, he glances at Tobi's exposed eye and sees a Sharingan; a red eye with 3 distinct dots surrounding the iris. Tobi disappears without a trace once again. Naruto runs at the Saiyans, conjuring 1 clone behind him to create his signature technique, the Rasengan. He directs it at the red man in the middle.

Zeph and Tya disperse, but Erb stands his ground, confident he can hold off the boy's attack. He counters with a normal ki ball on his right hand and collides it with Naruto's Rasengan. However, the shinobi shreds away his own in a mere instant, causing the red man to desperately fire off his dragon's fist at lightning speed to counter the spherical vortex. The sudden explosion knocks both fighters back, but Naruto nearly gets himself skewered by wooden spikes, until Zeph catches him in mid-flight, saving his life, yet loudly tells him they were not his enemies.

As soon as the blonde boy calmed down, Kakashi, calls for a cease-fire, and with little time to spare before Tobi gets his hands on Sasuke, he takes their word to be genuine. He calls for Hinata to locate the enemy again. This time, she lost all signs of the masked man, however, Erb already pinpoints his exact location via his energy signature. He prepares to fly over and get revenge for his scheme. Suddenly, he sensed danger from above, and leaps back, narrowly avoiding green energy spears. He and everyone else soon spot 2 women falling from the sky and leaving a crater upon their landing – the first being a sea-green hair girl wearing a dark sage green long coat over a shirt and boots, and the second a beige hair girl wearing lightly armored black with white outline combat suit.

In a ruined area once inhabited by a single dome-shaped building, Tobi warps by the bodies of Sasuke and Itachi. Zetsu comes out from the ground but gets reprimanded by his comrade for being too slow. Tobi then proceeds to take the 2 bodies with him.

 

Episode 31 – Uneasy Rest

Back with Erb and his team, the red warrior confronts the green girl, treating her as the enemy - a single spear would have killed him if he hadn't moved. But to his astonishment, she speeds towards him with a kick and he blocks her using his arm, only to get one of his forearm bones broken – a result of poorly withstanding the Rasengan. Within that moment of contact, he hears her mutter him not being from here. He retreats to tend to his injury, buts sights several green spears of light raining down. Tya steps in front of him with her bo-staff already out and spins an astral projection of her weapon to parry them all. Zeph follows up from above, firing his mac buster at the 2 women. His attack engulfs them, but when it cleared, he sees a barrier dome over the girls. Erb, Tya, and Zeph regroup to reconsider their next approach, until they several Naruto's charges right past them, each with a Rasengan in hand.

The sea-green girl conjures her spears and pierces nearly all of them. But the Naruto's - clones made by the original - erupt to create a blanket of smoke around them. Then, from both sides of the dome, 2 more clones spring out from the ground and impact their techniques against the shield. The pressure causes it to shatter and the clones quickly turn into more smoke, blinding their vision long enough for Kakashi and the real Naruto to reach them. Kakashi aims for the armored girl with his own technique, Chidori – his hand enveloped by highly refined blue lightning – while Naruto points his Rasengan at the other. However, within a fraction of a second, they suddenly face down the barrel of 2 black metal cannons, both held by the armored girl, and watch a red light forming deeper inside. To their fortune though, the Saiyan girl followed them from behind to then redirect her cannons upward using her real staff and astral version. The force produced upon the cannon's firing blew away the smoke and everyone nearby watched a pair of large red beams shooting straight into the sky. Kakashi, Naruto, and Tya then move away from the girls just before the spears could touch them and went back to their respective teams. But out of nowhere, Tobi returns from out a spiraling vortex, thanking the 2 women for buying him time, and then takes them away.

With the fighting now over, the shinobi's and the Saiyans quickly get together to have a proper introduction, starting with the Shinobi's; Kakashi, Yamato, Shino, Hinata, Kiba, Sai, Sakura, and Naruto. The others did the same, and soon, all transgressions between them were quickly settled after the 3 fighters told them their purpose for hiding earlier. Coincidentally, Erb was able to lead the natives to think they were simply travelers from a faraway place – a city over the ocean. Zeph is the only other person in their group who is keeping up with the talks but had to translate for Tya who has not worn the monocle. Meanwhile, one of the shinobi's, Sakura – pink haired and the only medical ninja in the team – heals Erb's broken arm as an apology for her blonde friend's rash action. However, Naruto immediately pegs them to be extraterrestrials rather openly due to their appearance and their other female friend incapable of communicating with them. Kakashi and Yamato, the senior members of the team, were closely engrossed by his tale while subtly eyeing at Hinata who was observing their red stranger through her special eyes, discerning if he was telling the truth through his life force - chakra. At first, she was surprised to find his entire body surging with an extraordinarily large amount of energy and how it was distributing was different from their own. But, she was able to discern similarities with their own and used that to look for any signs of him lying. The only time she detected a lie was when the red fighter tried to play off Naruto's earlier claim. In the end, Hinata nods to her 2 seniors - he can be trusted. After the dragon saiyan laid out everything, Kakashi apologizes once more on behalf of their team and invites the travelers to Konoha, though in the pretext of letting their leader know what happened and bringing them in as eyewitnesses. Zeph soon brings up as to who they were fighting, and Kakashi tells them about the masked man. But as the for the 2 women, he had no clue, though he, Naruto, Yamato, Sai, and Sakura had met the dark green clothed woman before. Nearly a month ago, after they took down 2 other Akatsuki members, Hidan, and Kakuzu, she revealed herself, but did so just to congratulate them in their victory and express her interest in their fight. She left right after, leaving no trace of herself behind and nothing for them to go on, until now.

Afterward, Zeph radioed in Jav to bring the jumper to their location, and in a few short minutes, the rest of their group arrive. The sight of the flying vehicle shocked the natives and only solidifying Erb's story. When the last of them boarded and Erb's arm fully recovered, the aircraft takes off, and within the hour, they arrive at Konoha, cutting what would normally take several days. Out of the jumper's front view, they all see a large bustling community surrounded by a high wall on circling all around, and the back side is a cliff with 5 different faces carved out. Kakashi told Jav to land down in a specific spot, noting that going any further would lead to certain security issues. And so, they touched down in an open vacant road where a station post was. Kakashi tells them to wait while he went to the post guards to explain their situation. Things were settled quickly, and so, the travelers were given permission to enter and walk through the giant gates.

 

Episode 32 – Secrets

In a secluded cavern, Tobi steps back into reality with the 2 women and specifically thanks the sea-green girl, Nyx, once more, and her partner for their assistance but questions their timing, knowing they were observing from afar, in the shadows – they could have helped him at any time. Nyx replied by saying he showed no signs of needing aid with the way he was toying with the hidden leaf shinobi's until the new group intervened. Tobi is still mystified over the presence of the 3 newcomers and knew from first glance they were not of his world. He questions Nyx if she knew who they were. She had no answer and was wondering that herself. Yet, she assures him the next time she finds them, she will kill them. Moments later, out of one of the caverns, a slender pale lady with purple eyes, white hair tied as a ponytail, and covered in a long dark grey coat over a jumpsuit with a 3-pointed hat on top, walks up to Nyx. Her subordinate, Bathora, welcomes them back and was praised by Nyx over her quick return from the Village Hidden in Rain, Amegakure. Bathora reports her task in disposing of a shinobi named Jiraya was a success, though mentions one of their allies, Pain, did most of the work for her. Tobi was glad to know a pest had been dealt with but is now concern the hidden leaf will bolster their defenses after the death of someone as important as Jiraiya. In the meantime, he wants to wait for Sasuke to wake up, and enroll him into their group; thus, he orders Nyx and her team to stay on stand by for now. They obeyed without question.

Sometime later, in the office of Konoha's leader, Erb and Zeph were nearly finished speaking with the Hokage – a blonde bombshell woman named Tsunade - with Kakashi and Yamato who were there to collaborate their story. Unable to retrieve Sasuke Uchiha, Tsunade considers the mission to be a failure but learning of Itachi's death, a major member of Akatsuki, made this not a complete loss, and finding capable allies with impressive technology was also a plus. Furthermore, their suspicion of another group allied with the Akatsuki is now out in the open. Tsunade shares some new intel regarding the mystery women they encountered from one of her own friends, Jiraiya, one of the 3 legendary Sannin's of Konoha – Tsunade is also one of the 3 herself. She heard him mentioned having seen one of Akatsuki's members speaking to 2 gorgeous beauties - a green hair woman and a beige hair woman, both wearing strange dark attires He had tailed them to Amegakure, the village hidden by rain, but returned to Konoha to report. The next day, he went back to investigate further, in secret. Tsunade notes she is the only person who knew of his mission and predicts he would have arrived at Amegakure by today. The Hokage then orders Kakashi and Yamato to keep this information between them and then requests the foreigners to do the same.

Erb and Zeph walk out of the Hokage building, free to roam about as they please. Erb sighs out of exhaustion after realizing what they were doing is a repeat of what he did on their world – déjà vu. His friend admits the similarity and his worry over the 2 women. He felt the same, remarking the green one to be as strong as they are in Super Saiyan, though he couldn't get a reading on the other. The anxiety of more trouble brewing for them lead the red man to focus on something else, and shortly later, he made up his mind and hurries over to where the rest of his team were - eating Ramen.

Elsewhere, on the side of a vacant road stands a small Ramen store, and inside Raix, Tya, and Bulb have been indulging themselves thanks to Naruto paying for them – his turn to apologize. With them are Sai and Sakura, both amazed by how the 2 Saiyans ate away their meals and how nervous their teammate was becoming as bowls started to stack up, and his wallet becoming close to empty. Tya and Raix notice their blonde friend's worry and did their best to show some restraints. Earlier, in secret, they and their young technician wore the monocle to understand the native language, and after a painful few seconds, they were having conversations with the shinobi's, already becoming friends. Naruto didn't mind having used his finance, boasting his skills as a great ninja will help garner him more missions, thus more revenue. From there, Tya wants to know the techniques he used earlier – Rasengan and Multi-shadow clone. Naruto learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu from a scroll he read and the Rasengan from his master who he calls, Pervy Sage. He adds on Kakashi is also his mentor since the beginning of their team's formation, Team 7, alongside Sakura and Sasuke – Sai is a recent addition. He then asked about why they were after Sasuke before, and Naruto tells them it was their responsibility in bringing him back home. Suddenly, walking up to Naruto from behind is a young boy with brown somewhat fiery hair, wearing a long blue scarf around his neck, light sage green coat with dark grey outlines, and light grey pants. Konohamaru, friend and rival of Naruto, loudly greets him with glee and suddenly issues to challenge him in a duel. The hot-head blonde accepts, catching the outworlder's interest. But they were shockingly mistaken when the 2 shinobi's clown about using a perverted technique called the Sexy Jutsu, turning themselves into gorgeous women, trying to prove who had the better technique. Their shenanigans are quickly put down by Sakura's angry fists.

At the jumper, parked in a secluded forest area, Jav and Trunks had been working together in maintaining their transport. Jav takes the chance to make some small talk with his new alien friend, inquiring on what he knew about the dragon balls. Trunks was surprised to hear him mention them but then learns Goku had told Erb about it and the boy was close by eavesdropping. The Saiyan knew the magical orbs can wish almost anything, leading Jav to make a playful joke about wanting to make a wish to never work again and live a life of peace. Trunks share his sympathy for peace, but rather, world peace. He was thankful for how convenient they are, sharing his experience in being revived by them after dying. That opened the young boy's eye. He asked if that was true. Trunks affirm him it was, and then their conversation ends. However, this revelation gave Jav new hope for getting a wish of his granted – the whole reason why he came along. After they defeated Thunderwing, he retrieved medical charts – illegally - relating to Lilith's health and learned her body was deteriorating. Despite being in a coma and Atlantis's equipment, her condition was worsening and the doctors, including his adoptive mother, Eve, had no idea what was causing it. At best she would have about half a year to live. Jav, hoping the dragon balls existed and his friends were about to embark onto other worlds, made it his mission to go with them, hoping they would stumble upon Goku's world, gather the wish-granting orbs, and use them to restore Lilith back to normal. For now, he withholds his true intentions, for fear the repercussions, and did his best to make them believe he would be an asset for them.

 

Episode 33 – Far Too Familiar

Within one of many rooms throughout the Akatsuki hideout, Nyx had been examining footage she recorded through her own visor, examining the red man, the blue cyborg, and the staff-wielding girl with great interest, nothing their super-human physique. Still, she judges their overall power level to be unthreatening, but their presence on this world may jeopardize her mission. For safe measures, she takes out a disc and as it begins to glow green, a holographic projection appears, containing a humanoid faceless figure. Captain to her ship, she orders him to hasten their arrival time. Elsewhere, the young man, Sasuke, wakes up and is met by Tobi, who later reveals himself as Madara Uchiha.

Back in Konoha, with no living quarters provided, the Saiyans, their green guide, and their young genius camp in the jumper for the night. At the end of their first day on a new world, Zeph brings up a concern he has concerning Yuuko and the mystery group, Epoch. He asks Erb if he knew who they were, but the red man didn't know anything about them except what Yuuko told him. From there, the cyborg shares his suspicions of Yuuko, if she could be trusted at all. Trunks joins in, defending Yuuko's good intentions. He did initially hold some inkling of distrust towards her but states he will somehow manage it himself if the worst comes. Still unconvinced but sensing the topic would go nowhere, Zeph lets it go, and then Raix comes in next, wondering what tomorrow would have in store for them. Tya wishes for nothing to happen, and Bulb wants a breather, still decompressing over the Thunderwing incident, though he frustratingly wishes to have been with them when they fought the 2 women – despite how dangerous and skilled they sound, he heard they were also incredibly beautiful. Raix shares his sentiment, and a knocking on the head by Tya. Jav on the other hand still needed to recalibrate the jumper's system with what limited tools he had, commenting on the crash had caused some energy fluctuations. Raix jokingly scolds him in his driving skills, and the boy begrudging admitted it wasn't his best moment. As they were about to sleep, Erb checks his wristgate, clicks on the red gem and out pops a holographic projection with a set of numbers – a timer. He read the duration till their next jump to be a little nearly 10 days.

A few days passed, and the female warrior, Nyx, along with her subordinates, meet Madara in an open area where a large skeletal remain of some unknown beast now rests. Sitting on top of it is the young shinobi Sasuke. Nyx congratulates her masked employer for getting him to join their side, but still asked how he convinced him. He promised him the destruction of Konoha and that he would provide him the power to do so.

In Konoha, Erb was alone in the forest region, simulating all his fights thus far in his mind; his first match against Trunks, fighting the cyclops mercenaries, his death match against Zeph. But when he caught up to facing Thunderwing, he catches people surveying him. He shouts at them to come out and in an instant, they vanish from his detection. Since the day they arrived, he felt prying eyes on him and had thought it was the shinobis from the village. He paid them no mind, understanding their caution to outsiders. But his insecurity was catching up and it affected the progress of his self-training.

            In another part of the village, Bulb, Tya, and Raix were walking together through the bustling streets still perusing the shops by themselves until they spot Kakashi with Naruto in tow. The jonin makes eye contact with them and was happy he did. He was asked by the Hokage to bring in either Erb or Zeph; new information came to light about the enemy. Tya, having given her red companion one of their long-range radios, calls him and he picks up. She relays Kakashi's message but hears him complaining and then pawns it off to Zeph. But she insisted he come, and he complied. Tya also takes it upon herself to take his place until he arrives. Kakashi lets her, and Bulb and Raix are eager to be there so they can meet the famed beauty, Tsunade, with their own eyes. But she didn't allow them, knowing they would be too distracting for the talks and said they could wait outside. As they drew closer, they spot an enormous frog with a smaller one on top, both wearing navy blue, short-sleeve jackets. Their sight combined with Naruto's familiarity with them, put the newcomers in awe, though Raix recomposes himself after stating he had seen bigger figures.

Finally, in the Hokage's office are Tsunade, her assistant Shizune, 4 frogs sitting by the side – one of them being an elderly - Sai, and Sakura. The newcomers and Naruto learn of the elderly frog to be Lord Fukasaku – master to Naruto's teacher, Jiraiya. However, the little lord bears grave news of Jiraiya having been killed in action.

            In the Akatsuki hideout, gathered around a table, Madara, Kisame, Sasuke, and his entourage, and Nyx discuss their next move. Sasuke wishes to kill those in power in Konoha first, but Kisame confidentially judges him and his underlings are incapable of completing that task by themselves. Among Sasuke's group, a young man with white hair and shark-like teeth, bearing the name Suigetsu and a greatsword, told his senior otherwise and attempts to cut him down out of spite, until green spear of light blocks his swing. Baffled by how it repelled him and is in the air, he watches it float towards Nyx and then disappear with a snap of her fingers. Madara scolds his junior for not controlling his minions. Sasuke instead advises Suigetsu that if he continues his action, he would not win. The young man then inquires as to who the woman is. Nyx looks to Madara for his consent and he gave it. She sheds light on their partnership with Akatsuki; sent here by their own organization, Nyx and her team are both representatives and additional manpower employed by Akatsuki – their mission to help them achieve their goals. Other than giving her name and title, Executive Class Agent Nyx, Madara soon takes over, giving Sasuke and his team their first mission - to capture the eight-tail host. He also requests Nyx to send her subordinates to accompany and observe their performance.

            After hearing the news of Jiraiya's death, Lord Fukasaku shows the last message written by him, burnt on his back – a series of numbers. However, Naruto lashes out at Tsunade for letting his master and her friend go in by himself, and storms out. Sakura was about to go after him, but Tsunade tells her to let him be and moves on to discuss who killed him– the supposed leader of Akatsuki, Pain, and 1 pale woman dressed in foreign clothes, like the 2 women.

 Outside, Raix and Bulb watch Naruto exit out the building first and ask what occurred. Instead of responding, he walks past them with a depressing look. Thinking they did something wrong they chose to let him be. The shinobi wanders through the street, reminiscing his time spent training with his master, until one of his old academy teachers, Iruka, stops him, wanting to invite him for Ramen for lunch. But as he did with the others, he wanted to be by himself and continues his way home. Above, Erb zooms by, caught sight of Naruto, but let him alone since he was already late to the meeting.

 

Episode 34 – Dying Message

            After Erb was updated by what transpired, thanks to Tya, he learned of the women were not alone, which only made him hate his own bad luck even more. Now, he and everyone else are listening in on Fukasaku's recollection of their battle with Pain.

Lord Fukasaku begins from where he, his wife Shima, and his former pupil, Jiraya, had defeated 3 individuals who call themselves Pain, only to be ambushed by a pale woman in strange clothes. Armed with extremely sharp nails that can extend at unbelievable lengths, she cuts off Jiraya's left arm with ease and dragged their battle outside. From there, they saw 3 more Pains walk out and the others that were killed had somehow been revived. Among the Pain, Jiraiya noticed one of them was his pupil, Yahiko, but doesn't remember him having Rinnegn eyes – another type of rare ocular power. Afterward, the 2 groups proved to be too much for the hermit sage, forcing him to make a quick retreat, but not before killing one of the Pains again – a summoner type. Still, the sage had to know more about who he was dealing with, so he let Shima take the body and return to Mount Myoboku. He and Fukasaku however, stuck till the end. It was there Jiraya had figured something out, but another one of the Pain's crushes his throat, and the others stabbed him in the back. With all his strength, he wrote his last message on Fukasaku's back before his timely demise.

            Waiting outside, Raix wishes to eat ramen again, but Bulb reminds him they needed money to do so. Suddenly, their eyes peek over to a large pile of paper stacked neatly by a trash bin. On the spot, a discovery illuminates in Raix's mind, and he stares at his holopad, remembering a specific feature it had – a built-in laser printer.

The elderly lord soon goes into detail on the female combatant; just when Jiraya wrote his message, Pain was about to come back to finish the job, but the woman summoned a black rectangular rod and fires a bright red beam. The lord was able to get away in time, but the blast engulfed what remained of his pupil; he had no idea what happened afterward. On that topic, Tya pictures the weapon the enemy used sounds familiar to the one they witnessed before and Erb thought the same. Tsunade and the others remark they had never seen weapons of that kind, but the Saiyan girl tells them they have, but not as potent as the one wielded by the girl in black armor. That is where their discussion ends and so Erb and Tya can leave. But before they stepped out, the red Saiyan kindly asked Tsunade if the security detail she has them on will end soon. She pauses for a moment and then replies that he won't have to worry about them for long. As soon as they left, Kakashi questions if there was anyone else she assigned other than him to watch the group - he points out he hasn't blown his cover yet. She did not and is infuriated to know someone else went behind her back and placed additional people on them. She only ordered Kakashi to look after them as special guests in case anyone else from the village decided to treat them otherwise. She knew only one other person who could do that.

            Walking out, Erb and Tya couldn't find Bulb nor Raix anywhere. They went in search for the duo, and Erb – who can sense their presence - leads them to a vacant street. She ponders out loud on Naruto's well-being, knowing the pain he is undergoing; the death of Gabriel is still fresh in her mind. He had little to say, unsure on what to say to in this situation. Before long, a large crowd blocks their path, but they can hear Raix and Bulb advertising bundles of paper – Calendar sheets. Tya finds someone holding one, and frighteningly screams out from seeing photos of herself in questionable outfits.

 

Episode 35 – Threatening Omen

            Back in the jumper, after Erb and the others found Bulb and Raix, Tya drawn and quartered them for what they did. Earlier, the Calendars sheets they were selling had pictures of her, Roza, and several other female women wearing a wide range of attires from maid uniforms to bikinis. She recalls these pictures were used to advertise a fashion show held by the merchant association. She and Roza were begged to participate by the merchants, and so, they modeled for them in exchange for payment. The 2 girls weren't proud of it and even inadvertently created fan clubs of themselves. As for how Raix had access to the original images, he confessed he knew someone from the association and obtained encrypted copies of the images for his personal collection, though he did not download images of Tya. Still in possession of the encrypted copies, using his holopad's built-in laser printer and the stacks of paper from before, he redownloaded all the images and printed them out in mass. With some help from Bulb, they were able to obtain one of the calendars of this world and printed the dates on their own. Their efforts racked in nearly 100 copies and almost sold all of them until Tya destroyed their operation, confiscating their money.

            Now, after finishing their takeout meals – Ramen - the whole group was updated by today's talk, mainly, the possibility of other outworlders beside themselves – the evidence are their weapons. None of them brushed it aside, and they all agreed, if the Akatsuki are partnered with individuals who can stand toe to toe with them, they may have to intervene in some measure. In preparation for it, Trunks first clearly states what they need first – Raix and Tya learning how to fly, and Zeph mastering his Super Saiyan 2 transformation. Trunks is willing to finish where Neva left off in their flying lessons, and Erb will do all he can in helping Zeph. Tomorrow morning, they were going to resume training.

            Few hours passed, and everyone slept in the jumper, all but Erb who was bothered by the presence of a group nearby. Zeph wakes up moments later for the same reason, notified by his scanner. The red Saiyan plans on handling them himself, letting his blue friend stay back and defend the others if the worst arises. As quietly as he could, he opens the jumper rear door, just enough to slip out, and takes a few leaps to arrive in front of the spies. They were shinobi's wearing animals' masks, and he demands their reasoning for being here. Suddenly, one of them told Erb to follow them to meet their leader, and he confidentially obliges. He trails behind the shinobi through the dark forest and eventually arrives at the edge of a cliff side where an old man with half of his face bandaged and an x-shaped scar on his chin, awaits him. The shinobi's then vanish back into the foliage, and it was just the 2 of them. Yet, as the old man speaks to him, not sharing his name or whatsoever, Erb already knew he was dangerous. The old man then interrogates him on why they were here, and the young man responds their intentions are pure and only wish to settle down for a short amount of time before moving on. Sadly, the old man starts reiterating everything the travelers said before they went to sleep, knowing they were in fact, outworlders – aliens - then confesses he would normally send someone to assassinate them out of fear of the unknown. But he knew very well their fighting capability would prove his efforts otherwise, futile. He does intend on placing them under constant surveillance for as long as they stay in his village but will not interfere in their business, so long as they do the same. Later, as he was about to leave, he shares one warning – if they ever tend to disturb Konoha in any way, he will fulfill the deed one way or another. Erb, not taking his threat lightly, watches his body erupt into white smoke, and thereafter escaping his senses.

            The next day, Erb was out with Raix, but is deep in thought over last night. He only told Zeph of what transpired and not the others, so they wouldn't be disturbed. When morning came, they commenced their training, and Raix and Tya made some progress. Zeph however, still struggled and Erb wasn't too sure himself on how he was able to maintain control over Super Saiyan 2. And now, currently taking a break, the red head is with his spiky hair friend on some errand. He finally asks him where they were going, and he tells him they are going to Naruto's place. His reason for going is the brown bag he is holding; inside are the last 2 copies of the calendar sheets he had sold. He planned on giving one to Kakashi, and the other to Naruto's master – who he calls Pervy Sage – but he didn't know where they are, thus, he thought of going to the blonde shinobi who can hand them off to them instead, and maybe cheer him up for having lost his master. He saw where he lived on their first day and was backtracking to it. Erb, knowing Pervy Sage is Jiraya and his friend only knew him by his nickname, told Raix they are one and the same. He heard nothing from him and chose to treat him to some ice cream as his way of lifting his now demolished spirit. He went into a small store, leaving Raix by himself, and come back out with 2 blue popsicles. However, he was gone. Before he could panic, he locates his energy signature; the young man is moving at high speed, in the same direction where Naruto is.

            Outside of Naruto's home, a young man with black spiky hair, styled into a ponytail, Shikamaru - a fellow shinobi and friend to the blonde boy since their training days – rang his doorbell, hoping he could help with his current investigation. Yesterday, he was given the task to decode Jiraiya's last message but wasn't making any headway unless he knew what the key code was. He had asked Tsunade and Kakashi who were close to the hermit sage, but they only knew as much as he did. Naruto was his last lead. Shortly after, he opens with a sulking look and demands Shikamaru why he was here. But before he could answer, the sound of someone wailing grew louder and suddenly, Raix abruptly ran up to Naruto and blabbers out how sorry he is in a slobbering manner, startling them both. Erb then arrives at the scene and helps remedy the pandemic.

 

Episode 36 – Resolve

            Inside Naruto's apartment, Erb, Raix, and Naruto sat around Shikamaru, listening to his predicament and then asked Naruto for his help. However, he is still grieving over the news, and Shikamaru had little time to work with. So, he leads Naruto and even invites the other 2 outside, and shortly later, arrive at a hospital where they meet one of their seniors, Kurenai – a former shinobi who is now pregnant and is the wife of Shikamaru's late master, Asuma. They said their greetings, and after she left, Shikamaru tells his friend he plans on being her child's master, and it was now their turn to be the one who imparts knowledge to others, instead of staying in the past. Naruto, finding wisdom in his words agrees with newfound resolve. Raix resumes crying silly again from his touching story. Naruto then looks to Raix and wants to see the gift he had planned for Jiraya. The Saiyan gave him the calendar sheet, and after viewing through it with an indifferent stare, he smiles happily, admitting this would be a perfect gift for him.

On the side, Erb then says his piece, wondering what code they were trying to crack. Shikamaru shows him a picture of Fukasaku's back and the numbers written. He and Naruto have no idea what they mean, but immediately, Raix assumes it to be from a book, surprising everyone. During his time in SWORDS academy, he was given an assignment involving a series of numbers but was stumped on it until Roza showed him the answer – the numbers represent page numbers in a textbook and he had to find certain words from a specific sentence to decode them. His insight spurred Shikamaru to bring them to the decoder's building, though Erb only tagged along in case his friend starts to embarrass himself and his assumption was but a fluke.

            After a while, Naruto stares at the picture, and the others are waiting on his thoughts on the matter. New to the group is Shiho, a female ninja from the Cryptanalysis Team, and was assigned with Shikamaru in cracking the code. After some time, the blonde boy brings up a question regarding why there was a letter among the numbers. Shikamaru stares at the image until his friends point what he sees as the number 9 is, in fact, a katakana – a letter. After he explained why he thought so, they now knew for certain the clues they need are in one of Jiraiya's book which start or have the letter they found. Suddenly, by an open window, Kakashi pops in, with one of the sanin's book in hand, titled, Make Out Tactics. In Erb's mind, he wonders why someone, as laid back like him, would be reading that. Naruto notes the book he held in the book his master had been working on since their training, and Shikamaru spots the same katakana, on the title. They quickly search through the pages using the numbers provide. Sadly, Kakashi had to read the sentences and afterward, he became mentally exhausted and embarrassed. Shikamaru and Erb felt the same, though the others were unaffected. The message they decoded read out, "The real one's not among them." Still clueless as to what it meant, Naruto goes to personally tell Fukasaku and Tsunade about it. Erb follows him for his own reason; to ask the lady regarding his visitor last night. Raix though, recalls he had a gift for Kakashi and gives it to him. He thanks him, cautiously, and then opens it; instantly, he gets a nose-bleed.

In an undisclosed location within Amegakure, Madara and Nyx sit down with 2 other Akatsuki members, one being a beautiful woman with blue velvet hair, and the other, a man with orange hair and his face riddled with black rod piercings. Madara refers to the orange hair male as Pain and gives him the order to pursue the host of the Nine Tail beast with haste while he sends a group led by their newest member, Sasuke, to go after the Eight-Tail beast's host. Pain was not confident in the team he sent but was assured by Nyx that her 2 subordinates, both capable and one of them being as strong as she is, will be accompanying them. She also insists on joining him to capture the nine tails. Pain declined at first, trusting he and his partner, Konan, are enough. However, the young lady pushes, arguing that her assistance would be greatly needed if he was to achieve success in their mission, and the presence of the other outworlders may also hinder his progress. The masked man supports her claim and reminds them of why she was here – to help further both of Akatsuki's goals. Although Pain made no signs of agreeing, he tells Konan to prepare for their departure.

 

Episode 37 - Training

Back in the Hokage's office, Erb, Raix, Naruto, Kakashi, Shikamaru, Shiho, Sakura, Fukasaku, and Tsunade debated on the decoded message, but are nowhere closer in uncovering Pain's secret. With little to do now, Fukasaku offers to train Naruto in the art of sage Jutsu in the land of the frogs, Mount Myoboku, in case he ever fights Pain himself. The young man accepts without hesitation, but this sparks an idea for Erb – interested to know what sage jutsu was and if it could help him get stronger. What stopped him though, is not being acquainted with the frog. Raix's naivety helped him out by inquiring if they can come along. His guess came true; Fukasaku declined, but rather they couldn't come due to their planned method of travel. He did hint they could get to Mount Myoboku the long way, but they would have to go through the maze mountains beforehand, requiring a guide to get them through. Otherwise, it was impossible to get there on foot. This gave the red man options. He takes a shot and seeks to know, if they were able to get to the location, then would they be allowed to train as well. The frog happily confirms, secretly curious to see how the red stranger would perform after what Tsunade told him – a man who hails from an unknown city from the seas, who can fight off an Akatsuki member, and show extraordinary physical feats.

Somewhere far away from Konoha, inside a cave, the shadow of a monstrous figure shrinks down to a dark skin man wearing white garments and armor. He exits out of the entrance while rapping an unrhythmic lyric, only to be welcomed by 6 strangers - 4 wearing the Akatsuki signature cloaks, and 2 in foreign attire. Leading the group is Sasuke, and he steps forward, asking the dark skin man if he was the host of the Eight-Tails.

At the village gate, Naruto and Fukasaku bid their farewells to Tsunade, Sakura, and Shikamaru. Awkwardly, he marches off, unaware of Myoboku's location, and looks to the frog for directions. But they weren't going there by foot as he said to Erb and Raix; they were going there via a reverse summoning with the help of the contract scroll which the shinobi recognizes from when he first trained with Jiraiya. Suddenly, he disappears before asking what reverse summoning was, and so did Fukasaku. Right after they left, Erb touches down by the others, late to see them off, but ready to disembark. With him are the rest of his group except for Jav, still tinkering with the jumper. Going with him are Zeph and Bulb. Zeph wanted to join him so he could learn more about Super Saiyan 2 and doing it somewhere open and away from unwanted eyes is a bonus. He dragged Bulb to come due to his healing abilities – he initially refused but was reminded by Tya of this being his punishment for yesterday, and quickly changed his mind. Raix, Tya and Trunks were staying behind, to look after Jav and continue their flight training – as well as the village in secret. Using his keen senses, he locates Naruto's position far east from where they are. Before he went off, he looks to Tsunade regarding the talk they had, of the man he met last night. She apologized beforehand for lying to him and revealed the true perpetrator to be the founder of the root – Konoha's special force unit – Danzo. She promised to watch over his friends while they are away. He trusts her completely and goes rocketing off to Mount Myoboku.

Back with Sasuke's group, the man known as Killer B – host of the eight-tail beast - taunts them in musical riddles. Suddenly, he stops after looking at the women behind them, Bathora and Beta, and starts rapping in a romantic manner. Bathora sends back a sarcastic remark to his compliment, but he cuts her off, clarifying he was mainly interested in the young lady beside her. Team Hawk's members take the chance to get into a diamond position, with their leader in front, and they begin their assault. As the fighting was about to begin, Beta's long-range sensors detect 2 high power level traveling quickly, far south of their position.

In no time, Erb's group left the borders of the Land of Fire and are traveling over the ocean, drawing closer to Mount Myoboku. Within their sights is a peninsula, and after flying high and further north, past the maze mountains and into a swamp forest, they locate Naruto's position inside a small abode, likely housing their friend. They walk up to it and watch him sickly come out with Fukasaku. The toad lord, shocked by how quickly they arrive, hears Erb tells him they can fly. In the end, he kept his promise - they could train here.

Afterward, Fukasaku and everyone else, along with a new addition, Gamakichi, stand by a pond of oil surrounded by large frog statues. The elder was kind enough to give a lecture to what's on everyone's mind, Senjutsu or Sage Jutsu; shinobi's use Chakra to power their Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu, all 3 mainly comprised of mental and physical energy. Sage Jutsu utilize Nature Energy – an external source of power derived from nature – and combines it with the other 2 to create even more powerful attacks. He demonstrates its applications by first gathering the energy and with one arm, he lifts a stone statue. They were amazed until Fukasaku explains the requirement to gain Nature Energy only to be translated by Gamakichi as death.

In Amegakure, Pain, Konan, and Nyx finished their preparations to invade Konoha. They planned on going by foot, which wasn't ideal for Nyx. If it were up to her she would fly over to the village and retrieve the target herself. But her recent report from Beta made her think twice. The 2 male fighters they fought had left the land of Fire not too long ago. The only one they need to worry about when they arrive at the hidden leaf would be the staff wield. She also knew some of them could detect energy like herself – after observing the red fighter attempt to chase after Tobi despite the distance – thus if she flew, they would be able to find her. For the time being, she was willing to be patient and travel on foot if they can capture the nine tails.

 

Episode 38  – Team Hawk

Back in Mount Myoboku, Fukasaku corrects Gamakichi's translation, restating the requirement to master Sage Jutsu is to remain still. This, however, only confused the 3 fighters, until he added in the pond oil they stood by – toad oil. Basking in it would allow an individual to absorb Nature Energy easily. Naruto was the first to experiment and could feel it working. However, half of his face and his right arm exhibit frog features – turning into a frog. The elder summons forth a black baton and literally beats the Nature Energy out of him, halting the transformation and reverting him back to normal. He ends his lecture by noting the statues around them were past trainees who failed, and what the boy would have turned into if he hadn't done what he did. Fukasaku does mention Jiraya had mastered the form, sparking Naruto's conviction to do the same. Erb, to see the result of using sage mode himself, went ahead and touch the oil, hoping to see if he can control it. Fukasaku prepares his baton in case the same happens to him, but to everyone's bewilderment after a good minute passed, he remains much the same. It had no effect on him.

In the area where the eight-tail host is, within the minute of their fight, Killer B disarmed Suigetsu of his weapon and knocked down Jugo down. Behind them, Bathora was surprised by the grown man's skill in hand to hand combat and inquires Beta on everyone's battle power. She scans each combatant, starting with Karin being the weakest among them, and then Suigetsu, Jugo, and Sasuke, all 3 roughly equal to that of an Operator class (4 ranks below the highest echelons of their organization); though, she does remark Sasuke is stronger than the other 2 and is the closest to an Enforcer. Finally, she measures Killer B as an Enforcer class (1 full rank above an Operator). Although Bathora is an Enforcer herself, Beta assures her she is more powerful than him. However, the 2 other high-power levels Beta informed her of are of some concerns – both Enforcer class.

By the oil pond, Fukasaku had been continuously beating Naruto after failing to balance out Nature Energy. Erb and Zeph stayed on the sidelines upon learning their bodies are unable to take in nature energy through this world's conventional means. Thus, they underwent mediation per the frog's instruction and tried to sense Nature energy on their own. The Saiyans were able to grasp tiny essence but were annoyed from each time it leaves their grip.

Sasuke, Jugo, and Suigetsu made little progress in hitting Killer B until Suigetsu catches one of his punches, liquifying himself to keep him in place, allowing Sasuke to use Chidori, sacrificing himself to gain the advantage. Jugo switches in with a double hammer strike, causing a large dust cloud. The dark skin shinobi slip away within the smokescreen and hides behind another mountain. Sasuke, unable to locate him, orders Karin, a sensory type shinobi, to pinpoint his location. Bathora, still idle, orders Beta the same. Both women found him in mere seconds. Sasuke leaps onto Jugo's hand and then hurdles straight at him. B, unable to take it easy anymore, begins to unleash his Eight-Tails power. Killer B's body starts producing thick red tinted blobs made of chakra, covering himself from head to toe, and out from his back, 6 tails sprout out. With it, he gained an increased in speed and power and uses it to dash towards Sasuke who was in mid-flight, aiming to kill him in one blow with his signature move, Lariat. But the young man still evades him with the help of his eye power, Sharingan, able to track his movements. Still, B renews his focus on the ones left on the ground. Jugo swiftly takes his comrades and jets off before the shinobi could hit them. The resulting crash by B annihilated the already destroyed battleground. Bathora and Beta flew into the air, and the enforcer orders her companion to scan his battle power once more; he now measures that of someone at the peak of an Enforcer - stronger than Bathora.

 

Episode 39 – Living Weapons

            Sasuke returns to his team, in the hopes of coordinating their next plan of attack against their enhanced foe. B quickly cuts in, aiming another Lariat. He gets intercepted by a powerful beam shot and crashes into a mountainside. He recovers nonetheless, meeting his attacker, Beta. Commanded by Bathora to apprehend Killer B alive, the beige girl took center stage, summoning forth 4 floating cannons, each as big as herself, and fires them with deadly accuracy. The shinobi switches to evasion, unable to take another direct hit from her mysterious weapons despite his thick armor of chakra. However, he was startled by her sudden display in physicality – her speed and strength being equal or slightly greater than his own. After a hand to hand struggle, he gets caught in a sleeper hold. Sasuke, presented with an opening, swiftly orders Beta to keep him in place and then uses his Sharingan to put him under an illusion - Genjutsu. B's body slumps and Beta detects no sign of resistance, thus letting him go. With the mission accomplished, Beta moves to Bathora side whereas Sasuke took some time to rest. However, as soon as the young man let his guard down, Killer B sprung back up with a Lariat, and connects his attack, opening his chest cavity. Bathora re-issues Beta to engage, but by the time she did, B's body began to morph and expand, turning himself into the Eight-Tail Beast; a hulking mass with the combined appearance of a bull and an octopus. Near the end of his transformation, he uses one of his tentacle-tails to whip the armored girl away and into a far-off mountain – paying her back for earlier. In the meantime, Jugo and Karin came to Sasuke's side and Jugo uses his own flesh and blood to heal him, letting Karin rest. Their leader wakes up, but Jugo turns into a child as a result. Incidentally, B caught wind to what they did and was about to crush them, until Suigetsu intervenes as a large water sprout, keeping him at bay for the others to flee, only to be defeated when B unleashes his Tail Beast Bomb – a black ball of immense chakra.

            After a few hours of practice, Naruto successfully gains Nature energy using the oil and tests his newfound power by doing what Fukasaku did. Further away, Erb and Zeph continued mediating but just as when they felt a different sensation envelope their bodies, Bulb hits them in the head with a black baton given to him by the elder, disrupting their concentration. His excuse was practicing for when they do turn into frogs by accident – though in secret he simply wishes to mess them up for fun. He was sent flying soon after.

            In the aftermath of the Tail Beast Bomb, Sasuke, Karin, Jugo, and incapacitated Suigetsu, survive the blast whereas Bathora is in the air, barely avoiding it herself. Unsure if she can handle the Tail beast herself, she yells out for Beta, who bursts out of a mountain of rubble, covered in a spherical barrier. She deactivates her protection and resumes attacking the beast with even greater force, summoning twice the number of cannons at her disposal, bombarding him until he fires another Tail Beast Bomb. She collides it with her own and the aftershock further disfigures the area. Sasuke, seeing his team members incapable of continuing, went off to face Killer B by himself. While the beast was distracted by Beta's attacks, Sasuke unleashes his new power, Amaterasu. Bathora observes black flames engulfing the tail beast, and the sight of the monstrosity screaming in agony sent shivers down her body. She then spots Karin get hit by one of its rampant tail swipes, inflamed. The fire spreads onto her back, but before the flames could consume her, it disappeared. Sasuke willed it so on the spot, and did the same to Killer B. Beta, sensing the target is now subdued and still alive, ceases her offense, and proceeds to take him into their custody.

 

Episode 40 – Tales of the Gutsy Ninja

The next day, in the land of toads, Naruto accomplishes to control and maintain sage mode using the oil. Fukasaku awarded his effort with a book written by his late master, titled the Tales of the Gutsy Ninja. Now, near the end of the book, Erb, Bulb, and Zeph join him, curious about what he was reading. He gives them a quick break down of the story, ending with the main protagonist defeating an assassin with the resolve to find and obtain peace without ever giving up. He recalls having heard his master speak of the same subject and how he, himself, was willing to find a way to obtain peace in the shinobi world. Bulb playfully wishes him luck on his endeavors, yet, the notion of not giving up on a goal encourages the Saiyans to resume their own sage training. Out of the blue, behind them, they hear a familiar voice asking what they were doing. Spooked by the unknown voice, they turn around and meet their young kai friend, Neva. Bulb immediately leaps at her in pure delight, aiming to land between her bosoms. He was sent flying right after.

After defeating Thunderwing, Neva resumed her own training with her master, Son Goku, but rapidly become bored by his daily routine. And so, on her break, Neva chose to look for the other Saiyans to see how they were doing. But she was surprised to find them on another world and chose to investigate via Instant Transmissions. In no time, Neva learns of the wristgate and its function from Erb. As for her earlier question, regarding their current activity, Zeph shares what Sage Mode is, and even informs her where the others were – Neva was glad Raix wasn't with them. Hearing their issue with gaining Nature Energy, she reveals it was possible for them to harness it, just not the way the natives do due to their aura properties being different. Neva sticks her hand out and in mere seconds she gathers a small portion of the energy in the air – the life force of the planet - and then forms it into a bright blue ball of pure energy, striking awe to the young men. She calls it the Spirit Bomb, and what they know as Nature energy is what she calls life energy. The 2 Saiyans request her help in teaching them how to harness life energy for themselves, and after a few reluctant moans, she gave in, just to cure her boredom. Naruto soon hears Fukasaku calling for him and he runs off, leaving the outworlders to themselves.

At a designated spot, Sasuke's team, Bathora, and Beta meet Madara with Killer B secured. They give him to Madara and team Hawk left to recuperate in another location. As for Bathora and Beta, he assigns them to locate the 2 high power levels earlier, and if they find them, they are to stay on standby, wait for the day Konoha is invaded, and then eliminate them. He gives the pale woman codes provided by Nyx to release Beta's full armament for unexpected battle strength. He also informs them of their ship arrival moments ago, accompanied by the rest of their team – 3 Enforcer class Agents. They will soon be ready to join them in the assault.

Neva had begun teaching the Saiyans and within the hour, both of her students were able to gather the life force of the area around them and let it wrap around their bodies – though they have yet to absorb it into their bodies. Zeph gained a mastery in controlling the external power by forming several small orbs in front of him. Upon his success, he realized this new technique can apply to one of his own. Erb, however, was having trouble in moving the energy. With his eyes shut, he hears the kai telling him to picture the aura gathering over his hand, and he does so. In minutes, he earns a reaction from the others. He opens his eyes and sees another hand, the same size as his own, and a mini spirit bomb on top of it. It then disappears from a lack of concentration, dispersing safely back into the environment. Neva was dumbfoundingly impressed by what he just did – molding energy into a complex form - and believes he can master something even better than the spirit bomb.

At the same time, with Nyx, Pain and Konan wait for the rest of her team exiting out of the black portal. They walk out one after the other. Krong, Enforcer Class, a rather tall hunched ape-like male with maroon fur, an elongated skull, and large, wide arms, and wears a dark grey armored plated suit. Samer, Enforcer Class, a tall humanoid woman with cyan skin, dark blue mohawk-style hair, wearing a black bodysuit with spherical armor pads on her shoulders. Ganhis, the last Enforcer Class, a human-like male, dark green skin with same color short length hair, wears a light grey combat jumpsuit with oval-shaped small shields on her arms and legs. With all her subordinates assembled, they continue their trek to Konoha – in one days' time.

 

Episode 41 – Invasion

            The next day arrived, and in Konoha, Tya and Raix were nearly done mastering the art of flight and are currently in a sparring match in the air, getting used to aerial combat. Trunks, observing their progress on the ground, sense a foreboding presence elsewhere and left the 2 on their own for a short while to investigate.

            Outside of Konoha's perimeter, Pain, Konan, Nyx, and her team had taken out a nearby scout party and are one step away from entering the village. What stops them though is the invisible barrier surrounding it – set up by the sensory team to detect any unwanted intruders. The leading Pain – Deva Path - splits the group in 2, sending his 3 bodies along with Nyx's 3 Enforcers to distract the enemy, while the rest go in search of Naruto. He explains their plan of attack; send his female Pain - Animal Path - through the barrier via the sky, and summon them on the other side upon landing, thus confusing the sensory team on their exact numbers. Nyx, assuring no outside interference would know of their doings, orders the ship to position itself above the village and blanket the entire area and several miles around it in a black veil – a technology that blocks all inbound and outbound signals and even the life signs of anyone inside.

            In the air, Trunks flies above Konoha, attempting to pinpoint where his uneasiness was originating from. He spots a girl with orange hair clothed in black and red coming down from the sky. Moments after, explosions erupt around the vicinity of where she is. He soon leaps into the fray, until a large gorilla arm swipes him to the ground and sending him crashing. He recovers, and when he got to his feet, he meets his attacker – the individual named Krong.

            Around the same time, Naruto was being taught Kawazu Kumite - a fighting style developed by the toads in Sage Art – while Zeph and Erb continue where they left off without Neva, who is in Other World. Bulb, having nothing to do, slept by the oil pond. Zeph used what he learned in manipulating the life energy in the air by causing it to agitate and then erupt using only a small amount of his own energy as the trigger – an improvised version of his Blitz Shot. Erb, witnessing his new attack evolve, can easily see its speed and explosive potency are drastically increased despite using less of his own energy. They soon stop when Zeph's detection system caught several strange thermal signatures nearing their location, yet his partner couldn't sense anything but one life sign.

Flying over the Maze Mountains, Bathora and Beta reach the last known location of the 2 energy signatures, timing Nyx's assault with their own. The pale woman then stops and radios the ship in orbit to send them troops as support. In seconds, 20 black portals rupture around them, and assembling out are heavily armored drones, humanoid in design - Machina soldiers. Although inferior to herself and Beta in terms of battle power, each is an equivalent to a low-level Enforcers. Beta performs another swipe of the area but is unable to find them. Bathora orders the machine soldiers to ready their weapons – all of them creating rifles out of thin air – and then commands them to fire at will, hoping to smoke them out with sheer firepower. Suddenly, Beta warns the Enforcer of inbound enemy fire, and they are engulfed by blue bolts of light. Bathora, Beta and 5 Machina's survived the ambush – Beta conjured a shield for herself and is completely unharmed.

From afar, Zeph and Erb, lowering their energy signature to keep themselves hidden, struck the first blow after recognizing one of them. With more than half of their forces gone, they flew out of the trees. Zeph goes to deal with the barrier girl, firing his Mac Busters to counter her cannons and then gets close to send her plummeting down. Erb, wielding his weapon in its katana form, encounters the machines, first parrying their shots, and soon after Bathora. Her fighting style reminds him of who Fukasaku described – the woman who cut off Jiraiya's arm. A stray shot from a Machina then hits him from behind, causing him to fall. The others fell suit, raining down beams after beam. However, he turns into a Super Saiyan for a moment to fire off a single Dragon's fist, destroying the soldiers in one go. Bathora was caught in it, losing parts of her left leg, and drops to the forest.

Naruto and Fukasaku arrive at the scene of the battle and spot Bathora. The elderly frog quickly identifies her from before, causing the blonde shinobi to lash out in anger, confronting one of the people responsible for his master's death.

 

Episode 42 – Fight at Myoboku

Bulb, slumbering peacefully and alone, startlingly wakes up by the thundering roars of battle, and fell into the oil pond. He immediately gets out, soaked, but like his friends, the oil has no effect on him. Drying himself off as best he can, his focus is then drawn to the ruckus in the horizon. Although he had little desire to get mixed in with it and knew his friends were behind the chaos, hearing their voices full of complaints about his lack of involvement haunts him; and so, bringing out his motorcycle out from his bud, he rides to give aid anyway he can.

In the edge of the land of toads, Bathora, recovering from the fall despite having only 1 leg now, caught sight of Naruto and Fukasaku. He remembers the frog but clearly knows of the blonde boy – their main target. She assumed Naruto was still in Konoha, but with him here, their efforts have been misplaced. Unfortunately for her, amidst the conflict, her earpiece broke, and she had no way to contact Nyx except through Beta. Still, she intends on capturing him by herself, until she was cut down in an instant by the red fighter’s katana.

Erb, looking at her lifeless body on the ground, felt a hint of remorse from his action and how he took a life without any hesitation – other than Thunderwing, he had never killed anyone. Suddenly, he senses multiple energy signatures oozing out of the supposed corpse, and then watches it move. A strong impression of danger heeds him to run, but he leaps back swiftly, avoiding a wave of deadly tendrils bursting out. Naruto joins his side as they both watch the tendrils combine and morph into a large monster. Fukasaku, grabbing on his pupil's shoulder, mentions when he and Jiraiya fought her, they noticed she was heavier than she looked, and what they are looking at now, could be her true form.

Bathora, the once pale woman, is, in fact, an organism comprised of many different beings, capable of shape-shifting into whatever she assimilated into her body - anything she considers beautiful. When her metamorphosis ceases, she is now a six-legged large beast with eyes, ghastly mouths, large tentacles, and remnants of her past victims tattooed all over her body. The beast gave chase at her new prey, extending out large numbers of spikes, blades, and hands. The Saiyan throws a Dragon's Fist in hopes of incinerating her, but she hides within a shell of dead flesh before suffering any real damage. When he hurdled another, she turns her shell into a circular shield and bounces it elsewhere. This left Erb unable to deal a decisive blow from long-range without risking the environment, as well as dragging the inhabitants into the fight, nor close-up for fear of getting caught and absorbed. Abruptly out of the blue, Bulb rolls in on his oversized motorcycle, only to press the brakes hard in reaction to the monster before him, and accidentally flings himself at it and get caught in its grip. The dragon hybrid speedily runs in to save him, discarding caution to the wind. However, the monster suddenly spits his friend out; he catches the terrified guide and watches the enemy slither in pain. Bathora had consumed some of the oil that was on Bulb and is now experiencing the side effects of taking in too much nature energy. She removes segments of her body affected by the oil, slowing down the progress.

Naruto watches Erb and Bulb get back, and he came up with a strategy and jumps to them, sharing his idea along with Fukasaku. While the monster was panicking, they hid behind a large tree and Naruto tells them to buy him time so he can use Sage Mode in preparation for one of his techniques that can possibly shred through her defenses. He confesses they need to keep her in place as well, but Fukasaku had the perfect means of accomplishing that thanks to Bulb's happy accident and takes the green guide away to retrieve more oil at a nearby pond. Erb was willing to stay and keep her busy. They then disperse, and the dragon saiyan jumps in front of Bathora, catching her attention. He dishes out volleys of ki blasts to keep her away, however, she charges at him regardless, extending her spikes in rapid successions. Unable to block them all with one sword, he uses the sheath as well. But to his shock, when he swings his sheath, it changed into a large broadsword, allowing him to cut his obstacles with ease, and wield 2 swords. She soon resorts to firing a mouth blast at him, but he dodges. Fukasaku and Bulb arrive, throwing woven wrappings filled with the same oil. They hit their mark and her petrification sped up. Still, she splits herself as before, but by that time, a spherical vortex ball soars straight at her.

Naruto achieves Sage Mode in minutes and brought out 2 clones of himself to perform his Rasenshuriken - appearing much like his Rasengan, but with blades made of high-speed winds spinning around it. He throws it at the abomination and was close to hitting her, until she opens a hole large enough for it to pass through. But as the Rasenshuriken moves away, Erb races towards it, catching her gaze only to then disappears with it and away from her view. Suddenly, they reappear above her; he lets the ball fly and in a fraction of a second, she was devoured by a torrent of blades and needles, destroying all her nerves and tearing her apart.

Over the mountains, Zeph had been dodging Beta's strikes while destroying her flying cannons. But for each one he takes, the girl replaces it, each as powerful as the last, and her barrier has remained active since his first mac buster. As one shot was nearing towards his head, a mirror absorbs it. Moments after, Neva teleports in, sensing he was in peril and gives him a helping hand before asking who they were fighting. Zeph had little details to run by her, but upon a quick scan of the mystery girl's body, he learns she is, in fact, an android – completely biomechanical. Neva mentions she couldn't sense her presence before, which coincides with the cyborg's discovery. Before long, the android resumes her assault, but she simply reflects her shots, and after few more exchanges, she makes one appear behind and inside her protection, leading to an eruption of red light and black smoke. But as the smoke cloud gradually dies down, a heat wave erupts, and the android emerges unharmed, equipped with a different armor set, painted completely in black and gold. In an instant, a large spherical metal silver ball materializes beside her and pours out gold energy pillars at the 2 fighters.

 

Episode 43 – Firepower

Erb, along with Naruto, Fukasaku, and Bulb, reconvenes over Bathora's remains, examining the result of their effort. Although the shinobi knows the woman who collaborated in the death of his master is now dead, he felt empty inside – no satisfaction was gained from this. The red Saiyan could see it from his facial expression but then checks for any signs of life in her in case she was faking it. To his relief, he detects nothing. Naruto asks how he was able to get on top of her before, and the red Saiyan confesses having used one of Neva's technique's, Instant Transmission.

Yesterday, he had acquired it after he begged her to teach it to him, finding its applications convenient. After much stalling by Neva, unwilling to be his teacher any longer, she gave in, and partway through the night, he accomplishes to teleport but only at a minor scale – going as far as 14 meters at best. Erb recalls it was also around the same time he felt a quake and went to investigate. He saw Naruto practicing his new move in secret just like him.

Abruptly, a golden light sear high over their heads, nearly blinding them. After it vanished, Erb flew up, discovering a trail of hollow out mountains, and pinpointing Zeph's energy signature nearby.

Zeph lost sight of Neva after the blast but spots his red friend approaching. He welcomes his assistance but was caught off guard by one of the android's new firearms. He dampens the blow by countering with his Mac Buster. Erb flies at her with his greatsword and bringing it down on her. She blocks him with just her own personal barrier, now outlying her entire body with a tighter enclosure. Her weapons – primary armaments meant to deal with Executive Class threats - are also equipped with their own shields and begin pummeling the Saiyans from all directions. To boost their defenses, they both turned Super Saiyan but are swarmed by dozens of the spheres. Naruto, on the ground, joins their effort with another Rasenshuriken on hand, sending it towards her just before his Sage Mode ran out. But the girl's weapons intercept, rupturing it prematurely. Erb rushes in to grab Naruto just before a beam nearly kills him, yet several more still chase them. Their blue friend leaps down, creating his own makeshift barrier, and wards off several of the shots. But it soon fails, and they are left wide open to an omnidirectional strike. Out of nowhere, one of Neva's mirrors pops right next to them, and she drags them through it, saving their lives.

In a separate dimension, Erb's and his team are stuck on how to deal with their synthetic foe; capable of materializing weapons and has an unlimited energy source. Zeph proposes an idea in using Neva's mirrors to cut her in half – cutting off the pathway. But she had attempted it before, as she was rescuing them; she sent one mirror to do it, but the android erected a circular barrier over her personal, forcibly keeping the mirror open, and escapes out. But then the red hybrid jumps in, pointing out Zeph's idea in bringing the android into this dimension until the goddess-in-training informs them she couldn't summon her mirror in here to protect them. Still, the red Saiyan only needed the android here because he plans on fighting her by himself for the sole purpose of gaining more information regarding the full extent of her powers - he is also the only one among them still capable of fighting at full strength. While he fights, they are to observe for any weaknesses she may reveal and let him know or use it themselves if he fails. Neva can communicate with him using telepathy, solving that issue right at the gate. The others were reluctant to follow his idea but gave in with no other alternative to run with.

 

Episode 44 – Erb vs Beta

Outside, Beta searches for them, until a large mirror develops above her head. She evades it when it approached, but another, much larger one, catches and drops her in it. On the other side, she meets Erb wielding his katana and broadsword.

Zeph, Naruto, and Neva exit out into the real world, and through a small mirror, they observe the battle being waged within.

Erb turns into a Super Saiyan 2 and in his enhanced state he was able to crack Beta's shield and outmaneuver her projectile's. However, after she abandons most of her weapons, leaving around 6, they adapted accordingly to him, slowly pushing him back once again. Yet, her actions made him realize her energy output remains the same despite her unlimited supply and having more platforms out made it more difficult to control them and they produce less power. But coincidentally, he also learned she was able to rectify her own mistakes.

Zeph had also discovers a key detail on her weapons defense and offense tactics, recalling his bout with Ouros, the cyclops alien, where he utilized his own energy to create his barrier and used it to either defend or fire beams from any direction. The girl's version is similar, but his visor spot tiny gaps left behind from each discharge, only to be closed swiftly after. He relays this to the kai who then telepathically informs Erb - with the proper timing, he can exploit her barrier's weakness.

To test their combined theories, the dragon man calls out Naruto to create as many shadow clones as he possibly can, and in the next few seconds, flooding out from a countless different opening were a thousand of his copies, each with a Rasengan on hand. Beta reacts by bringing out her platforms by the dozens to kill them. But the clones, using their Rasengans to block the now weakened beams, were able to reach the projectiles and destroy them. A few of the clones were also able to reach Beta and break through her shield, giving Erb the opening he needed to close in with his black great sword. Unfortunately, she learned from their first encounter in the forest, and moves back in time, avoiding a fatal blow. He still manages to cut off a large chunk of her chest piece, leaving an opening in her suit, exposing a bright red crystal embedded between her breast.

Zeph scans the red object and discovers it was the source of her power. Erb heard him, however, he watches her barrier reactivate and her weapons producing destructive energy waves to counter his early strategy. As he was fighting to survive, Zeph conjures one last idea but needs Neva to bring them both out. In a few short seconds, Erb sees a mirror portal open further away and hears the kai yelling at him to go to it and bring the android with him. He does so with no trouble.

When he flies towards the exit, Beta chases him through. Erb, upon arriving outside, waits in front of the exit and swings his sword when she came out. But when she came out, her weapon was the first thing he struck, and now caught, she pushes him away, hurdling him into a boulder. After getting back up, he faces the girl with her platform priming to fire one last shot. But she stops and looks down to find a miniature mirror inside her personal shield, inches away from her chest, and a blade end of a kunai stabbed into her red crystal.

On the other end, Neva made her weapon small enough to fit behind the droid's tightly enclosed shield, and Naruto plunged his kunai through, damaging her power source. After the blade was pulled out, the android slumps to the ground, appearing to have been deactivated.

Erb, relieved to be done, reverts to his base form and hears Zeph, Neva, and Naruto nearby. He turns towards them with a casual greeting, but before he knew it, Beta leaps back to life, locking her limbs around him with his face dug to her chest. Using every ounce of power, she can spare to keep him pinned, she draws up her reserve to cause her power source to overload, making herself into a bomb. With little time left and seeing the red crystal right in front of his eyes, he acts on impulse; using his mouth, he rips it off her and spits it out. He shouts to Neva and when the kai glances at what he threw, she immediately catches it inside one of her mirrors just before it could explode - safely disposing of it. The android finally shuts down, letting him go, who in turn falls back, exhausted.

 

Episode 45 – Six Paths of Pain

In the hidden leaf village, Pain's assault caught the native shinobi by surprise, already leaving behind causalities as they search for Naruto's whereabouts. A shinobi who goes by the name Iruka tends to his injured comrade, until one of Pain's bodies, the Deva Path, confronts him and standing behind him is Nyx. Pain threatens Iruka on the whereabouts of Naruto, but the lone man – a close friend and former mentor of Naruto – refuses to say anything, leading Pain to attack him. But Kakashi saves him, giving Iruka a time to flee with his fellow shinobi. Kakashi then faces Pain and Nyx by himself. He slams his hands on the ground, bringing forth a wall made of earth, and separates the 2, dealing with the Akatsuki first with his Chidori. But a sudden sense of fear slows him down long enough for Pain to avoid his strike. Kakashi retreats and tries again but gets hit by an invisible force and is sent back along with debris. Nyx stays in the air, avoiding friendly fire and eagerly observes the power of someone possessing the legendary eyes, the Rinnegan. But she couldn't help but notice there are more than 1 high-level fighter in the village – other than the bo-staff user, there were 2 others as strong as she was.

As the chaotic streets of pedestrians continue to grow louder, Tya and Raix had split up to do what they can to help. Tya beforehand, contacted Jav to stay in the jumper and keep it cloaked, barring him from doing anything else. In the distance, she sees a large centipede monster burst out of the ground and sees Sakura nearby. She lands by her side and together, they crush the insect, saving the civilians who were injured from the attack. They are soon met by Iruka and are informed of Kakashi fighting 2 of the invaders. Suddenly, an explosion occurs nearby and several shinobi's retreats to where they are, avoiding the attacks of an unknown assailant. Stepping out of the smoke is Samer, manipulating black orbs in the palm of her hand, each capable of dissolving anything it touches. She had already killed several of the defenders, and charges at the remainder, intent on fulfilling her blood lust. But Tya stands before her with her bo staff in hand and conjures an astral version to strike the woman square in the head, and then expands and drops it on top of her, crushing her underneath. With the enemy incapacitated, she leaves the others to detain her and moves on to where Kakashi is.

Tsunade, currently in her office, orders the shinobi's kneeling before her – members of the Anbu Black Ops – to recall Naruto back from his training to help in the defense of the village. However, 2 elders walk inside – respected counselors within Konoha's government – advising her to keep him hidden. They heard reports of the attacker is the leader of Akatsuki and another group of unknown origin, yet powerful enough to cause havoc against their fighters. If Naruto returns, he would be helpless against both groups. Yet, Tsunade fights against them, shedding light on the fact that he is no longer the same foolish child they once knew, but a full-fledged shinobi - one of their villages finest. After much deliberation, she was left to her own duties and sends one of the toad messengers left behind by Lord Fukasaku to retrieve the blonde boy. They left the room and the toad readies a reverse summon. However, out of the shadows, Danzo kills the toad, making sure Naruto continues to stay at Mount Myoboku.

Kakashi digs himself out of the debris and resumes his bout with Pain, throwing a long-range lightning style attack, only to watch it be repelled. Suddenly, landing behind him is another Pain avatar, the Asura Path. Up above, Nyx detected Samer's life signs decreasing and the bo-staff wielder was fast approaching. Nyx drops down to both the Asura and Deva Path, and they watch as the girl with the monkey tail lands by Kakashi. Although the white hair shinobi thanks Tya for her timely arrival, he sadly informs her they will have to fight for their lives from here on.

 

Episode 46 – Know Pain

On top of the Hokage building, Tsunade summons a gigantic slug beast named Katsuya and requests her aid in finding and healing any villagers, using her own chakra to help. The slug obeys, divides itself into thousands of smaller copies, and goes forth into the streets.

In another part of Konoha, Ganhis had finished demolishing a building to further cause mayhem as pre-instructed. He soon sees 2 shinobis running in a hurry and changes his focus on them. Shizune and an Anbu were making their way to the interrogation building with news of Pain's secret but are intercepted by Ganhis. He gets ready to attack, but Raix flies at him with a war cry. But the alien menace simply evades backward while the Saiyan trips and stumbles into a store, making a fool of himself. Still, he immediately recovers and pegs Ganhis as one of the enemies. Regardless, he returns to the kunoichi, offering to fend him off while she and her friend get to safety. They gladly take it, and the Saiyan soon gets into a brawl with the alien.

Tya gets stuck in a one on one confrontation against Nyx who was leading her on a chase, dodging her weapon's reach while attacking with her projectiles. Kakashi gets trapped in a 2 on 1 battle and was being pulled by the Deva Pain power, right towards a transformed Asura Pain. The shinobi anchors himself with a chain, but his hand slips and gets himself impaled. However, lightning began spurting out of his body, causing the body to erupt and shocks the avatar. The other Pain realizes the one fighting them was a doppelganger and spot a surprise attack over their heads – 2 large fists descending on top of him. He dodges, but not his fellow avatar.

Arriving at the scene are Kakashi's fellow comrades, among them, are 2 familiar shinobi's, Chouji – Shikamaru's teammate - and his father, Choza. Tya regroups with Kakashi and the other shinobi's, and they all launch a relentless barrage, but the Akatsuki leader repels them, putting most of the attackers out of commission. The Saiyan girl, Kakashi, Choza, and Chouji survived and hid behind cover. Kakashi relays all he knows of the enemy's ability. Tya shared what she knew from her short fight; the green girl had only used martial arts and her green spear projectiles, yet she senses she was holding back – for whatever reason she doesn't know. But before any more could be said, rays of light rain down, forcing them out of hiding. Nyx rushes at Saiyan girl, dragging her away from the others for Pain to deal with.

Tya, unable to win against Nyx as she is now, chose to turn Super Saiyan. She startles her opponent and deals a blow strong enough to send her flying and ends by planting her giant bo-staff projection on top of her. However, the green girl gets back up, partially unharmed, other than her visor being broken. Her body erupts in dark green aura, shooting high into the sky. Tya, having yet to sense energy, could already feel herself being pressured. Nyx holds her hands by her side and molds her aura into spears and commences her fight with the Saiyan in a weapons duel. In no time, the tables turned against the staff wielder, and after several failed blocks, she falls by Nyx's blade – receiving a stab wound in the abdomen.

Kakashi had also failed to execute his plan, and is now at the mercy of Pain, trapped in debris. Pain, cautious for any tricks Kakashi may have laid out, uses his repulsion skills to launch a nail at his head.

 

Episode 47 – Courage

Trunks who was still fighting Krong sensed Tya's life force rapidly fading, thinking she was in danger. He lost focus and earns a fist from the gorilla. Krong goes to finish him, but Trunks turns Super Saiyan and cuts both of his arms off, then throws an uppercut into his midsection where he fires a powerful ki blast through him, burning a hole in his stomach. With the enemy dealt with, he hurries over to her location.

Raix struggles to overcome Ganhis's ability - capable of absorbing and redistribute kinetic energy at will. The agent taunts him for his lackluster effort, however, Raix had uncovered one of his weaknesses - he still gets hurt. Playing the role of the fool, he tricks him into letting his guard down, and within an instant, he turns Super Saiyan, and with all his might, kicks him in the face, hurdling him far and unconscious. He then tries to meet up with Tya or Trunks, but a large slug stops his path and he immediately attacks it out of surprise. However, the slug informs him she was helping Tsunade and they are allies.

            The Deva Path, having dealt with Kakashi, is soon joined by Nyx, and with no more oppositions in their way, they moved on to a different area. Chouji, the lone survivor thanks to his father's sacrifice, fell into despair over his loss. But Kakashi, still alive, encourages him to relay all they learned about Pain to the Hokage. He does so, but the Asura Pain that was crushed by them remains functional and fires a missile out of its body, homing on the young shinobi. But Kakashi used his Sharingan's ability - an Ocular Jutsu called Kamui - to erase the missile, saving Chouji but at the cost of his own life. Having used it once before on the nail Pain threw at him, he no longer had the energy to sustain himself, thus, he passes away silently. As Chouji ran with new purpose, he spots the girl who was helping them, also alive but bleeding out. He takes her in hopes of finding someone to save her life, until Trunks lands down, demanding what happened. The Saiyan learns everything from the shinobi and after giving him a Senzu Bean for Tya, he tells him to get his friend somewhere safe until she recovers. Trunks then went after the ones responsible.

            High above, Jav does a flyby of the village in his cloaked jumper and was horrified of the destruction taking. Suddenly, a large birth like creature – one of the beasts summoned by the Animal Path - nearly hits him by accident. He evades, but spirals downward, nearly crashing until he regains control. He lands down in a clearing and takes a breather, struggling to cope with the mayhem, until he sees a familiar child fighting a tall orange hair man – the Naraka Path; another Pain avatar. The child in question, Konohamaru, chose to fight Pain to save his master, Ebisu, who is desperately telling him to run away. The boy ignores him, but soon gets caught and nearly met the same fate as the other fighters who faced against Pain. Luckily, it was all a trap he laid, letting a doppelganger of himself fight him so he can prepare a Rasengan in secret. Pain fell for it and the boy was victorious. Jav, having watched a child beat a strong opponent was inspired to do act, disobeying Tya's order to stay hidden. He gets his chance when he saw the Pain that was just taken down, staggering back up behind the unaware shinobi. Jav fires one of the missiles in the jumper's arsenal at the avatar, sending him through several buildings. He uncloaks the jumper, hovers down to the shinobi's, and runs out the back, telling the boy and his master to board so they can get to safety.

Tsunade had finally found everyone in the village who can still be saved but grieves over the state of the village – more than 50% of her home was destroyed within less than an hour of the attack. Shortly later, Chouji arrives with news on one of the Pain's abilities as well as the woman named Nyx. Tsunade thanks him and in return shares news of his father was still alive – one of Katsuya's clones found him. The shinobi cries in joy but asks about Kakashi's conditions. She didn't tell him anything except to go save his father. He did just that, leaving the Hokage to resume her efforts. But not long after, Pain and Nyx land on the same roof. Her Anbu's immediately went to the defensive, wary of their abilities. Strangely enough, Pain greets Tsunade, remembering her with Jiraya and another shinobi back when he was a child. She recalls the same and knew the name of the one standing before her, Yahiko. Pain then questions where Naruto is but like everyone else, he wasn't given an answer. Suddenly, his eyes sight a golden figure closing in. Flying in from the sky is Trunks in his Super Saiyan form with his sword out. Nyx gets in his way, blocking his strike with her energy spears and brings him elsewhere, leaving Pain with Tsunade and her group.

 

Episode 48 – Konoha's Destruction

            In the sky, Nyx gains ground against Trunks with just her strength and speed alone. But Trunks closes the gap by ascending into a form between Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 2 – Super Saiyan Grade 3. With it, he was able to go toe to toe against her in a contest of strength, and when he requires speed, he switches back to his normal form – making up for Grade 3's drawback. But eventually, Trunks loses the fight when he gets backstabbed by several light spears, and plummets to the ruined city. Nyx fires off one blast to his location, but another person dashes in and saves her opponent.

Raix brought Trunks to safety and left him with one of the Katsuya clones close by so he can go pay back his attacker. Earlier, the Katsuya clone he carried in his coat informs Raix of Tya's condition is critical and describes the person responsible – the green-haired woman. Knowing his sister was at death doors and seeing Trunks, in the same manner, stirs his once cheerful and naïve personality into that of a cold merciless warrior. He reaches her in the air in his Super Saiyan form, and throws a roundhouse kick, aiming for her abdomen. She attempts to stop his blow with just her foot on his knee in mid-swing but is overpowered, thrown to the ground, and gets dragged through the village. With all her strength, she kicks at the earth to launch herself up but meets him zooming by. The 2 of them exchange blows, but the woman couldn't keep up with the young man's nimble movements and deadly energy discs. In response, she fires off her spears by the dozens, but he accomplishes to either destroy them with his own projectiles or catch and hurdles them back.

            Meanwhile, Pain questions the Hokage one last time where Naruto was, but she replies by stating the young man was stronger than he knows. Suddenly, Pain learned where he was.

 Outside of what used to be the interrogation building, one of the Pain avatars, the Human Path, has Shizune in his grip and extracted Naruto's exact location from her mind – Mount Myoboku – and then killed her.

            With their shared link, the Deva Path also learns of this and mentions it for Tsunade to hear. She didn't understand how he knew but could only watch him levitate upward, hearing his last parting words containing a foreboding message.

            Nyx spots Pain leaving but is stuck with dealing Raix. She was about to release a restraint on herself – placed by her master if she were ever cornered – but a robotic humanoid intervenes with an energy blast, catching Raix off guard. He is sent wherever the beam ends, and shortly after, Nyx recognizes the robot as one of their machina soldier models, Spearhead, and sees one of her subordinates, Ganhis, returning by her side. He was the one who called the ship to bring down the Spearhead as additional manpower. He also informs her of the death of Bathora and the destruction of Beta. She was shocked to hear Beta was destroyed and guesses the red man and the blue cyborg were the ones responsible for defeating her. With her own earpiece broken, she takes Ganhis's, contacts the ship, and orders them to request additional support from any nearby teams. Afterward, she flies to Pain who tells her of Naruto's location, far east of their location, coincidentally fitting where her other team was going. This new detail infuriated her to no end over - they wasted precious time and resources in the wrong place. Pain then suggest them to fly up higher to avoid what he was about to do next.

Outside of Konoha, the female avatar of Pain summons back the other 4 Pains including Konan. The man who controls the Pains, Nagato, plans to destroy the village in one big attack, requiring his full effort. He temporarily let the 5 Pains with Konan to rest and focuses his entire strength into Yahiko's body. Konan protest, warning him of the technique will shorten his life, yet he goes on. Nagato releases his Shinra Tensei - Almighty Push - and in seconds, Konoha was completely eviscerated.

 

Episode 49 – Pain

Hidden in the sky, Jav monitors the situation below, checking for signs of both his friends and anyone in need of saving. Before, he dropped off Konohamaru and Ebisu to a nearby hospital and went off on his own, until, under his nose, the young genin had snuck in, leaving his master behind. He wanted to join him in his effort, thinking it was a noble cause. Unable to convince the thick-skulled shinobi to leave, the engineer takes his help, and together they kept their eyes open. As they were doing so, Jav notices a strange signal filling the communication channels and hears a woman's voice. He brings his focus on locating the sent and receiving points, and in seconds, the outline of a large ship high in orbit appears in his scans but is disturbed by its design, featuring similarities with the one Atlantis had encountered in slip space. To confirm his suspicion, he flies into space and sees it hiding with a projected cloaking shield, covering only it's bottom half. Konohamaru, never once thought of ever finding himself in space and see a colossal vessel at the same time, uttered questions that went ignored by Jav. The dark skin boy immediately dives back down to the planet, radioing his friends on his discovery, only to hear nothing from them. As the jumper moves past the clouds, the 2 boys are welcome by a largely vacant area that was once the hidden leaf village.

After the destruction caused by Pain's Almighty Push, those who survived are among the ones saved by Katsuya's clone. The slugs had absorbed their individuals inside themselves to dampen the blow. Trunks and Tya were among them while Raix rests further away from the Konoha, avoiding the blast radius entirely.

Nyx and Ganhis watched him wipe off Konoha and although it was on a scale smaller than they are used to, they were still impressed.

Sakura along with many others from the hospital emerge from their slug. But the kunoichi quickly fell into despair over the horrible state her home is in. The scene causes her to scream out for Naruto to return.

As all hope was lost, a large smoke cloud erupts in the center of the blast zone, and out from it are Naruto, Erb, Zeph, Neva, lord Fukasaku, Gamakichi, and 3 gigantic toads, Gamabunta, Gamahiro, and Gamaken.

            Despite Erb's group has dealt with one life-threatening battle, they threw themselves into the next fight after discovering the name of the messenger frog left behind in Konoha had been killed.  Bulb had done all he could to heal their injuries, and by the time they were ready, Shima had gone ahead to Konoha via a Distance-teleporting Pool and summons them over. Neva teleports them over as well using Shima as the endpoint.

Presently, the group didn't recognize the area until Shima points out the Hokage statues on the cliff side. Shima notes she senses the same individuals from when she was with Jiraiya; Naruto can guess who she meant.

            Pain fell from the sky and lands down with no trouble but has temporarily lost his power because of his last action. Nevertheless, he confronts Naruto at last. Nyx, Ganhis, and Spearhead join him on the ground. The other Pain bodies arose once more, and before they moved out, the Naraka Path heals the broken Asura Path with a mysterious Jutsu. Afterward, the Animal Path is then thrown over to the battlefield again, summoning the rest upon landing by the Deva.

            Tsunade had also survived, and after seeing her village gone, she confronts Pain headstrong, deeming it was her duty as Hokage to avenge her people. Naruto and the others see her, and then watch Pain - the Asura Path - and the dark green man move in to strike her down. Naruto dives in, already in sage mode, and demolishes Pain with one hit. Erb, having turned Super Saiyan, kicks the other man in the face, rolling him back by Nyx. Zeph hears Jav's voice on the radio and both were assured to hear the other is safe. Jav gave him a quick update on what had happened, including on the ship high above. But when asked of the other conditions, he fell silent. Zeph requests Neva to find and take care of their friends and then orders Jav to stay cloaked and away from the battle. They both did as he said, and he jumps down to the others alongside Gamakichi who takes Tsunade away to safety. As a parting gift, Tsunade lends Naruto one of Katsuya's copies with intelligence on Pain, and he gladly takes it.

            Their battle begins, starting with the female Pain summoning forth a rhino at Naruto, yet he grabs it by its horn and tosses it high in the air. Nyx rushes in with twin energy spears at Erb. He parries her weapons with his katana and broadsword, and thrusts her far away from the village, taking their rematch outside of Konoha. Spearhead and Ganhis were about to go after them, but Zeph chose to handle them both.

 

Episode 50 – Rematch

While the others were fighting, Neva had found Raix first, snoring without a care in the world. She slaps awake, only receive a hug from him, thinking he had gone to heaven. In response, the kai smacks him again, and from there the young man recalls his fights from earlier – he was ambushed. Without a second to spare, he runs off to the village, though in the wrong direction. Neva stops and points him in the right path. He speeds off, leaving her to continue her search.

In the forest, Erb and Nyx clash with their weapons and are nearly even in terms of skill. He eventually pulls forward, breaking her spears and gets her with a Dragon's Fist. However, despite putting some effort into the blast, he continues to watch Nyx get back up and felt her aura rise. She taps a circle on her right chest and walks out of her old outfit as though it were a projection. Upon leaving it completely, her clothes return to their solid form and fell with some weight on them. He felt a small tremor from it, noting they were strangely stiff and heavy, dawning him that she had been fighting with restricted movements the entire time. Further evidence was her massive quantity of aura gushing out, towering higher than his current self. Nyx, now wearing a dark sage sleeveless leotard and thigh-high leggings, finally takes out her true weapon, a dark sage great sword spear, and wields it with one hand. Erb swiftly switches his stance, powers up into a Super Saiyan 2, and shortly later takes out his own giant weapon to block a crescent shape energy beam. They face off once more, but as the fight grew longer, he couldn't help but feel he had seen her before and a sense of remorse grows in the pit of his being.

Zeph, also a super Saiyan now, was beginning to have trouble in dealing 2 opponents with abilities that counteract his – Ganhis's kinetic absorption, and Spearhead's copy of Beta's offensive weapons and personal shield. He was more cautious of the drone, measuring its strength equal to himself, except for it not having any flying platforms supporting it. Shortly later, he gains assistance from Raix, falling from the sky. Together, the 2 Saiyan warriors took their targets; Zeph fights Spearhead, while Raix goes after Ganhis.

Sakura, still sitting by Tya, was being informed by another shinobi with Byakugan eyes of the fight between Naruto and Pain. But she quickly hears of an individual hovering in the sky, closing in on their location, and within her sights, she identifies Samer. Not long after, they are joined by a flabbergasted Samer, alive. Earlier, while she was still knocked out, the shinobi's captured and kept her imprisoned in a secluded warehouse. But Pain's last attack freed her, though she was almost killed by it. She used her black orbs to create a spherical shield around herself and warded off the blast. After unburying herself, she went in search of the woman who beat her and eventually finds her target sleeping. With a gleeful smile, she hurdles her black orbs at them, and in response, Sakura attempts to use herself to shield the Saiyan girl.

Fortunately, Neva warps in, with a mirror out and counters the projectiles. Over her shoulder is Trunks, barely alive, and she pawns him off to the pink hair girl. She then warps by Samer with a roundhouse kick to her face and begins to pummel her, not giving her time to make more of her orbs. However, she soon retreats upon nearly getting her arms cut off by Samer's shield. Still, she swiftly takes the lead again using the same moves against Beta, who she admits is far stronger than the whining alien woman. Samer then retaliates a miniature black hole, and angrily throws it at the Kai, hoping to crush her in it. But before the black hole left her hand, Neva had already drawn her mirror's bow form, and shot an arrow at it, erasing it and her entire hand. The kai then finishes her off, teleporting in front of her with a Kamehameha wave, incinerating her to ashes. 

Ganhis and Raix were at a stalemate but the alien agent gloats as though he was winning. The spike hair man questions what their motive was in helping people such as Pain and the dark green man boasts arrogantly that they are using the Akatsuki to further their own agenda - first of many stepping stones. As for what their aim was, he admitted he wasn't high enough on the hierarchy to know. This was enough for Raix to relinquish his act, and raises his aura output higher, using up what he had hidden away. Ganhis was surprised but his confidence grows as he begins kicking the air, bouncing around, increasing his speed, using the kinetic force he accumulated for one strike. But Raix predicted where he would be, and sunders a single drop kick at his head, digging him into the earth.

In the ship, the acting captain, a bronze humanoid with no face or mouth, had observed the battles thus far at a safe distance but was losing faith in Nyx's team with each loss they accumulate. And so, he orders the crew to send down another battle drone, codenamed Comet, to eliminate all targets and capture the nine-tail host. He earned an objection to his orders regarding the dangers of sending out a Comet to a primitive world and without Nyx's authority. But he ignores the banter and repeats himself. This time, no one questioned him and made ready for the Comet's departure.

 

Episode 51 – Comet

Naruto, having dealt with 3 Pain's so far - the Animal Path, Preta Path, and Human Path - but no longer in sage mode, makes a quick retreat while the Yahiko Pain chases him. He takes out the large scroll he had been carrying, spots Fukasaku hollering him to throw it, and he does so. In the meantime, he fights Pain with his bare hands. Fukasaku opens the scroll and summons forth one of the clones Naruto left behind at Mount Myoboku. Beforehand, he made use of his clone by storing nature energy – his way of solving Sage mode's long charge time. When the clone appeared, Naruto tries to release it, but Pain wasn't giving him an opening until Neva jumps in with a dropkick. She misses Pain but forces him away. Neva then follows up with a Kamehameha wave, but the Preta Pain protects the Deva, absorbing her move with no damage. Naruto was back in sage mode and stands by the kai but was perplexed by how the Preta Pain was back up. They quickly learn from the slug the last of them, Naraka Pain, had the power to revive them. Neva wishes to deal with him first and Naruto agrees. He pulls out 2 Rasengans and hits the ground, creating a smokescreen. The Pain's outside stand on guard and in a few seconds, they watch one Rasenshuriken zooming towards them. Preta Pain takes it, but it was, in fact, Naruto, disguised as his own attack using an Art of Transformation Jutsu. The shinobi take down Preta, and behind him was the real Rasenshuriken. However, Deva Pain's powers return and deflect it. Yet, from behind, Neva teleports with a kick impacting Naraka Pain's head, disabling him. Pain grasped what their plan was, and although he was cornered, he manages to repel them with his Almighty Push. Neva endures it to an extent and then instant transmissions next to Pain, facing her back towards him in the air. She aims a back kick, hoping to take him out for good. Suddenly, a black portal erupts in front of Pain, and a dark grey metal hand emerges out and grabs her foot, then tosses her aside. She gets back on her feet and observes a large bulky armored suit with 5 tail-like appendages hovering over its back, walking out of the murky portal - another machina soldier, Comet.

Immediately, the kai bombards it in a series of ki blasts. The Comet reacts by charging at her, unfazed and undamaged. Its speed took her off guard and before she could get away the robot hurdles a powerful punch, impacting her entire midsection. She crashes through the rubble, having most of her ribs broken. The pain nearly made her faint, yet she remains vigilant as the robot runs at her. Her survival instincts take over and she tries to cut it in half using her mirror. But the Comet's many appendages held it open and escape, reaching her and ready to crush her under its foot. To her fortune, Raix leaped in, kicking the Comet several meters away. But the robot then fires a red beam from its face, striking the young man head-on. He fell to the ground, but taking his place are Trunks and Tya, jumping in front of the robot and sending it upward with their weapons. They woke up thanks to Sakura's healing and restored themselves back to fighting strength after they each ate a senzu bean. With Raix and Neva out of the fight, Trunks and Tya must deal with the Comet.

Elsewhere, Zeph lead Spearhead outside of the village so no one would get in his way. The drone had 2 cannons mounted on its shoulder firing off powerful pillars of energy, each as strong as Beta's weapons. The cyborg counters with both his mac buster and blitz shots and then erects his own personal shield. Drastically improved compared to when he first used it, he protects himself to the point of not having to move from his spot. From there, he uses his new Blitz Shots and thanks to its enhanced speed and explosive potency, he catches the robot in a ball of fire, destroying it. Victorious, he was about to make his way back to the others, until he receives grave news from Jav through the airwaves.

 

Episode 52 – The Nine Tails

            Naruto, pinned to the ground by a single black rod through both his hands, watched Fukasaku get stabbed by Pain when he tried to help and couldn't do anything but demands for his reasons for doing what he did – destroy his home. Pain answers with the goal of achieving peace and justice – something their master was unable to obtain – and his home, the ones responsible for his own villages past state, needed to know the same pain they went through. 

            Trunks and Tya continue to fight the Comet but with great difficulty; going against its heavy armor, speed and strength while desperately getting it further away from their friends for fear of it attacking. They stand their ground as it makes one final charge, until it jumped back, avoiding a sundering punch by Zeph's fist. Trunks immediately threw a senzu bean to Zeph – the cyborg had forgotten about the mystical beans – and he ate one, restoring his health and energy. He advises them both to take Raix and Neva elsewhere, and they did so while wishing their blue friend luck.

            In the center part of Konoha, Naruto was having a philosophical debate over their differing definitions of peace and justice, and the more he heard Pain's side, the fewer answers he came upon, realizing the Cycle of hatred they find themselves in. Pain then reveals his master plan – to gather all 9 tail beasts to create a weapon powerful enough to wipe out nations, instilling fear to create his everlasting peace. Pain then stabs Naruto 4 more times in non-vital areas, making sure he couldn't move at all. On the sideline, Shima encourages Naruto to stay strong but is repelled away by Pain. Suddenly, Hinata jumps in from behind the Akatsuki leader, forcing him to take a step back. Naruto pleads for her to run, but Hinata refuses. Just before she fights Pain by herself, she confesses her true feelings to him.

            Zeph and the Comet take their battle to the air, and the cyborg was leading their fight, using his smaller stature to slip by the robot's large blows and his seemingly indestructible arms to dent its armor. However, it produced a red energy orb and Zeph attempted to set it off, only to watch his attacks make it bigger. The drone throws it and he moves out of its way, but it follows him. Eventually, he gets hit but saves himself by strengthening his barrier. The drones make one more, and Zeph tries to take it again. But this time, it changes into a beam, and the Saiyan almost gets caught in it, evading it just in time, but still gets grazed. Suddenly, a dark red and black pillar of aura erupts in the center of Konoha, drawing his attention, as well as the Comet.

Naruto helplessly watched Pain stab Hinata, and the grief and anger he felt next burst out in the form of red and black chakra, transforming himself into a feral beast covered in the same colors, sprouting 6 tails, a pair of fox ears, and a beast-like skeleton. Fueled by pure rage, Naruto – now as the Nine-Tails - lunges at Pain, pushing past his Almighty Push, and sends the recoil back at him. He then prepares a tail beast bomb, but the Comet lands on top of him, pinning him down with its 5 tails. The nine tails still fire it attacks at the Comet, sending it flying away, causing an explosion big enough to encompass a large portion of the forest area along with the outer rims of the village. Pain proceeds to flee into the forest with the intent of baiting the beast to his ideal environment.

            Zeph followed the Comet but is stopped by a powerful dust storm. He braces himself from it, and after it passed, he caught sight of Hinata. Sensing Sakura nearby, the cyborg takes the wounded girl to her without delay. With the pink hair kunoichi are Trunks and Tya, and their 2 unconscious friends. Sakura begins healing Hinata while answering his question on what happened Naruto. With little choice, she explains everything she knew about the nine-tail beast sealed within him and what his current form meant. Zeph mentioned he saw 6 tails on him, but that frightened the kunoichi – the last time she saw him in his nine-tail form, he only had 4. She then begs Zeph to help her friend, to stop him from succumbing to the tail beast's chakra. At that moment, the cyborg understands how Erb must have felt when Roza asked to save him.

 

Episode 53 - Conviction

In the battle between Nyx and Erb, the sea green woman earns a call from her ship captain and was notified of Spearhead's destruction and the defeat of her 2 subordinates. As a result, he sent down the Comet without her permission, causing the girl to lash out. Nyx knows the drone's primary purpose was to lay waste to entire system if an Executive Class threat was present and all conventional means were no longer applicable; a last resort weapon, never meant for small scale operations. Beta was created for that sole purpose - powerful as the Comet but capable of self-calibration in real time. Upon her outburst, Erb stops himself and eavesdrop on her – gathering as much information as possible. Nyx continues to speak with the captain and then looks towards the direction of the village to sense both the Nine tails and the blue cyborg man – the latter being as strong as herself and her current foe. She then notices the red man was listening in and sarcastically thanks him for waiting, but then questions his true reason for standing by Konoha. He did what he thought was right; she fires back with another question – what if he was on the wrong side. He answers with his own sarcastic remark, thankful he was right.

The Nine-tail continues to chase Pain and behind them, Zeph catches up. Suddenly, Pain unleashes another technique from his hand, the Catastrophic Planetary Devastation; a small black orb forms between his hand and is sent upward. It generated a powerful gravitational pull, digging up large parts of its surrounding towards it. The Nine-tails get caught in it and couldn't get away. The cyborg nearly escapes, but the Comet had returned with little damage done, firing a red energy orb at him. He gets hit, crashes into the rock formation and then gets buried by mountains.

            When it was done, Pain examines the large rock hovering high above, encasing the Nine tails and the outworlder. However, within minutes, bursting out of the rock sphere is an incomplete Nine-Tails Fox, close to achieving its true form. A black portal then sprouts beside Pain, and Nyx's ship is seen dropping below the clouds, emitting a red containment field around the nearly freed beast, keeping it inside. Walking out of the black portal is the bronze man, and he congratulates the Akatsuki leader in capturing both the Nine tails and the outworlder. With their mission almost over, the captain assures Pain they will subdue the beast first and then give it to the Akatsuki. The captain was then about to order the Comet to deal with the other outworlders until an explosion occurs on the ship, and they all catch sight of a smaller vessel flying away only to then turn invisible. In the jumper, Jav and Konohamaru cheer in delight over dealing one blow in crippling the ship and saving their friends in the process. But in doing so, the damage they inflicted caused the field to fade, freeing the Nine-Tail Fox.

Inside Naruto's inner world, drowning in sorrow and pain, he looks to the Beast and was nearly letting the seal that traps it inside his own body disappear. But a man with blonde hair wearing a white long coat stops him. Naruto read the writing on his coat to be the fourth Hokage – the previous leader and predecessor to Tsunade – but learns he is also his father.

Zeph, trapped and slumbering, underwent different visions containing images of Konoha, but shortly after sees himself as Naruto. As the Nine Tail's chakra rages out, its chakra washes over him and in doing so connects his subconsciousness with Naruto's. He is now reliving the life of the blonde shinobi, experiencing his hardships and pain, and then revisits moments of Gabriel's death and seeing Roza's missing leg. However, remembering the tragic event he faced and balancing his anger with his sanity thanks to Gabriel's parting words, helped him regain control over himself and unleash his new form, Super Saiyan 2.

Outside, the nine tails disappeared before Pain's eye, but spots Naruto, with his doubts gone, standing on the miniature moon's exterior, unharmed and in sage mode. Soon, the foundation he stands on breaks up. As it was happening, Zeph frees himself, sending the debris flying everywhere. The captain flees through his black portal, avoiding a falling rock. The Comet moves back to safety and so did Pain. The young shinobi lands down safely along with his Saiyan friend, both confronting their respective opponents. But Pain makes one last dialogue with Naruto, asking if he found his solution to the world's hatred. The shinobi answers back with a request, wanting to speak with the real Pain. He was refused, and the Akatsuki leader is the first to attack. Comet goes next, but Zeph reaches it first thanks to his new speed.

 

Episode 54 – Final Fight

Naruto evades Pain's black rod but grabs and breaks a piece of it off his hands. With it, he stabs himself through the shoulder and tracks Nagato using his sage mode. Having what he needs, the shinobi throws a smoke bomb under his feet, hiding within the smokescreen while performing his Rasenshuriken. Pain readies himself to repel it, and shortly after, he sees the attack flying. He does what he planned, dispersing the attack into thin air, but looks at a second one right behind it. Naruto aimed for the 5-second lag Pain exhibits each time he uses his power and was close to getting him.

Zeph's new transformation gave him the edge he needed to overcome the Comet, though he was running on fumes – his body was reaching its limit. As he zips around chipping away at its armor, he was keeping an eye on the ship, still in his view and in orbit. The robot then launches a red orb, putting Zeph back on the run, but when he sees the Comet remaining still, he was given a clue on one of its weakness.

To make sure Pain stays put, Naruto hid 2 of his doppelgangers within the rocks and when the Rasenshuriken was closing in, they then lunge at him. Still, Pain made use of them by taking out his black rods, stab the clones and leap upward, saving himself from getting cut in half. However, when he landed on a tall rock, his entire surroundings changes, revealing an army of Naruto's clone, all rushing at him. By then, his powers return, and he pushes them all back. However, Naruto uses all his clones to keep him in place, and in the end, he and 2 others remained, who then proceed to throw him at Pain with a Rasengan in hand. Deva Pain couldn't repel him in time, and receives it, resulting in his defeat. Naruto came out as the winner and went to Pain's body to take out the black rods all over his body to make sure he couldn't move. Despite his victory, he did not feel he had won, not until he can meet the real Pain.

Zeph soon dominates his own battle, having destroyed the Comet's 5 extra limbs and even leaves a large dent on its head. He finds the opening he needs to end his fight when the robot charges one more energy orb, prompting him to fire a continuous stream of Blitz shots, keeping it in place, learning it couldn't launch the attack while it was taking in outside energy. While it stays put, Zeph flies downward sticking both arms out in front and crashes cleanly through its midsection, following up with his super mac buster, obliterating the Comet and pushing the red energy sphere upward, straight at the space vessel, destroying it in the process.

In another part of the region, Erb and Nyx continue to be evenly matched but the red Saiyan begins to display his expertise in martial arts, using his punches and kicks rather than his sword. But when Nyx watched her ship get caught on fire, she furiously thunders out an energy beam, forcing Erb to block. Amidst the smoke, he caught sight of her in the air, raising her spear and quickly an enormous amount of energy, condensed into a fist size ball.

After several minutes of traversing through the forest, Naruto finds the tallest one nearby, discovers it was fake – made by sheets of paper – and opens it up. Inside he encounters Kanon and a pale man, mostly skin and bone, with white hair sitting on top of a large mechanism, Nagato. The moment the blonde man sets his eyes on him, his anger boiled to the point where he was able to ignore the pain of being stabbed in the stomach by one of Nagato's rods, fired out from his chair. He confesses he couldn't forgive him for what he did. yet, he wishes to know, as a fellow disciple of Jiraya, how he came to be under his teaching, promising he will give him his response on how he plans to solve the hatred of the world. Nagato tells him his life's story in anticipation. Outside though, Zeph had been listening in on their conversation and was also curious as to how the blonde shinobi would respond.

 

Episode 55 – Answer

Further away, Nyx points her attack, the Vrahmastra, at Erb, warning if he were to move, the path of her beam will hit Konoha. Eventually, it soars out of her weapon, forcing the red Saiyan to counter with his Kamehameha.

As Nagato wraps up his story, Naruto formulates his answer when he takes out the novel left behind by Jiraiya, The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja. He tells him he is going to strive to achieve their master's dream, earning Nagato's disapproval until he restates a quote written in the book. Nagato remembers the quote since he was the one who said it to Jiraya first, who later wrote it in his story as inspiration, and after much recollection of his youth when he was the same as the young man in front of him, he chose to heed his words, and entrust him to uphold their master's belief. He then calls out to the young man hiding outside, and Zeph enters with no will to fight, admiring his shinobi's friend's conviction and satisfied with his answer. The pale man then forms a hand sign, using the power of his Naraka Path, to use one of its techniques, Gedo Art of Rinne Rebirth. Konan objects to him using it, which sparks Naruto to ask what he was doing. She explains the technique is capable of reviving anyone and is not limited to a single person - user can bring back the lives of many others using his own life energy. Konan guesses with Nagato's current chakra level, he would not survive the technique.

Back in Konoha, a large white figure sprouts out of the ground and opens its mouth wide open. Souls of the shinobi's who lost their lives in the battle spew out and return to their respective bodies. Lord Fukasaku, Shizune and Kakashi were affected and came back with all their wounds gone.

Naruto and Zeph are told by Katsuya of everyone who died are coming back to life, and soon after, Nagato, says his farewells and passes away. Suddenly, an earthquake caught them by surprise. Zeph felt 2 massive chakra's clashing from far away.

At the epicenter of the quakes, Erb sacrifices the last of his energy reserves and tearing his own muscles apart to hold back the Vrahmastra. However, he begins to lose his ground as her beam grows in strength, and so, he chose now to gather the life energy around him in hopes of recharging himself. As death's door was approaching, he felt his energy rise, but it was insufficient – he was only delaying the inevitable and needed to find a way to efficiently use his current strength. But he soon recalls his first encounter with Naruto's technique, the Rasengan; despite his own ki blast packing more power, the shinobi was still able to diffuse it with his small quantity.

Nyx makes one last push with a defiant outburst, and her beam overpowers her opponent, engulfing him in a green torrent of destruction. Yet, she can still sense him active and his power level still unchanged.

On the other end, Erb diverts his focus into forming a red and gold sphere and covers his entire body using the aura of his Dragon's fist to protect himself – recalling his battle against Bathora. He then manipulates the energy orb in his hands to rapidly spin like an inverted Rasengan, safely dispersing the harmful blast around him. Inadvertently, the aura around his forearms spun themselves into a solid shape, appearing as a pair of yellow and red gauntlets. With it, he gains a new technique, Dragon's Horn, and after increasing its size and rotation speed, he goes into a full sprint, charging headstrong with his Dragon's Horn splitting the Vrahmastra.

The girl, unable to move away in time, brings her weapon forward and conjures thousands of her energy spears to shield her. When the Dragon's Horn impacts, her defenses crumble, leaving her to stand her ground with just her sword spear. Fortunately, she musters every ounce of strength to divert it upward into space. But, she still sees him running at her, not backing down, forcing her to bring down her weapon on him, cutting him in half. However, it was an afterimage he left behind, and she hastily locates him warping by her. Using instant transmissions to evade, Erb was close to throwing his Dragon's Fist, but his arms finally give in to strain, staggering him from moving long enough for Nyx to create one more energy spear with her free hand and nearly slashes him. Suddenly, to his shock, he unknowingly throws a swift kick with his front leg, generating a devastating shockwave which left behind a large mile long trench behind them. Although she miraculously remains in place and still lives, the hit knocks her out, leaving the red-haired man standing triumphant.

 

Episode 56 - Epoch

At the body of Deva Pain, Kanon wraps her old friend in sheets of paper alongside Nagato. Standing by her are Naruto and Zeph, and the blonde man asks what she plans on doing. The beautiful lady informs him she will be leaving Akatsuki and bury her friends somewhere secluded. As she was about to leave, she hands over a boutique made of paper, resembling roses, to Naruto and wishes him good fortune in chasing her friends and his own dreams.

Erb, standing over an unconscious Nyx, looks down to her but closely observes her face. He couldn't shake the sensation of having seen her before but couldn't remember where. Suddenly, a large volume of highly condensed air thrashes him from behind, tossing him away from the girl. He gets back up, bloodied and exhausted, and sees 5 figures in front of him.

Reinforcements who heeded the last request from Nyx's ship, arrived after it's destruction, and the one leading them the 5-man team, the same man who surprised attack Erb is a large muscular blue skin bald man, with unnaturally large forearms and vent openings sticking out from his elbow, wearing a black sleeveless skin suit and dark grey light-combat gear – Executive Class Agent, Vishnu. Behind him stood were 3 Enforcer Class Agents and one other Executive, all wearing the same color palate outfits. Man-Tras; a dark grey mantis human hybrid wearing a skin suit. Laos; a faceless bronze man with 4 arms – similar in appearance to the deceased captain of Nyx's ship. Siber; a human-looking grey skin girl with long black hair, carrying a silver cane and wearing a goth-themed dress. Moon; another girl but with brown short hair, appearing the most human among them, wearing a bodysuit with a coat covering only her arms and above her chest, wielding a sword – the only other executive besides Vishnu.

Weakened and surrounded, the dragon hybrid takes a fighting stance once more, and charges. Siber uses her cane and begins to play it like a clarinet, producing a song that only affected the Saiyan, immobilizing him. Confused by what happened, he was taken out again by Vishnu, throwing an air pressure punch from his inflated arms, sending him crashing through miles of terrain until he imprints himself onto a cliff side. The shock puts the Saiyan out, and the 5 agents reach and surround him. Moon carries Nyx over her shoulder while Vishnu orders the ship above to open a portal so they could bring Nyx back. But before they left, Man-Tras was about to kill their red foe using his large sword arm, only to be stopped by his leader questioning his action. He wanted to avenge their fallen comrades as a fellow agent of Epoch and proceeds to slash him. However, he misses him and pondered how until he realized his arm is in the hands of the red man, and then gets his face impaled by his bare hands. The others saw it happened and were shocked to see the red fighter rip their comrade in 2, but even more so when he furiously roars. Siber and Laos stand ready to fight but Vishnu, sensing death was near, yells at them to disengage. Sadly, soaring from within the forest, Erb's weapon – in its great sword form - flies by, cutting Laos in half. Siber ducks under the flying sword but gets cut down Man-Tras ripped off arm.

After hearing the name of the group who are after him being uttered, Erb's consciousness faded yet his instincts take over, making him behave in a savage demeanor; a result of his body thinking he was fighting for his life. He willed his sword to return and easily caught it despite his condition. Throwing the dead mantis man's arm aside, he shifts his attention to Moon who was yelling out in terror, until Vishnu cuts in, striking his great sword with his bare fist. The resulting collision created a shockwave, pushing both combatants away. Vishnu slams into Moon and Nyx but at the same time a black portal appears in their path and they fell through. As soon as they exited out the other side, Vishnu orders the crew to enter slip space immediately while tending to his split open hand.

Zeph rushes to Erb's location when he detected 5 other high-power levels against his weakened aura. However, the same 5 signatures disappear, and after pushing past one shockwave, he sees his friend still standing, holding his sword up, but now completely comatose.

After the cyborg left to tend to another issue, Naruto made a small burial in honor of his master, Jiraiya, and heads back to the village. On his way, his fatigue caught up, and he trips over on branch. But Kakashi catches him and lends a hand on his trek back home. Upon exiting out of the forest, they are met by the entire population of Konoha, all of them cheering out Naruto's name and welcoming him back to their home.

 

Episode 57 – New Day, Old Problems

            Erb awakens in a white plain, recalling the last thing he remembers to be on the verge of death. But a familiar female voice greets him. Behind him is a woman with long pale green hair and white skin, dawning a toga. Although he had never seen her before, he had a strong sense of déjà vu and then remembers her from when he first fought Zeph. He quickly connects the dots, identifying her to be one of the beings residing inside him, and the woman loudly confirms it, also adding the fact that she can hear all his thoughts. Given a chance to finally meet one of the people responsible for his memory loss, he brings up the big question, only to realize he couldn't speak. The woman calms him down by apologizing for what she did and hoped to one day he would understand their intentions. But she also warns him to be wary of Epoch, and of the man with the black mask. His vision turns completely white and loses sight of her.

He wakes up again inside a medical tent, lying on top of a cot, still having the memory of seeing the woman, unlike most of his dreamless sleep. With him is a female medical ninja who happily greets him and shortly later Tya walks in. He stands up, wanting to go outside, and she assists him. They meet the rest standing close by, Zeph, Neva, Raix, Trunks, Jav, and Bulb – brought back by the kai after the battle was over. They inform him he had been asleep for almost a full day – it was currently morning – and Erb sarcastically thanks them for their kind courtesy but was somewhat taken back to see all Konoha's people rebuilding with cheerful attitudes. They are soon joined by their native friends, Naruto, Kakashi, and Sakura, all 3 congratulating him on his swift recovery. After taking a senzu bean from Trunks, the shinobi's and the outworlders gather behind a pile of lumber where they debrief their slumbering warrior of everything that happened, from Naruto's victory against Pain to Tsunade being in a coma. But to his dismay, the old man who threatened him before, Danzo, was recently appointed to be the next Hokage, meaning their stay in Konoha may end up short. Bulb soon questions Erb on the wristgate's next jump, and he admitted having forgotten about it; he read out their time to be in a few days. At the same time, he sees a strange icon he had never seen before and presses it. His device emits a small projection and takes the form of Yuuko who had been trying to call him since their last battle.

While the native shinobi were in awe over the life-like image, Erb found her timing to be perfect since he had questions for her about Epoch – how she promised him they wouldn't be able to find him, yet he stumbles upon them on the second world he arrived on. But she beats him to it by answering his concern, and the news startles the others who begin to doubt her intentions. She was surprised by how wide their network was and that he met them sooner than she expected. The red Saiyan points out they were ready to kill him, rather than capture him, and they didn't recognize him whatsoever; that fact doesn't put her in a good light. But Raix takes part in the talks by adding in what he heard from Ganhis, guessing the ones here were low-level grunts and the ones who may know Erb are the ones on the very top. Yuuko agrees with his assessment and even mentions the one who found him from his old life is among Epoch's leadership. There, the red man demands her who found him. She pauses for a while and then asked if he met her yet. He assumes she meant the woman he dreamt of earlier, and confirms it, adding the warning she gave. Yuuko goes on to say the person who found him before is the very same man - his whole reason for being here - and reassures him she has not lied to him. Zeph then cuts in, demanding her how she expects them to trust her and doubts a sophisticated group would not inform their lower members of someone who is as important as she deemed his friend to be. But Kakashi steps in with a theory of his own, bringing up the possibility that the masked man could have not told his comrades about him for unknown reasons, using Raix's statement before to validate the group here were more interested in helping Pain capture Naruto. The idea, as wild as it sounds, had some merit behind it. But the others look to Erb on his thoughts, whether to continue trusting Yuuko and go on their merry way, or not. But he made up his mind already and still trusts the dimensional witch – his reason being that his worth is not well known among most of Epoch's members, thus going on the run is still preferable. She thanks him for his understanding and promises to share whatever new information she comes across for him in the near future. Her projection then ends, and the others are left still worrying on what's to come.

Neva remarks there had been no signs of the enemy since the battle, though confesses they now know who they are and what they are capable of. Zeph and Kakashi tried to question Ganhis, but he committed suicide and melted right before their eyes; further analysis done by the cyborg brought up traces belonging to a small mechanical part which held a highly acidic substance. Kakashi regrets they couldn't find anything more about Epoch. However, Erb remarks they did have one last suspect, the android girl they defeated.

 

Episode 58 – Newcomer

After the battle of Mount Myoboku, Erb, Neva, Zeph, and Naruto left Beta's body in the hands of the toads for safekeeping while they went to fight elsewhere. Upon hearing the Saiyan hybrid’s suggestion in bringing her back to life for questioning, Naruto yelps out of fright and Neva strongly refuses, both still recalling the difficulty they had from just subduing her. Erb asks Jav if he can access the android's mind through his holopad, but the engineer could only promise if the technology is compatible with their own. Zeph notes they also need something to replace her missing power source if they plan to turn her on, and to their dismay, the shinobi world was lacking in that field gravely, until the young genius nervously chimes in with a solution.

They all arrive at the jumper and inside one of its compartments, they find 2 zero-point modules – ZPM – fully charged, and one of them being used as the current power source of the jumper. Jav explains his recent discovery back in Atlantis. While he was gathering up equipment to tag along for their trip, he had uncovered a secret room that had 6 other ZPMs inside but they were all depleted. He takes 2 with him, recharging them with the current ones that were on, and then left for the jumper. All the recalibrations he had been doing was due to make the ZPM work with the vehicle's system. The other ZPM was meant as a backup. He also made sure the others would find the other 4 energy crystals and left behind a short video for them to see how he was able to recharge them. The others still weren't too happy by what he did, though, they now had some power.

Away from Konoha, Erb's team, Sakura and Naruto meet Gamakichi who had the android's body in its hand, delivering it to them before disappearing back to the land of the toads. Kakashi kept an eye on their perimeter, making sure no one would come by and peek.

Jav takes one of the ZPM and carefully connects one end of an energy transfer cable to the exposed circuits on the girl's chest. He hooks another cable between the ZPM and his holopad to monitor the power output. As he begins the transfer, they all observe her chest glowing, and then it spread all over her body. The engineer read out no problems so far until suddenly, both the cables and the crystal are absorbed into the girl's body, along with Jav's holopad. In a mere second, the open wound in the girl's chest closes and the light ceases. Raix pulls his friend back, and the rest make ready to attack her. The girl opens her eyes, slowly stands up, making everyone go on edge, and then examines her surroundings. Finally, she introduces herself via her serial number, BB36898424, and asks if one of them is her master. Cautious of her act to be fake, Erb was about to tell her they weren't her owner, but the white-haired boy stops him, telling her Erb is the master. She confirms it and addresses the red man as such. Jav whispers to him to simply play along for now until they get what they need. Erb then requests what her purpose here is, however she replies having no knowledge of her primary objective and most of her memory is either corrupted or lost. Strangely, Jav's holopad and the cables emerge out of her chest in mint condition. She holds them out and the young boy grabs them. He performs his own scan by connecting his tablet with her wirelessly – she allows him - and searches through her internal systems. After a few minutes he confirms the girl's diagnosis; everything other than her serial number and what she was – an artificial intelligence housed in an organic body - remains unaffected and hypothesize the crystal they destroyed may have also been her memory storage, thus, all the information they needed was gone. Additionally, this meant her fighting abilities are gone as well, giving them some measure of relief. The android then poses another question on what she did to cause everyone to be frightened of her. Neva rudely tells her of their fight, yet the girl kindly wanted to know how to remedy this. A brief pause falls on them, until Naruto cuts in, suggesting she should apologize. She does so, though she came off stiff and lifeless. Erb corrects her subtly.

Now, back to not knowing anything about Epoch, Trunks suggest they shut her down for everyone's safety; Neva agrees with him. Jav, on the other hand, did not want to, and instead suggest they should keep her on and let her learn. Before another argument occurs, Zeph takes a neutral stance and lets the android stay active until they come to a unanimous vote later. For now, they are to keep watch on her, and the android complies with their conditions. Together, they all went back to the village, getting Kakashi along the way.

In another part of the galaxy, the Epoch ship housing Vishnu and his team contacted one of their leaders, Director Ardyn, reporting their findings on the world of the Shinobi's and awaiting further orders. With them as a projection is Madara, who expresses his disappointment in not only the failure in capturing the nine tails, but also not killing the other outworlders. Still, he had made countermeasures for this eventuality and does not need their assistance until the designated day. With everything said, his projection disappears, leaving Ardyn to assign Vishnu his next mission on another world, but to also take Nyx when she recovers - to fill his rank. The bald man walks away, and the director looks out a large window where an unconscious Thunderwing is seen encased within a containment field.

 

Episode 59 – Work Around

The next day, Erb and the others went to join the reconstruction effort while leaving Neva to keep watch on the android. With one day remaining until their next jump, the team wishes to do all they can in helping the village get back on its feet, starting by making a single house. However, they failed miserably due to their lack of experience and accomplished to make a poorly structured shed.

In the tent, the kai and the android are met by Jav and Naruto who simply wishes to check up on them. But Neva makes them stay with the girl to go out to get food for herself, specifically ramen. After she left them alone, Naruto awkwardly asks her if she was hungry and she tells him otherwise, though admits she can process food like them for extra energy. Jav guesses she converts biomass as fuel, and she again verifies his claim. Then at the corner of android's eye pops a small furry mammal, digging out of a hole, piquing her interest. She decides to follow it despite the young boys telling her to stop, but they couldn't and chose to tag along with her. The little creature leads them out the camp and a few sites away. It soon leaves them upon digging another hole and hiding within it, but the girl's attention veers over to a line of ants carrying small objects and then looks up at birds flying by, all while retaining a wondrous facial expression. Later, the sound of construction works leads her to a construction site where she continues to watch quietly at the human workers. But she eventually walks up to one of them with questions regarding what they were doing.

Her inquisitive nature confirms one of Jav's suspicion; he knew she was capable of learning, but with a blank slate mind, she only has the knowledge of a child curious about the world. Given time and ample experience, he theorized she may evolve past being just a machine, though he needed more information about the make-up of her brain. Still, the sight of seeing an artificial intelligence grow was pleasing to him nonetheless. But upon hearing her nonstop questioning getting out of hand and hearing Naruto's worry about her, Jav was about to take her away, until Erb and Trunks caught sight of them.

Trunks send a question by the android on why she was interested in what they were doing. She returns with one of her own, on what purpose does their labor entail, and upon hearing the logic behind his reason – making homes for others in exchange for money, and it was their livelihood – she requests of her master to give her a role; with nothing to do yet seeing everyone and everything around her moving about, she was wondering what she can do to contribute. Erb raises an eyebrow, slightly amazed to hear her asking to do something, and allows her to assist the workers as an experiment on how advance her learning capacity is. However, behind them, he hears Tya and the rest suggesting he should join her as well. Several minutes ago, Neva returned to the tent to find them gone, and the others were close by to see her was bothered. They went on a search, but when they found them, they overheard their conversation and were also eager to see how the machine would act with a completely innocent purpose. Though the lazy red saiyan only made the advice in hopes of extending his break period, but their interference ruined his little scheme. Still, he does not object and spurs the others to partake in his little test.

At a ramen shop, recently built, the outworlders sit around a few tables with Naruto, enjoying their hard-earned meals. The android looks at her bowl of noodles but was intrigued to try it due to everyone's satisfied behavior. As she begins to eat, the others watch anxiously over what new reaction she would display, and to their delight, she expresses a subtle, yet infatuating stare, with widened eyes and even letting out a slight gasp. She Immediately devours the bowl's entire content and utters it to be delicious. The little mess she left on her face prompts Tya to wipe her clean, and even confesses how adorable she was now, contrary to what the others said. It is there Erb decides to name her BB – taking the first 2 initials from her serial number. She gives one last inquiry to him about the significance of her name, but Naruto interjects, defining a person's name to be an heirloom passed on by their ancestors – a gift that bestows what makes that person unique. He thinks BB sounds appropriate since it relates to her in some way and it sounded cute. Raix, Tya, and Bulb agree on her name, though Jav was disappointed he wasn't given the chance to pitch his own for her. BB was indifferent by her new name but keeps a record of Naruto's definition for herself. Neva then comes in with an announcement of her own; she was going to go with them on their journey. This sparked Raix to leap into the air in pure joy, and the others were just happy to know. Her reason for coming, was due to their adventures being a cure her boredom, and her master had thought it would be good for her to travel to different places and learns as much as she can – she also adds in her interest in knowing who Epoch was, accepting them to be a threat that needs to be studied. Tya then brings up the idea of having Neva bring back Jav to Atlantis, solving one of their first issues in their trip. But Erb tells the others it was up to him to decide – he heard what he did during Pain's attack, and in his mind, he had proven he was capable; also, he was the only one who can fly the jumper, which he also finds extremely useful due to its invisibility and stealth features. Jav wants to stay, withholding his true intentions, and earns no objection from everyone else, including Tya. Though, with the teleporting Kai in their group, his mission may come to an end sooner than he thought; all he needed to do was convince her. They are soon joined by many of Naruto's friends, and not too long after, a small party was formed. Raix, having his holopad on hand, decides to take a group picture but his little device had caused many of the natives to swarm around him in wonder.

The next morning, after miraculously completing their one house, their time in the world of the shinobi was at an end. Away from the populace, Erb, Zeph, Tya, Raix, Trunks, Jav, BB, Bulb, and Neva say their farewells to Naruto, Kakashi, and Sakura. The group chose to take their new android companion with them in case Epoch returns to retrieve her. Kakashi acknowledges their plan, pointing out Danzo or someone else outside of their village may take advantage of her fighting power otherwise, and they wouldn't be able to protect her in their state. Neva tells them if the enemy does come back, she would be able to bring them back using Instant Transmission in a moment's notice. Shortly after, the wristgate turns on and creates a large portal. As the outworlders board their jumper, Zeph calls out to Naruto and wishes him good fortune in his mission to attain his ideal peace. The shinobi smiles, and he along with the rest of his team watch them go through the blue pond and disappear without a trace, hoping they would see them again. They are soon met by Kiba, but with grave news concerning their friend Sasuke.

 

3: Season 3 - Seven Deadly Sins Saga

Episode 60 – Confession

                In an underground cavern, a group of knights gather around in a meeting, led by a man with short white hair named Hendrickson. With him are his 2 companions, a young lady who was recently promoted to a holy knight (a high-level warrior status), Guila, and a man wearing bronze armor with his head covered in a strange deformed helmet, Helbram with a rank of cardinal - higher than the young lady’s. Behind them are 2 apprentice knights (lowest rank within the warrior hierarchy), another young lady, shorter than Guila, named Jericho, and a large muscular man named Twigo. The apprentices were brought to meet the Great Holy knight Hendrickson (the highest rank a knight can be bestowed upon) but their eyes are drawn to the corpse of a long dead red demon suspended in the air by chains. They also spot another figure, someone completely cloaked in black, leaning against a wall. They were unable to discern if it was a man or woman – or human. Hendrickson discloses the individual behind them is none of their concern and brings their gaze back at the demon corpse, willing to grant the 2 weaker fighters the power and chance to enact their vengeance against 2 wanted criminals of the kingdom. All they had to do was drink the blood of the dead demon. He points out Guila was much like them but drank the demon blood, gaining tremendous strength as a result, allowing her to become full-fledge holy knight. Jericho and Twigo reluctantly drank the liquid and began to scream out in agony. Behind them, half mixed with the dark environment, the cloaked figure observes the phenomenon quietly, awaiting the result of the experiment.

At Yuuko’s gift shop, the dimensional witch rummages through a pile of boxes inside a storage room looking for a letter she received when she first found Erb, slumbering in front of her doorstep. She wants to read its content for confirmation on the warning she was told, his connection with Epoch. In a matter of minutes, hopping in joy, she finds the item under old magazines. But her face turns to that of concern as she learns nothing new – Epoch is after Erb, and he shouldn’t engage with them. Yet, from what she heard, the enemy paid no mind to the red saiyan when he stumbles upon their operation, and showed no interest in his existence other than that he and the other saiyans were interfering in their work. In Yuuko’s thought, the hypothesis brought up by the shinobi, Kakashi, begins to be the most logical reason – the man who was pursuing him did not let his comrades know of his discovery. As for why continues to elude her.

What felt like moments after departing from the world of the shinobi’s, Erb, Zeph, Raix, Tya, Trunks, Bulb, Jav, and now accompanied by 2 more companions, BB the android, and Neva, exit out of the wormhole, still seated inside the jumper until Jav gave the all clear for them to disembark. They arrive in another forest area, less flourishing and not as thick as the last one the original members came to – appearing much the same as Aeon’s mainland area. Zeph and Neva are the first to leave, using their keen senses to scan the area, and then Trunks takes to the sky for an aerial survey. After everyone settled down, both the cyborg and the kai discover a small settlement further away from their position filled with humans who were about as normal as any human they’ve come across in the past. Trunks added on the direction they mentioned are near mountains and wide-open grassland. Suddenly, just as they were all deciding who should go out, Jav grabs everyone’s attention with an announcement. With Neva in their party and his goal closer at hand, the young engineer did what he couldn’t do on the last world - confess his true intentions.

For several minutes he nervously divulges his entire purpose for going along with them and on Lilith’s dire condition, ending by pleading to Neva to help him find the mystical dragon balls on Trunks’s home world. The first to immediately ridicule him were Zeph, Raix and Tya, over hiding his intention to them of all people despite their friendship. Trunks, Bulb and the android BB, stayed silent whereas Erb looks to Neva on her response. She reveals her curiosity over why the boy was with them; but now, despite his selfish action, she praises him for going into a dangerous journey as just a normal human. In the end she accepts his request. With the utmost urgency, she plans to go to the world where the dragon balls are, but Jav wishes to accompany her, willing to see his mission through to the end. The others wish to go as well, for Lilith’s sake. However, except for the boy, Neva declines them, noting they had only arrived to a different world and have yet to explore it. Trunks insists he come along, knowing the one person who can help them find the dragon balls. After enough was said, Neva lets both Trunks and Jav accompany her, leaving the rest to stay here until they return – she predicts they would only need 1 day to finish. The others accept, and begin to offload essential items they may require from the jumper while they wait. The off-world team was going to take the jumper since no one other than Jav can pilot it. Neva teleports them away, and the others resume their exploration.

Erb chose Raix and Tya go to the nearby settlement while he, Zeph and BB stay back. Raix and Tya went off on foot, but Zeph questions Erb on why he stayed behind. He gave him 3 reasons; his superstition of trouble coming his way in some shape or form, his appearance causing a stir amongst the natives, and wanting to keep an on BB. He then looks to Bulb with a task in mind, but he couldn’t find him, until Zeph mentions he saw the little guide tag along with Raix, which, in Erb’s mind, already destroys the whole point of reconnaissance – knowing Bulb’s tendency to be rather loud and outspoken, and not exactly human. Nonetheless, he lets go of the issue seeing as how he can manage the task himself – keeping track of their supplies.

 

Episode 61 - The Viazel Fight Festival

            Raix, Bulb and Tya arrive at the outskirts of a small busy town, blending in almost seamlessly, until they realized their outfits didn’t exactly match with that of the natives, and Bulb was with them. Yet, no one stop them, and so, they peruse the stalls and vendors teeming with foreign cuisines. The young man brings up the thought of their food supply might dwindle quicker than they expected, and Tya’s answers his worry with the notion that they would have to hunt for their food like they did as kids. Raix then jokes about eating Bulb as a last resort, but the green guide tells them he was rather poisonous. Raix hand him off to Tya out of caution. As they walk through the crowd, they overhear a band of men excitingly talk about a fighting tournament called the Viazel Fight Festival being held today. Their discussion creates a spark in Raix’s mind – with their strength, they could easily win the entire tournament, and hopefully, the reward will be a sort of prize money which they can use to buy whatever they may need. His saiyan sister reminds him their job is to simply recon and not make themselves well-known. With nothing else to note though, Tya leaves the others to radio Zeph on their progress. Raix stays put, while Bulb wanders off on his own to explore the sights. As the green guide weaves through the mass’s feet, he stumbles upon a silver coin on the ground, thinking it may be of some worth. And his assumption proves correct as his ears catch wind of a high pitch squeaky voice, much like his own, selling a pint of beer of 1 silver. The idea of consuming alcohol crosses his mind, and since he doesn’t get drunk from it, he decides to buy one. But when he approaches the seller, he instead encounters a talking pig. Raix though, now by himself and standing spitting distance from the registration booth for the fight tournament, mischievously sneaks off and joins the lineup.

            In the forest, Erb watches over BB, who is mingling with the forest around them – touching flowers, observing passing by bird, watching the trees rustle with the wind. Upon observing a type of butterfly for some time, he hears her asking what it was, and he gave his answer. As she continues on, touching nearly everything nearby, his attention is drawn to a small device in his pockets, a communication earpiece given to him by Zeph. He hears him and is then patch with Tya who reports her findings at the town. Afterwards, with nothing worth of note, Tya cuts the call, and Erb is approach by BB, wanting to know what his purpose was in watching over her, strongly noting she is capable of protecting herself. Heeding Neva’s warning in keeping an eye on the android in case she may betray them, Erb tells her as such, and not surprisingly, BB understands his worry. At that moment, he gives a question of his own – why did BB come along with them. He knew the android was powerful enough to defeat almost anyone from the shinobi world, and can live relatively in peace. But that thought brought him back to the fact that she is a machine and may not understand his values or understanding of peace. But BB reply proved him wrong, saying she joined to find what made herself so unique other than her parts, recalling Naruto’s definition in what a name was - who she is and how an imitation will fit in a world full of life. Erb hadn’t expected her insightful behavior, but gave her his own advice, drawn from his own experience – simply do what she wants, but also to help others when she can. BB acknowledges him from that, and went back to sightseeing.

Back in town, Tya tries to get back to Raix and Bulb, but she couldn’t find neither of them. Shortly later though, she hears a loud announcement calling for all of the participants in the fighting festival to step onto the ring. As her eyes are drawn to the large stone slab arena, she spots Raix amongst the fighters. Furious, she brushes through the crowd and reaches him by the edge, nearly pulling him off. But he fought back with the urge of wanting to have fun. After much begging and whining, Tya lets him go, but swore she would dig him into the earth if he lost. Watching her brother ecstatically jitter about, she stands in place, hoping for the tournament to end quickly. But she then hears Bulb’s voice nearby and sees him being quick friends with a talking pig.

Somewhere far away, on an artificial planet – a Dyson sphere surrounding a small star - built and owned by Epoch - the executive warriors known as Vishnu and Moon, both who encountered Erb on the Shinobi world, made their way to their ship’s airlock, soon disembarking into the space ports. Walking into a vacant dock with the view of the stars on one side, they meet a familiar figure blocking their path. A slender man with red skin, jet black hair, 2 horns sprouting out of both his temples to form a halo, dressed in black and white resembling that of a formal business suit. They know him to be the Regional Overseer, Yagar, the current supervisor of the space station and all of Epoch’s operations conducted within his assigned sector of the galaxy. In a friendly manner, the Overseer greets with a smile but for whatever reason he begins talking up a storm, congratulating them on their past mission successes and achievements after their last encounter. Vishnu then stops his banter, wanting to get to the point of why he was talking to them. There, the Yagar’s true natures shows; the once passive demeanor he took, turns to that of anger, revealing his distaste in the result of their most recent mission - losing several enforcers, an entire ship, a comet machina, and the latest bio-mechanical battle droid; but most importantly, failing to deliver their client’s goal – the Akatsuki’s. All they were able to salvage from their failure was one injured executive. As his wrath grew, the station around them began to quake as though possessed with fear. Soon, the glass panels around them begin to crack under the pressure of his aura. Moon’s senses become overwhelm as well, but Vishnu steps in, outputting his own aura in the form of blue flames to counter Yagar. The 2 powerful warriors soon cease before the damage to their surroundings becomes severe. The Overseer regains his composure, and then tells them he didn’t come out to greet them; he is awaiting the arrival of someone else before they came – his superior. A slip space rupture quickly forms out in the open for anyone close by to see. Out from it, a ship exits, carrying behind it a large red cage. Encased in it is the now defeated Thunderwing, causing Vishnu and Moon to both stutter out in shock – hearing rumors of the incredible strength of that particular calamity. Then, a black portal appears before them, and walking out of it is one of their upper echelon members, Director Ardyn. They all knelt to one knee in show of respect, and Yagar is the first to congratulate him on his victory. But he only earns a brief recognition from the director, who had his eyes set on Vishnu, inquiring why he was here. The executive gave him a short summary of what transpired. Upon hearing the involvement of a familiar a warrior with golden hair and a lizard-like tail, Ardyn wanted to know more, specifically, regarding where he met him.

 

Episode 62 – The Dragon Balls

On another world, in a metropolis area called West City, Neva, Jav and Trunks teleport in on a large grass lawn, currently within the estate of Capsule Corporation – Trunks home. Trunks exits out of the jumper and takes a moment to himself as nostalgia floods his mind. Jav and Neva let him be, not wishing to disturb his moment, but a deep grumbling voice reach their ears. From the corner of their eyes, they meet a man with large spikey hair, similar to Raix’s, and they then hear Trunks calling him father. Vegeta, the prince of the Saiyan race, was taking a short break from training in the gravity room until he sensed 2 large power levels appear out of the blue. But he discovers it was his son from the future and the kai he met before, the so-called disciple of Kakarot (Goku) – during the Thunderwing incident. Trunks, unable to contain his excitement, runs up to him, only to be stopped by his father’s remark, noting he had become stronger compared to the last time they met. There Trunks informs him it was 2 years since then, but knew nearly 7 had passed by during his absence. Vegeta then part ways, encouraging his son to continue to get stronger but to also make up for the 5-year difference. Afterwards, Trunks then leads everyone into the building to find his mother Bulma.

In a lab, they encounter a teal color hair woman wearing a brown bomber jacket, Bulma, tinkering away at a motorcycle. She turns to face them, shocked by their sudden entrance, but at the same time delighted to see her future son again. As the 2 reacquaint themselves, Jav notices her work space is reminisce of his own. Neva, overhearing his comment, lets him know the woman standing before it said to be both the richest person in the world as well as one of the most intelligent individuals in the field of science. To that point it made sense to Jav, and he surveys the number of blueprints lying about. One of the papers catches his eye – a layout of a human size android named android 16. After the pleasantries were over, Trunks request the dragon radar from her, and after telling her why, she gives it to them under the condition that Trunks visits his family again and tell her why he was here. With their means to find the dragon ball in hand, they set out to the nearest one with due haste.

Back with Erb’s group, as the festival was getting under way, Raix finds himself surrounded by dozens of men, eagerly waiting for the match to begin. He then spots a strange object floating above them, and in seconds, it turns into a small creature wearing a helmet over its head, covering its eyes completely. Turns out it is the designated referee of the tournament, and begins to projects its voice for everyone to hear, relaying the rules first. Upon its conclusion, the preliminary match began. Tya observes the massive brawl from safety with a now tipsy Bulb and his new friend, Hawk. Not much to her surprise, her brother made quick work with most of the adversaries, soon leaving just him with 6 other fighters on the ring. Standing alongside him are the silver hair man, the blonde hair boy, a woman dressed in a black cloak and hat, an old man, a muscular dirty blonde hair young man with a pompadour hairstyle, and finally even muscular man similar in age to the other, with black straight hair. Raix then notices only 7 of them had made it and heard this was supposed to be an 8-man tournament, Shockingly, his eyes spot a young boy with the pillow floating about, and the referee proclaims he is still in the arena and thus is qualified for the tournament, making a grand total of 8. The competitors are then brought into a small hut, where they each drew a lottery for who gets to fight. The first round is the massive muscular man, Griamore against the young lady, Matrona. The second match is the pompadour hair man, Howzer against Raix. The third is Cain the elderly man against the kid with the pillow, who is hysterically named, Old Fart. The last match are the white hair man and the blonde boy, both respectively named Baaan and Meliodaf. Suddenly, Raix watches his opponent, Howzer approach the last 2 fighters standing alongside with Old Fart with a stare that spelled trouble. However, the pompadour man backs off with an apology, mistaking them for someone else. As he left, Raix walks up to them on what the issue was, but the one named Meliodaf assures him there was nothing wrong. Then out of the blue, he wanted to know where Raix was from, showing interest in his fighting style to be nothing like he ever seen. The Saiyan tells him he learned it from his surrogate father, Gabriel, though his own variation involved more kicks. After their quick chat, Raix became buddies with the 3 fighters, and learned their real names were in fact, Meliodas, Ban, and King (old fart). Together they gather outside the arena. Raix meets with Tya and Bulb and introduces his new friends, though he was shocked to find a talking pig. To further add to their astonishment, Hawk was already friends with the 3 natives.

Soon, the first match begins with Matrona and Griamore, and the lady strikes first with a barrage of punches. Tya was impressed by her strength and speed while Raix was admiring her voluptuous body – he earns a quick smack for his troubles. But the girl’s attack was ineffective against the man’s magic power, Wall. There, the saiyans and their guide learn the people of this world are able to use magic, like their friend, Roza. The outworlders also learn from Meliodas the 3 of them also can use magic. Their surprise however made it clear to the blonde young man they couldn’t use magic themselves. Griamore surrounds himself in a barrier, gradually expanding outward and pushing Matrona to the edge. But with one powerful punch, the lady smashes through his Wall, enters inside and sends the man flying out of the arena with an uppercut, ending the match there. Her swift action causes her hat to fly off, revealing her identity to be that of a young lady. She walks up to Raix’s group, and looks to the native fighters as though she knew them. However, Meliodas made it clear he didn’t know her, causing the lady to suddenly punch him in the gut and walk off angrily, only to then be stopped by King who calls her Diane. At that moment, Raix made sure to tell Tya that that was how she looks when she gets angry, and earns another knock on his head. But when they thought they couldn’t be more surprised, they find another one of Melodias’s friends, Elizabeth, a girl with long flowing silver hair, completely naked and smooshed in between Diane’s chest – both Bulb and Raix earn nosebleeds for looking. The group gather in the hut for privacy, where they hear about the girls’ encounter with a unique fungal creature that made them small when it released its spores. As they all get to know one another, Raix hears his name being call up to the stage, so he left and steps up to meet Howzer, raring to go.

 

Episode 63 - A world of magic

Erb and Zeph continue to make base camp by setting up tents while BB remains close. But the manual labor was driving Erb mad, leading him to complain and wishing the others would come back soon. Zeph distracts him by asking to get some water at a nearby river and he does so alone with a few canteens on hands. After a short hop away, he stumbles upon the water source and begins to fill the containers. Suddenly, standing several meters away from him with eyes full of surprise, in his line of sight he catches a girl carrying a large baggage. The girl had long sweet orange color hair with a modest build, a pretty face, and wearing what can only be described as medieval attire belonging to a peasant. Dumbfounded to have not noticed her earlier, Erb makes a pathetic attempt in greeting himself. To his delight, the young lady returns the gesture and moves towards him, asking where he was from with glittering eyes, showing genuine interest in him rather than fear as he would expect. He returns her question with his own regarding why she wasn’t afraid, and she admits she was, but always dreamt of meeting a magical creature from the stories she had heard - though Erb does not consider himself magical. Upon a quick observation of the girl’s aura, he concluded she is a simple human being – not a threat to him. Then, out of the blue, he hears BB who followed him, scaring him but also catching the girl’s attention. The native proceeds to study her in glee, deeming her to be the prettiest person she had ever seen. Suddenly, the woman’s stomach growls from hunger, and Erb decides to invite her to their camp to have a meal. She accepts and introduces herself as Morgan Agartha.

In Viazel, the second match between Raix against Howzer begins, and Raix went on the defensive after dodging one of Howzer’s attacks, Rising Tornado, an uppercut that generates a violent tornado, powered by his own magic, Tempest. One attack after the other, Howzer pushes the Saiyan back to the edge, and nearly finishes him off, except Raix finally takes one attack head on, blocking it with his arm, letting himself get flung upward only to retain his position in the sky thanks to his ability to fly. Shocking everyone down below, Raix suddenly get called down by the referee, saying floating is considered cheating now. The Saiyan complies, and touches back down. On the side line, Tya asks Meliodas if he knew just how strong Howzer was, but he didn’t have the answer, except for Elizabeth, still in between Diane’s chest, who informs them he has yet to fight seriously. Coincidentally, Howzer hurls another technique, Whirl Shock, a tornado taking the shape of a circular wall. Raix, applying his aura into his front leg, kicks it, and disperses it effortlessly, causing Howzer to unleash an even more powerful move, Super Cyclone, in an attempt to get him off the arena. However, just before Raix’s feet lifts off the ground, he instead powers up just enough to propel forward and throw one kick at Howzer, tossing him out instead. After the cyclone cleared, the Saiyan remains on the arena alone, thus is declared the winner. Sadly, the direction he flung his opponent towards was straight at Diane, who caught him but began shouting at Raix for his carelessness. Tya, once standing next to her but evaded just in time, joins in on the rant. Howzer gets back up and in show of sportsmanship, he shakes hands with Raix who does the same. Afterwards, the next match gets underway between Cain vs King (Old Fart).

Zeph, who had finished setting up the tent and the tables, was just about ready to prepare lunch, yet he wonders what was taking Erb and BB so long to get back. He scans for their location only to find them coming out of the forest with guest, Morgan. Before he could react to the new person, she rushes at him, eager to shake his hand. Zeph awkwardly responds to her gesture, and hears Erb of her destination to be where the others were. Despite his worries, Erb wanted to give her some food and then take her near the town out of the kindness of his heart - seeing the amount of luggage she had made him worry she would hurt herself. Zeph begrudgingly lets him even though it wasn’t really his decision to make and, in the meantime, look for the others and bring them back for lunch. Morgan gratefully thanks Erb’s kindness by offering him an item she professes to be of some worth, a gold bracelet with a blue gem to match the one he had on. As they ate, Morgan pesters the group on where they were from and if they were Holy Knights from a neighboring kingdom. Zeph made sure to reply back adequately, withholding their true origin. But the term Holy Knight intrigued them. The lady notices and explains what they were – groups of warriors who use their magic to protect the kingdom and its people. The thought of magic cross their the saiyans minds – though BB was too busy eating – and recall their friend Roza, being a magic user. But Morgan continues on with rumors of the holy knights preparing for a war, and their mobilization had caused the country to become unsettled. As soon as they were done eating and taken a short break, Erb takes Morgan away on foot leaving the cyborg alone with BB. But Zeph’s sensors alert him of Raix’s power level having risen temporarily. Out of suspicion, he changes his sensor’s filters to pick up traces of mana – a feature he implemented for whenever he needed to find Roza’s unique signature. Upon its completion, he was startled to find several individuals with mana levels higher than Roza, and some of them were around his friends at the town. He turns on his communication device to contact Erb about his findings, but he instead hears the earpiece he gave him sitting on top of the table, alongside his sword.

The third match of the festival ends with Cain being the victor in what many in the crowd considered to be the most boring match by far. King was knocked off the ring earlier though his fall was cushioned thanks to Meliodas using his pillow. But Raix and Tya saw what happened earlier; the old man, playing as the fool throughout the fight, suddenly attacks King when he used his magic on him, reacting quick enough to end the match there. The fourth and final match is now Meliodas against Ban. Tya questions King and Diane regarding which of them were the strongest and though they said their captain, Meliodas, they do consider Ban to be on par against him in terms of close combat. Hawk suddenly cuts in, saying the real answer to their question would be him, though Bulb tells him to stop lying. The 2 men start out in a violent flurry of punches, neither side giving in, displaying a level of speed and strength that left a strong impression to the saiyans, especially after learning of Ban is supposedly immortal.

In the outskirt, Erbd rops Morgan in a vacant part of the town where no one can see them. In addition to the bracelet she gave him, for his service, she gives him a pouch full of silver coins. He refused yet the girl insists, later leading him to finally accept a few of the silver coins. She says her farewell and hopes to meet him again. As Erb was about to enter the town in search for the others, he instead locates them via energy signature, somewhere at the opposite side of the town and still together with Bulb. But around them, he also detects a strange type of energy he wasn’t familiar with. His curiosity bests him as he finally venture into town but out of sight as best he could.

 

Episode 64 – A Gentleman

As the fourth match rages on, Meliodas gradually loses out due to Ban using a variation of his magical abilities, Snatch, Physical hunt, to rob his opponent’s physical strength. Kings explains this and Raix admits he wouldn’t be able to counter such a power. Later on, Meliodas lays on the ground with no more energy to use, while Ban delivers the final blow. A large smoke cloud erupts as a result from his trike, but after it cleared the winner is Meliodas, whereas Ban can be found embedded into a stone column far off in the distance. Just after Ban threw his punch, Raix and Tya saw Meliodas getting back up with a black tattoo on his forehead, crushed his wrist, and swiftly sends him flying off with a series of lightning fast punches, riddling him full of holes. They did not know the significance of it, but they felt a strange and ominous essence as soon as the tattoo showed. At the stone column Bulb and Hawk retrieve Ban who is unable to move due to the side effect of his ability, and drag him back.

With the quarterfinals over, the semi-finals went underway. The next match is between Diane vs Raix. Bulb, returning from his venture, hops up to Tya’s shoulder, anxious to see how Raix will handle himself against a girl. But Tya tells him of Raix’s bad habit in going easy against a girl, and that he may lose on purpose for his own selfish reasons. The match starts and immediately, Diane attacks him with a combination of punches and kicks, each blocked or parried by Raix. Still, he was getting pushed back, but rather, from Tya’s eyes, he was simply allowing himself in order to take a quick peek under her skirt each time she threw a kick. Eventually, she takes a rock from the ground and throws it at him, nailing him at the head, and then yells at him to take the fight seriously. However, her actions allow Diane to hurl a punch at his face, digging him to the ground. Looking as though she won, the referee was about to announce the winner until Raix gets back up, only to start arguing with Tya for the cheap shot; she in return does the same. The others did not want to be apart of it, but it was Diane who stops their bickering and wants to continue. The spikey hair man, having no choice now but to land at least one blow to knock her out, aims for her midsection with a jab. But he instead hits a metal object and retreats back to ease his bruised fist. He stare at the girl’s body now completely covered in what seems to be iron. Diane, using Heavy metal to boost her defense, gives Raix a chance to surrender. But the wild hair fighter instead gives it his all by turning into a super Saiyan. The sheer output of his transformation causes an uproar with the crowd and made Diane think twice. He dashes at the frighten metal girl, but in a span of less than a second, while her eyes remained shut, he picks her up, carries her in his arms, moves her at the edge, and then drops her on top of King, who sadly couldn’t hold her weight. Raix reverts back to normal and is then declared the winner. Tya approves of his tactics; not taking advantage of his superior physique and throw the girl about like a rag doll to prove himself. But when Raix confronts her for what she did, she didn’t give in and instead hits him again for dragging out the match. When Diane got to her feet, she rushes at Raix asking what type of transformation he performed but he kept it a secret.

The next semi-final bout went on with Meliodas against Cain. Cain takes off his cloak to reveal a crest which the little man recognizes; once belonging to a now gone kingdom, Danafor. Cain casts fireballs at him, while accusing him, once a holy knight of Danafor, for having betrayed and destroyed his home. Meliodas tells him he did not betray them whatsoever, and performs one of his techniques, Counter Vanish, extinguishing his fire altogether. Cain then confronts him one more time, asking if he really did not betray their people, and he gave the same answer back, ending with the old man accepting his answer with a tearful outburst, happy to know his friend and comrade is still alive. He then forfeits the match, thus ending the semi-final, but starting the final and last match, Meliodas vs Raix.

The final 2 fighters get in the ring, and Meliodas starts first, putting Raix on the defensives with his nimble movements and techniques. As they battle on, the arena they stand on begins to crumble under the weight of their attacks. However, Raix stop himself from swinging one last kick as he notices Meliodas let his guard down purposely. Then, for whatever reason, Diane, Ban and King step in the ring, and Raix confusingly steps back. Meliodas then projects his voice to the crowd, announcing themselves as members of the seven deadly sins, and claiming the entire town as their own; if they do not leave, they will kill them all. Raix was about to strike him down for saying such, but when he looks up at the sky, a volley of fire balls quickly descends upon them, only to be destroyed by well place ki blasts. Erb, having hidden himself, took action and counters the inbound attack, saving everyone in the process. His friends spot him and he remains in the sky where 2 manta-like creatures can be seen flying towards them. On top of them are 4 warriors; among them are Guila and Jericho, a knight with orange fat armor, and a figure wearing a black cloak.

 

Episode 65 – The Seven Deadly Sins

            On Trunks’s world, after obtaining 5 of the 7 dragon balls, Trunks, Jav and Neva take a short lunch break in their jumper sitting on a beach shore. At that moment, with his wish near at hand, Jav thanks the 2 of them once more and apologizing again for having hid it from them – mainly from Trunks. They responded much the same as before, though Neva brings up what he plans to use the second wish for, which made Jav pause, not knowing the dragon balls can grant 2 wishes. Still, he didn’t want to be greedy and thus he only wanted the 1. At the time, Neva and Trunks detect someone was watching them. They shout at their stalker to come out. Appearing before them out of thin air is a tall man with green skin wearing a white turban and cloak. Piccolo, the namekian warrior and comrade to Trunks, had sensed them before when they landed on Capsule Corp, and warranted himself to follow them upon learning their desires to be the dragon balls. After hearing Jav’s wish though, he let himself get caught, and finally greets Trunks. Right after however, he inquires why he has returned to their time, assuming there was more trouble in the future. Trunks is hesitant to tell him, but after hearing him assure he will keep it a secret if necessary, the saiyan divulges what had happened to him – a first for Jav and Neva. As he was rebuilding his world after the defeat of the androids and cell, one day, he encounters a ship in the sky. When he was about to investigate it, a single figure, a muscular man with blue skin and dressed in black, meets him with the intent on recruiting him for their cause. He refused, but is then threatened to join – the world he worked so hard to save will be destroyed if he doesn’t help them. And so, he attacks the stranger first with his most powerful attack, but it was rendered mute upon impacting against an invisible wall. Afterwards, their fight turned into a brawl, and Trunks lost. He then hears the voice of a woman who was calling for the man to return, deeming the Saiyan to be underwhelming and a waste of time. The next thing he saw was a black ball in the sky, falling to the ground, only to expand, destroying everything in its path. Trunks nearly gets himself killed as he tries to stop it, but a strange light saves him, and the next thing he knew, he drops down in front of Yuuko’s gift shop and meets her there. He soon learns he had arrived in the past, nearly 7 years after Perfect Cell was defeated, as well as his assailants were from the same organization they had just fought, Epoch.

In the skies of Viazel, Erb tries to measure the enemy’s overall power level, but was only able to grasp the strange essence he felt before – his own inability to sense mana, magic. The Holy Knights drop down to meet the seven deadly sins, resulting in the red man to yell at his friends to help get the people away. In a flash, he gets cut off by the figure in black and is dragged elsewhere. Tya and Raix heard him and chose to save the townsfolk first while the seven deadly sins handle the holy knights on the ground.

            Ban, the fox sin of greed, is the first to encounter the enemy; he gets stabbed by a power-up Jericho, who he had met a while ago under different circumstances. With her newfound strength, she quickly dispatches him and renders his healing abilities inactive. Meliodas, captain of the seven deadly sins and dragon sin of wrath, faces off against Guila, the one responsible for the fireball attack. She continues hurdling magic barrages at him, trapping him in a cage of explosions. In another part of town, Hawk, Bulb and a still shrunken down Elizabeth sitting on the toad’s back, were running to safety until the bodies of Meliodas and Ban crash in their path and both Guila and Jericho not far behind, ready to finish them off. Thankfully, King, the Grizzly sin of Sloth, arrives back to the scene after helping some of the people escape, and manages to hold them off for the others to get away.

            Diane, serpent sin of envy, stands at the base of a rock, but is in distress over her weapon, Gideon, one of the prizes set for the winner of the festival - which was hers from the start - is missing. Her focus shifts to an old man amongst the rubble and chose to help him up. But she is then met by Howzer in his holy knight armor. He did not attack her and was in fact no mood to do so when he sees her helping an innocent civilian. Unfortunately, the orange armored knight came up to them, and uses his power, manipulating gravity, to make Diane heavier. Before the gravity could hurt the old man in her arms, Diane tosses him to Howzer and then collapse into the cracked open earth.

            Raix returns from rescuing a group of stranded citizens and makes his way to the battle field by air. He stops upon the sight of Hawk and Bulb with Meliodas and Ban, and lands down to also find Elizabeth with them - still small. He takes it upon himself to take Ban and Meliodas to safety and return for Elizabeth and the others after, but he was interrupted when 2 individuals find them; one of them a girl with short purple hair calls out for Elizabeth. The silver hair girl knows her as Veronica, her older sister. Standing behind Veronica is her personal guard, Griamore – the same man who fought Diane in the festival. At the same time, Elizabeth begins to grow back to her original size, causing a lot of faces to turn red out of embarrassment and 2 nosebleeds – Raix and Bulb. Thankfully, Raix gave her his jacket, and Veronica then tries to drag Elizabeth away, desiring to take her home. Elizabeth refuses and before Veronica could try and take her hand once more, Meliodas gets back up, standing in her way. From there, Veronica notices he is wearing a purple pendent – an item she had given to her sister that can seal away evil creatures upon its spell being uttered. Without delay, she activates it and in flash of light, Meliodas disappears, leaving Elizabeth, Raix, Hawk and Bulb to ponder what had happen.

            In the rocky glass plains beyond Viazel, Erb pushes back his unknown assailant yet he was having difficulty knowing if he was hurting his foe or not. He eventually turns super Saiyan, quickly taking the lead and finally lands a devastating Dragon fist, sending it to the ground in an erupting red and gold pillar. But as the smoke clear, he spots what remained of the knight is a black round object. It then came to life and sprung up to take the form of a humanoid. On its blank canvas of a face, creases appear, molding themselves into a horrifying smile.

 

Episode 66 – Battle of Viazel

            As the humanoid stands back on his feet, he begins speaking to Erb in an enthusiastic manner, happy to find someone who can give him some measure of excitement on the boring world they now stand on. The stranger introduces himself as Hex, and knows who Erb is from the report he read from one of his colleagues, Vishnu. There, the saiyan knew he is from Epoch and Hex confirms it after adding the fact that he is an Executive Agent, the same level as the sea green hair girl he defeated. From there, Erb gets in close to dish a combination of punch, but although he makes contact, his attack dealt no damage. Hex quickly lands several hits of his own with devastating results.

King, using his sacred weapon, Chastiefol, dealt with Guila and Jericho without suffering a single wound himself. He taunts the holy knights and makes ready to go to his comrades. In a surprise attack, Guila fires her magic but King effortlessly defends against it as well as blocking Jericho’s assault from behind, returning the 2 back to square one. He finishes them using his Chastiefol’s 4^th form, Sunflower, changing its shape to that of a monstrous size sunflower, and fires a beam of light down upon them. But someone stops his attack by cutting his weapon in half, and King shocking looks down to find the referee narrating what had happened only to then throw out Guila and Jericho from under its cloak. It then warps itself out of existence, only to reappear behind king in its true form, a bronze armored man with a purple cloak. King knew him to be Helbram, someone he had thought was long dead. Without delay, he restores his sacred weapon and had it aimed at Helbrams head, However, he easily parries it and kicks King to the ground at the same time. In a quick exchange of blades, King earns a shallow slash across his chest, but manages to knock off Helbram’s helmet. But before the holy knight could get the chance to end his life, he retreats back, avoiding a large white pillar from above. King, stunned by the sight of the object, then witnesses Tya landing at the crater, who goes on to battle Helbram alone.

Having just saw Meliodas disappear, Veronica take up the pendent in triumph. But her sister snatches it out of her hands, proceeding to threaten her using Meliodas’s broken sword, demanding she release her friend. Before Raix could intervene, he and the Elizabeth get trapped in one of Griamore’s technique, Perfect Shell. By the orders of Veronica, Griamore encases her sister, and as a precaution does the same to Raix, knowing full well how strong he is and that he may prove to be a problem if left uncheck. Outside of it, Hawk and Bulb tried to get them free but fail. But Raix, using the Perfect shells defenses to his advantage, powers up, still retaining his base form, and with all his might, he breaks out. Coincidentally, Ban is back on his feet and takes Veronica hostage right under Griamore’s eyes. Sadly, by the time he could make use of the girl, Jericho attacks him from behind. Guila wasn’t far behind and attacks Raix with one of her explosions. The Saiyan did his best to defend himself, but it was too late, he gets engulfed in the blast and goes out cold on the ground – despite his aura having covered him, it did little to defend him against magic. Hawk and Bulb try to help once again, but one explosion from Guila renders them unconscious.

With their oppositions gone, Guila approaches Elizabeth, asking her to hand over both the pendent and sword handle, as well as herself. But Veronica stops them, wanting to take her sister back home herself, only to earn menacing words from Guila. In response, Griamore traps his fellow holy knights in his Perfect Shell out of a sense of danger, but that gave Elizabeth time to run away, causing Veronica to go after her. Both Hawk and Bulb regain their senses despite being burnt, and watch Elizabeth run away from her sister. Suddenly, a bright flash of light from the ground below their feet surprises them. Griamore saw the explosion and ran to the princesses. Elizabeth, having survived the blast, finds Veronica, who took the full brunt of it to protect her, injured. Griamore grief caused from seeing his princess in a dire state made him lose focus, thus weakening his perfect shell and inadvertently allowing Guila and Jericho to escape. Guila attacks the defenseless knight, and approaches Elizabeth one last time, only to cause the silver hair girl to scream out Meliodas’s name. Her cry for help sets the pendent to produce a black light and crack into pieces. A spew of black aura envelopes everyone nearby, and as it dissipates, Meliodas emerges with half of his body covered by the same black tattoo as before – but more prominent – and looking to be in a daze. Guila, still holding on to Meliodas’s sword handle, ponders how he was able free himself, only to then realize she had just lost her hand along with the handle, seeing them both in dragon sin of wrath’s possession. As she begins to scream in pain, the tattoo man grabs hold of his weapon and generates an air pressure attack with one swing, strong enough to launch the 2 holy knights into the air. Jericho got back up and immediately tends to a dying Guila, taking one of the orbs in their possessions to heal and reattach her severed arm. But their attention turns to Ban, who had snuck in and used their spell to heal himself, in addition to taking the rest of their recovery orbs for himself. Before the 2 girls attack him, he quickly warns them to not lose sight of Meliodas, and they paid for it when he barrels through them with ease, including the fox sin himself. Meliodas, no longer in control of himself, begins to thrash his power around the entire area, swallowing everyone other than Elizabeth, Bulb and Hawk in his carnage. After the destruction ceased, Elizabeth meets him face to face, and stays silent, unable to process what he had become. Suddenly, his gaze shifts to a figure in the dust cloud, and running out of it is Raix in his super Saiyan form, landing a kick, getting him away from his new friends. The Saiyan treats him as an enemy when he feels the dark sense of dread emitting from him, much like how he was when he defeated Ban, but more sinister.

 

Episode 67 - The Powers of a Demon

            The red fighter has yet to hurt Hex, and instead gets pummeled for his troubles. He fires off a Kamehameha wave, hits him dead center, but the results were the same - unfazed. This spurs him to hurdle a series of dragon fists, each having done nothing. Out of a sense of superiority, Hex divulges what he considers to be a hint behind his powers – he is immune to all physical damage and energy attacks, a counter to individuals such as Erb who rely on their aura to win. Despite having heard his so-called hint, Erb had a feeling he was simply lying to him, though he couldn’t help but believe a part of what he said to be the truth as his tactics prove to be useless.

            Elsewhere, Tya fends off Helbram and his array of spells, proving to be increasingly difficult to deal with. She becomes a Super Saiyan to turning the tables on him, but his magical attacks still dealt sufficient damage. Helbram didn’t recognizes the energy she exhibits, but it was enough for him to guess she isn’t a being from his world, much like Hex, and in spite of her powers, she had no defense against magic.

            In another part, Raix and a now berserk Meliodas battle it out, though Raix was attempting to put his friend down without having to resort to killing him. Unfortunately, Meliodas made it difficult for him due to his erratic movements, and to further worsen his situation, Raix felt a discomfort in his chest, making him lose focus in the fight – the sensation plaguing him is that of hunger. With one powerful kick though, the super Saiyan finally dealt what seemed to be a fatal blow, but further inspection revealed the black tattoo had covered him just in time, mitigating the damage. Afterwards, Meliodas tattoos grew in size and his arms form into large claws. He slams them down on top of Raix, but with a single kick, he pushes it back, and then takes out his ring blades, channeling his aura to strengthen them and resumes his bout.

            The match between Tya and Helbram was nearing its conclusion as the Saiyan girl’s bo-staff techniques were now taking full effect on the knight in spite of his ability, Link – connecting his power with that of 20 other holy knights back in Liones. Suddenly, on the other end, Hendrickson, who had been observing the battle at Viazel, shares a portion of his strength, giving Helbram the edge he needed to deal a decisive blow on Tya. With one sword swing, he sends her crashing into a mountain side, giving him enough time to slip away before she can get back and disrupt the mission he was sent to complete – retrieving Meliodas, the sword handle, and Elizabeth.

            Raix and Meliodas were also nearly done, though Raix’s stamina was nearly depleted while Meliodas remains unharmed yet shows signs of exhaustion. But the knight leaps into the fray, taking them both out in a surprise attack with the magic power Hendrickson gave him. From there, he approaches Meliodas, picking up the handle on the way, only to be interrupted by Tya. Raix returns and together with his sister, they prepare themselves to fend off Helbram.

            Howzer, watching Diane selflessly sacrifice herself to save an innocent bystander, confronts the plump holy knight, Marmas. Suddenly, a large green boar stands before them and carries what looks to be clothes in its mouth. The boar drops them down the crevice. Marmas was about to attack the pig until a giant hand smashes him into the ground flat. Howzer sees Diane, now in her true form – a giant - wielding her sacred Treasure, Gideon, in hand.

            As Helbram moves to eliminate Tya and Raix, behind a large boulder, Ban, Hawk, Bulb and Elizabeth hid themselves, looking for the best chance to escape. However, Ban picks up everyone and dashes away, sensing an impending danger about to occur, making now their chance. Helbram spot them fleeing, and was about to launch an attack, until he evades a blow that deforms a mountain. Tya and Raix are join by Diane, now 30 feet tall, and with Meliodas in her hand, she lashes out angrily at the knight. Though the holy knight dodges her swings with ease, on the other end of his link, Hendrickson orders him to retreat. At that moment, Diane strikes the ground, causing the area to erupt into a violent quake, letting loose her technique, Mother Earth Catastrophe.

            Erb did his best to keep himself on his feet, but Hex’s so-called immunity slowly turns into something he is unable to overcome. He later learns Hex can temporarily impart his immunity to objects and can bypass his aura defenses, allowing him to deal any major blow directly. To Erb’s rescue however, a sudden explosion erupts in Hex’s face, making him retreat back. The red fighter spots Zeph in his super Saiyan form, carrying his sword. Zeph detected his friends were in trouble, so he left the campsite in BB’s care and headed into battle. He tosses the weapon to his friend, commenting his superstitions are becoming an annoyance, and resumes firing off his blitz shots at Hex. However, the agent’s power made his attacks ineffective, putting him in the same dire situation as his companion. Erb then warns him of Hex’s ability, and on the spot, the cyborg simply sends him flying continuously using the explosive force of his blasts. But Hex soon escapes, forcing his way out and aims to return to them, intent on their deaths. Suddenly, a powerful solid energy beam impacts on him out of nowhere sending him straight forward. Erb and Zeph watches the stray beam roar out from over the horizon behind them, but their sights are then drawn to a mountain in the distance, forming right in front of their eyes.

            As the earth began to explode, Helbram lands by Guila and Jericho and attempts to flee on the flying creatures they rode in on. However, the crashing rocks killed the creatures and Helbram could not escape. At the same time, Hex, finally gets himself free from the energy blast, but finds himself standing right under Diane’s attack, getting buried right after.

 

Episode 68 – A daring mission

            Outside of the cataclysmic event caused by Diane, both Erb and Zeph quickly meet up with Raix and Tya along with some of the members of the Seven Deadly Sins. Soon after, Bulb, Ban, King, Hawk, and Elizabeth join in, but then Ban hits Meliodas as pay back for earlier. Afterwards, out of the blue they spot BB carrying all of their supplies and equipment neatly packed, holding a rifle in her hands. They asked where she had got the weapon, and she reply by absorbing it into her body – it was one of many blueprints stored in Jav’s holopad, and she reproduce a rifle capable of firing an energy beam as a means to help them. Erb and Zeph had first hand account on seeing her ability, but didn’t know she can reproduce any weapon she had seen, let alone from a schematic. But now Erb worries over the fact that Jav’s holopad had that sort of information, though Zeph informs him it wasn’t the least bit surprising due to his nature – being an engineer and someone who can build a grappling gun with a recoil which only a Saiyan can handle. Afterwards, Meliodas and the others approach them, thanking them for their help. Raix and Tya return his kind words back, but Erb suggest they get away from their current spot in case the executive agent Hex returns, unsure if they would be able to handle him in their current situations. Meliodas thought the same, knowing despite Diane’s powerful attack, he can still sense the Holy Knights to still be alive. And so, with due haste, and onboard a large green pig with a house on its back, they made their escape.

            Near the base of the new mountain, Helbram gathers himself after nearly avoiding death. Several meters away, he sees something digging out of the ground and it is Hex, finally free from his temporary prison. The executive asks if he obtains their objective, and although Helbram did not get Meliodas and Elizabeth, he still manage to acquire a fragment of the coffin of eternal darkness – the sword handle which is in fact a key to opening up the demon realm. With their task finish, Hex decides to let the enemy go since he is unable to sense the energy signatures of others, and had underestimated how resourceful they were. Not wanting to make the same mistake as Vishnu, he plans to pull back to Liones with Helbram, and contact the current regional overseer for more reinforcement.

            On another world, Jav, Neva and Trunks, now accompanied by Piccolo, finally acquired the last remaining dragon balls and were about ready to make their wish. On top of cliff with the ocean in view, Neva recites a chant to summon the dragon. The sky darkened and an intense light shoots up into the sky. Shortly after, the dragon Shenron appears – a beast of immeasurable length with green scales covered its body from head to toe and 2 horns protruding on the back side of its head. Jav became speechless upon its sight, but Piccolo snaps him back to reality in time to hear the dragon ask for their first wish. Without delay, the boy requests the dragon to fix his friend, Lilith – to restore her to the way she was. But to everyone’s shock, Shenron denies his wish. At first, they thought perhaps Lilith had finally regained consciousness during their travel, but the dragon tells them she remains slumbering. His reason for denying their wish is because the girl’s consciousness is somewhere, he is unable to retrieve from due both a barrier keeping him out alongside a dark and sinister being looming around her, too powerful for him to do anything about. Jav asks if her mind is somewhere in Atlantis, but Shenron tells him she is not, but does know of her location. From there, Shenron demands they make their first wish again, fed up with answering questions instead. Thus Jav, despairing over his plan crumbling apart, manages to convey one - how did she become comatose. Shenron grants his wish, informing him of what happened after Lilith saved Atlantis from Thunderwing. When the man’s ship entered their slip space, the massive power it was exerting caused a surge throughout the city’s systems, shocking Lilith who was still in the chair and having her mind still connected. Inadvertently, when the man conjured the black portal, her consciousness transfer through it and into the mysterious ship. Shenron then notes the same man is the one who is also preventing him from granting their wish and he had no other information to provide regarding who or what he is. Hearing the bad news places, the travelers in further despair and Trunks still recalls the chilling presence that emanated from the fedora wearing man – getting shot clear through the head only to return as though it was nothing. With one wish now granted, the team contemplate how to proceed. But Jav had completely lost hope, believing they had no means to save Lilith’s mind. But Neva came up with an idea, letting them know they should use the second wish to teleport themselves to where her soul is, and if they can at least deduce their location, she can instant transmit them away to Piccolo or anyone else she can read. She then looks to the namekian if it was possible for that type of wish to be granted and Piccolo assures them it is possible – safer to go into danger rather than escaping from one. The others then agree to her plan, knowing full well of the dangers that lie ahead. Neva tells the second wish, and Shenron grants it.

            On the Dyson sphere and in a secluded office, with only Ardyn, Vishnu, and Yagar present – Yagar mainly being there to pour a cup of tea for the director – the executive had just finished providing his full report of his encounter with the golden fighter. The director contemplated what he heard, knowing without a doubt the warrior is the same person he saw fighting Thunderwing. But what peaked his interested was the time frame; going from one world to another in such a short period despite the vast space between them. Suddenly, he detects 3 foreign entities nearby, yet he recognizes 2 of them and smiles for the chance at clarity.

            In an instant, Neva and her group show up in a room filled with terminals. Despite being in unknown territory, Jav immediately went to the nearest screen and fiddles with its controls using his holopad. Thanks to having worn the monocles, what looks to be an indecipherable list of symbols and commands, Jav manages to access its systems with ease. Initially, he was no closer to finding Lilith as he was before, but after suddenly losing his access and the screen turning blank, he receives a message. The sender is unknown but he immediately knew who it was upon reading its contents, filled with his name and a cry for help. Lilith was communicating with them. But before he can do anything, he notices Neva and Trunks are silent. Suddenly, they alert him of a strong and evil presence approaching them, prompting him their window of opportunity is closing. Then, they are all struck with a sickening, dreadful atmosphere, putting them in a daze. Trunks recalls the same phenomena from when the man with the fedora hat made his entrance in Atlantis, leading him to believe he is near. Soon after, the 2 fighters quickly sight a myriad of weapons forming out of thin air, all aimed at them. Then move on them with a purpose, and Trunks manages to parry most of the attacks, except for one which impales him through his right thigh. Finally, all of them strike at once, too many of him to block. Neva, mustering as much strength as she can, accomplishes to instant transmission themselves away, returning to a flabbergasted Piccolo, and faint on the spot.

 

Episode 69 – Doubts of Heart

At the space installation, Ardyn with Yagar behind him stand by the scene where the intruders were last detected, inside his ship’s data center. The technicians have already unearthed some portion of their information hub has been tampered with, but they have yet to understand how the intruders got in. As a result, the entire station was on high alert and is making ready to jump to a different region of space before another incident can repeat itself. Knowing the intruders are the same people he met, as well as hearing Hex’s report of them being active on his world, Ardyn, deeming them to be more trouble than he anticipated, orders Yagar to assign Vishnu and what remains of his team to assist Hex in eliminating them. In addition, he orders 5 Comet class Machinas to be sent ahead via digital transfer through subspace, reaching their destination quicker. On another note, he also wanted him to perform a deeper diagnosis on his ship, noting someone else was tampering with their communications on a different end, evident from the recording of the intruders and the message on the terminal. And lastly, he needs a new ship to transport Thunderwing to their main facility. Without question, Yagar did as he commands, leaving Ardyn alone.

On a palace floating high in the skies of Trunks’s home world, Jav soon wakes up alone in a quaint white room. He leaves only to meet a plump man with pure black skin, red lips and white beady eyes, wearing a white turban and pants, along with a simple red vest, waist sash and shoes. The being introduces himself as Mister Popo, the caretaker of the lookout they are now standing on. He lets the young boy know his friends are in the rooms next to his and have been asleep for 2 days – he is the first to wake up, which he finds to be surprising. He surmises his mentality may have been a key factor. Jav asks how they arrive here, but before Mister Popo could answer, Piccolo cuts in, walking around the corner, letting him know he brought them here. Jav spots a smaller version of the namekian right beside him. The other namekian takes note of his curiosity and greets himself as Dende, the current guardian of the lookout as well as the guardian of the planet – the local god of this world. Piccolo then questions Jav on what they did to have returned  in their weakened states. Upon Jav explaining what occurred, understands the situation but admits his inability to provide any assistance himself if Trunks and Neva, both who he considers to be stronger than him, returned beaten. As for why they remain asleep, Dende diagnosis their condition to be mental – their minds were harmed by whatever was attacking them. Though, like Mr. Popo, Dende is impressed to see Jav is the first to recover. Then, it dawns on the boy genius that his holopad is not on his person, and he inquires its location. Piccolo had it in his possession and hands it to him, unable to figure out how to work it. Jav turns it on, and much to his delight, they didn’t back come empty handed from their daring mission. In it contains data as he acquired from his brief connection with the ship, and hopes to create some means to find where they last were. His own mission was far from over.

            A few days had passed since the battle at Viazel, and Erb’s group chose to stay with the members of the Seven Deadly Sins after being offered so by their captain, Meliodas. Now, settling down in a forest area, Meliodas, Ban, King and Diane went to a nearby town to buy supplies while Elizabeth and Hawk tend to the Boars Hat. Erb, Zeph, Tya, Raix, BB and Bulb gather together outside of the tavern to discuss their next move. With 3 of their members still missing, and their supplies already gone, they have no choice but continue working with the sins. But with them as allies, the outworlders wish to assist them in stopping whatever epoch or the Holy Knights had in mind – a common enemy. However, with the lack of response from Neva’s group, they begin to worry for their friend’s safety and are assuming the worst scenario. As for how to find them, Erb has yet to master instant transmission – he is only able to teleport to a target within 27 meters now. Reaching them is out of the question. They then take a break, and the groups splits in 2, Erb and Zeph discuss more into details regarding the Epoch agent Hex, and the rest wander back in the tavern where Elizabeth is in the middle of cleaning. They help her out, and as they do so, they learn of Elizabeth’s adventures thus far with Meliodas. After she heard their dilemma, she advises them to keep holding on to hope that their friends will come back; childish as it was, hearing her sincerity made them heed her words to heart.

            Outside, Erb and Zeph see Meliodas rushing back with a purpose. Ban, King and Diane lagged behind, and Erb sends a question their way on their captains’ urgency. But he and everyone else listen in to Meliodas, saying one of their team members, the Goat Sin of Lust, Gowther, is near and being attacked by Holy Knights.

 

Episode 70 – The goat’s Sin of Lust

           With one of their comrades in danger, Meliodas tasks Diane to stay behind and protect Elizabeth and the shop – including Hawk. He, Ban and King plan to go where the holy knights are, first as reconnaissance in case the intel he got proves to be incorrect. Seeing as this is a stealth mission, Zeph suggests they take Raix who is the best at scouting, and they take his help. The 4 of them went ahead, leaving the rest to defend the Boar’s hat. 

           Somewhere deep in the forest, a group of kids leads by a blonde hair boy, Pelio – the same group of kids Meliodas had heard the news from – venture towards where the action was taking place in hope of gaining a reputation – despite their young age. The oldest among them, Armando, shares his complaint and worry about the consequences, only to be shut down by Pelio who was is it for the glory.

           Rushing to the battle site, Meliodas, Ban, King, and Raix follow the sound of death cries and reach a rocky area cover with dead knights surrounding a large purple armor giant. Meliodas points out the giant is Gowther judging by the armor design. The only other fighters still standing before the giant are 5 Holy Knights who King identifies as the Roars of Dawn – the evilest group in Liones, and very powerful to boot. Neither the Roars of Dawn and the armored giant made a move, and so, the others hid, waiting for whoever strikes first. But to their surprise, they hear BB speaking behind them, asking what they were doing – they didn’t detect her approaching. Raix questions her if she had a stealth mode feature, but she simply followed them and presumes her inability to exhibit any life signs was what made her invisible to their senses. Still heeding Erb’s words regarding her next actions should be what she wants, she went and tailed them under her own free will, wanting to gain battle data in case she needed to fight. Now, they waited and eventually, it starts to rain. As time pass and Raix stares at the giant, the pit of his stomach starts acting up again, though he ignores it, thinking he was just hungry.

           However, BB points out another party closing in, and much to Meliodas’s dismay, they were the same kids he heard the news from. One of them, Pelio, moves up to the giant, ignored by everyone else. When the kid touches the giant, it attacks, but Armando pushes Pelio aside and gets crushed under the attack. 

At that moment, the Roars of Dawn charge, but Meliodas stops them all with a sneak attack. The Roars of Dawn regroup, and Meliodas dashes at them. Their leader, Slader, intercepts and uses his magical ability, Overpower, immobilizing Meliodas on the spot and pin him down. The rest of the Roars of Dawn tried to attack the giant, but a swarm of energy discs stops them, courtesy of Raix and his Nimbus Rings. The Saiyan steps up, with his ring blades, parries a strike from one of their members, Hugo, a tall fully geared knight with circular-shaped axes. King took Pelio away from the fight, and returns to attack Hugo, but gets trapped by the female knight, Jillian. Meliodas recovers but the knight wielding the long katana, Simon, gets in his way. Slader closes in on the giant and dealt a devastating slash, temporarily incapacitating it. Raix cuts in before he could finish it off. Ban spots another of their members, a male archer, Weinheidt, perched on a high rock and attempts a sneak attack only to be tricked by his illusion. The real archer emerges from the corpse pile with a charge up arrow and releases it. Meliodas, Ban, King, and Raix were too slow to get in between the arrow and the giant in time, but to everyone’s shock, BB manages herself, catching it barehanded with hardly any effort put in. Everyone pauses for a moment, leaving BB a chance to send a question to everyone regarding why they are fighting in the first place. She earns backhand remarks from the Roars of Dawn, except for Slader, who answers her earnestly – their mission is to bring back the head of the armored giant growling behind her. She then asks if they had an obligation to protect the people of the village nearby or the innocent bystanders who were here, including the person who got crushed – her understanding of knights being people who defend the weak came from Erb’s knowledge. This time, Slader restates what he just said, affirming their target is the giant – no one else matters. Raix then interrupts, enraged by Slader’s answer for treating the dead men before them are insignificant, including the one who they all just saw get crushed. However, BB stops and corrects him; the man who was crushed is not dead and is still fine. Her assessment proves true as the one named Amando gets up with no injuries, and begins narrating everything from what just happened to what was on everyone’s mind. He ends with a warning of a seal that is placed upon the beast they are attacking. Short after, his once long black hair shrinks down to neck length and its colors change to that of red-purple. Afterward, he reveals himself as Gowther, the Goat sin of Lust. 

           Everyone, except for BB, was dumbstruck by the revelation. Ban approaches Gowther, still surprised to know someone so small was the one under the large hulking purple armor. Gowther identifies both Ban and Meliodas by their appearance and features, but he did not recognize King until he changes his looks to that of a fat man. He also did not know who Raix and BB were, but Meliodas promises to fill him in on a later occasion. Their attention is drawn back to the Roars of Dawn, still aiming to kill the armored giant, in spite of 4 of the Seven deadly sins in front of them alongside 2 powerful foreign fighters. Gowther tries to persuade them to reconsider, but they refuse; thus, the goat sin cuts off the armor giants head without any hesitation, appearing to have killed it, and hands the severed head over to Slader. Skeptic yet thankful, he takes his token for peace and leads the Roars of Dawn away without any further confrontation. The others were startled by the purple man’s cold action, though Meliodas then asks him why the monster was wearing his armor. Gowther explains it was to seal away its power and deduce it to once be a holy knight before by its magical signature. Raix chimes, noting his efforts in keeping it sealed away turned out to be in vain since he killed it; but once again, BB corrects him regarding the status of the monster – it is still alive. She is proven correct once again upon the monster’s resurrection, no longer having the armor on, and sprouting out several more heads to replace the original.

 

Episode 71 – Meliodas’s Past

           At the Boar’s Hat, standing on top of the tavern, Erb observes the battle going on using his senses, and although he was relieved to detect the holy knights who were there first to have left, the malevolent energy that is now with his friends continues to persist. Anxious to go and see it with his own eyes, he held himself back, knowing a surprise attack from Epoch on them was still possible. Zeph, Bulb, and Tya chose to go to the village to keep an eye out as well. He hadn’t seen BB since the other left but assumes she tagged along with the others to town. He then hears a knock on the door down below and looks over the edge to see an old man and a young lady being greeted by Elizabeth. Erb recognizes them both, the elder being Cain from the Viazel festival, and with him is Morgan, the merchant girl. As Cain goes inside and Morgan departs from him, Erb jumps down to hail the girl, and she responds kindly. Morgan explains she was just in the village nearby and was moving to another one now until she encountered Cain who had helped her after the Viazel festival was under attacked. But she also heard of what Erb and the others did from him. On the spot, she once again conveys her thanks to him, for saving all of the citizens who were present. She then asks if he was still carrying around the bracelet she gave. Sadly, Erb shows what remains – bent and melted metal pieces; damaged due to the fierce battle. The gem that was attached to it is still in his hands, and his act of keeping it despite its terrible condition earns him a gentle smile from her. Before he left, she parts one gift for him, a locket, and tells Erb to place the gem in it for safekeeping.

           Further away, the Sins and Raix, except Gowther and BB – both taking the frightened children’s, who have long since fainted, away from the battle - fend off against the grotesque abomination. Raix traps the beast in a swirling dome of his nimbus rings, but then it bursts out, ignoring the damage. Suddenly, the same feeling in the pit of his stomach – when he fought Meliodas in his berserk state - grows stronger, causing him to slightly bend forward from the pain. Meliodas and Ban attack it head-on, pummeling its faces, but were quickly countered. King catches them with his sacred treasure, taking the form of a giant green teddy bear. He sends it to brawl the monster, but in a comedic twist, the monster freezes it and then shatters the large ice statue to pieces. With blunt force out of the question, Meliodas and Ban pick up weapons suiting their style - a short sword for the captain, and a whip for the fox sin. The dragon sin applies a magic spell, Enhance Hellblaze, covering his sword in black flames and dealt a major wound on the foe. Raix, spotting slashing attacks work best, throws his ring blades, cutting off the beast’s arm, giving the little man the chance to attempt a finishing move. But on the midsection of the beast, the captain spots what remains of the Holy Knight - its human form still intact. His hesitation nearly gets himself eaten, but a stray energy arrow strikes the monster, stunning it. Ban uses his Fox Hunt combined with a whip to snatch the captain to safety but berates him for his behavior. Coming up behind them, Gowther and BB return, and it was Gowther who shot the arrow, putting the monster under an illusion using his magical ability, Invasion. Ban takes the chance to finish it off, Meliodas tries to stop him, but it was too late – using Fox Hunt he removes the monster’s heart.

           In the tavern, Elizabeth hears about the person name Liz from Cain, someone who looked nearly identical to herself, only she had short red hair. Liz was also a nickname, and her true name is Elizabeth – just like her own. When Meliodas was a holy knight working for Danafor, he and Elizabeth fell in love with one another. He goes on recounting the times they would spend together, cherishing one another’s presence. He then takes out a sword, a gift Liz had intended to give to Meliodas, yet he refused due to his code of honor – not wanting to kill anyone. Now, Cain has it for safekeeping for the day he can give to Meliodas for Liz. Erb, sitting outside and having overheard everything including Meliodas’s code, recalls one action he did back on Naruto’s world; when he was ambushed by the Epoch agents, he somehow managed to survive and kill 3 of the agents, forcing the rest to retreat. Yet, at that time, he felt as though his own body was moving on its own, and his mind was simply watching everything unfold. The sensation of him not in control of himself coupled with the murderous intent produced unsettles him. Suddenly, his senses shift him to the forest where a roar can be heard from a distance.

           Meliodas questions Ban for refusing his order to not kill the abomination, yet, Gowther points out it was still alive, evident by it mumbling out incoherent sentences. But suddenly, it writhes in pain, displaying even more power than before, feeing itself from the illusion. Ban, baffled to see it still alive, quickly pieces together clues on what it was – ominous aura, more than one heart - and classifies it as something belonging to the once long-forgotten demon clan. 

           Inside the tavern, Cain and Elizabeth felt the earth shake around them, and the old man went out to investigate. Erb, standing in front of the boar’s hat, watches the animals running out of the forest, stampeding past him, all trying to escape the danger. He is then met by Zeph, Bulb, and Tya, returning from the village when they heard the roar. He informs them of what he knew but notices BB wasn’t with them. They never brought her with them, sparking Erb to rush into the tavern, hoping she was still inside. But he nearly gets hit by a swinging door as Elizabeth runs out with a sword in her arms, bolting headfirst into the chaos. Before he could catch her, he checks inside, and sure enough, the android is not here, meaning she could have either wandered off elsewhere or, for whatever reason, is with the others fighting the monster. In haste, he rockets away, leaving the others behind. On his way to the center of the battle, he picks up Elizabeth and questions her intentions. Despite the chaotic noise around them, he hears her requesting him to give Meliodas the sword along with a message. Erb accepts, first dropping her off to a safe location, and then resuming his trek.

           As the monster’s shape begins to deform, Meliodas finally recognizes the holy knight to be a man named Dale – someone who they considered to be a friend before they became wanted criminals. Because of this fact, he refuses to kill him. But his indecisiveness causes the others to get hurt. Raix, unsure of what to do, did his best to get the injured fighters out of the way. But the monster grabs him by his leg and smashes him to the ground, nearly ready to kill him until BB slides past under it, taking her friend away from harm. Regardless, it continues to pursue them, and they couldn’t dodge it a second time. Meliodas gets in front of them, taking the brunt of the blow but stands his ground, urging what remains of Dale to regain his sanity. It didn’t heed him and resumes to fight, until Erb flies in with a kick, hurdling the monster into a cliffside. From there, Erb hands Meliodas the sword and passes along Elizabeth’s message – Liz did not wish for him to use the sword for fighting, but rather to survive. He then went on to ask what exactly they were fighting, but the monster, with newfound speed, rushes at the unsuspecting red man, giving him little time to react. But Meliodas warps past Erb, and cuts the demon into pieces with his new blade, leaving the human portion intact. Shortly later, the little man apologies to his friends for his behavior putting them in danger. Then, they moved the conversation to the idea of a Holy Knight being turned into a demon. As for how this occurred, that continues to elude them. But with the danger now over, the group returns to the tavern. Erb and Raix however, held back for BB’s sake as she looks over the remains of Dale. She hears him expressing his gratitude and after a few seconds, she declares him to be dead. There, she passes one last question pretraining why he was thanking them. Raix couldn’t come up with an answer on the spot, but Erb gave what he can – they simply put him out of his misery, rather than pitying him and leaving him the way he was. BB then sheds one last question, as to what made Meliodas change his mind, and there Erb could only guess Elizabeth’s message cleared his doubts, though deep down, he couldn’t help but sympathize with the captain’s hesitation.

 

Episode 72 – Reunion

           At the boar’s hat, with the arrival of Gowther, the sins held a festive party in celebration of his return. Further away, Meliodas bids farewell to Cain and had returned to hear Gowther explaining to his fellow sins they had met Elizabeth before when she was a child. As the sins enjoy their reunion, Erb and the others have their shares of fun, and as food for thought, Tya notes she had yet to see Raix falling head over heels for Elizabeth. Raix had assumed she and Meliodas were a couple, and because of that, he chose to not get in between their relationship. From there, he bitterly mentions one person who did hide a loving relationship from him, namely Zeph, who continues to nervously sip his cup of beer, and yet, rebuttals by pointing out Raix having a crush for Neva. Raix did not deny it though, and dreamingly recites a list of her good points, leading Erb to point out Diane’s eligibility as a joke. Bulb chimes him on his own opinion, finding both the princess and the giant to be rather pretty, though it is also surprised by Raix’s not being attracted to the giantess. But like his first answer, Raix mentions he did not wish to get in the way of love. His statement made Erb ask for further elaboration but guesses it was due to Diane having a crush on Meliodas as well. Raix debunks his presumption by pointing King, though not loudly. At that point, everyone looked at King, noticing his flustered behavior towards Diane whenever she gets close to him, something the others have overlooked. At that point, Erb was minorly impressed by his spike hair friend’s astute observation, though it regresses to that of disappointment upon learning he had a decade worth of love experience, all of which were either him being regretted by every girl he confessed or giving love advice to other men who were fawning over the same girl. Suddenly, their attention moves over to Diane pounding her fist on Gowther, and to help them understand the situation, BB, who had been stuffing herself with delicious food, explains what had transpired. Erb and Tya quickly stop her, telling her to eat before talking. But the sight of the sins enjoying their reunion made them remember their group is still incomplete. Suddenly, blue arrows of light struck them on their necks, done by Gowther, who uses his invasion ability to read their thoughts, thus turning the feast into a fiasco of secrets being thrown about. But hearing Gowther’s power that allows him to access people's memories caught Erb’s eyes, and he abruptly requests he try it on him – to see if fragments of his old self can still be found. The other sins were puzzled by his request until he explains his situation and their real origins. Shockingly, the sins had already presumed they weren’t from around here, mainly because they lack magic and have some other form of power they have never even heard of. Soon after, Gowther attempts Invasion on the red Saiyan, but all he can gather upon his search were the memories he has thus far; though he admitted he was rather shocked by what he found. Gowther mentions there were fragments scattered about and signs of someone having taken his old memories rather than erasing them, describing it as tearing a piece of paper apart, rather than cutting it cleanly. Suddenly, the goat sin discovers several of the pieces share an image of a woman, and then puts together what he can to create a silhouette with only her head somewhat complete, allowing Erb to picture her – a girl with short blue hair but faceless. Still, this new piece of information left him satisfied, and thank the goat sin. He was about to cry from the revelation, yet he instinctively held it back. They all note his strange behavior, and it was there Erb told his fellow traveling companions about having seen a message given by his other self and remembering there was someone important to him waiting for his return. The joyful sensation coursing through his mind made him believe the blue hair girl was that same person. 

           On Dende’s lookout, after a few days passed since their daring mission, Neva finally awakens and is startled by her new setting, much like Jav was. Coincidentally, Mr. Popo enters the room, who she already knew from her first visit. She discovers she is the last of the 3 to have woken up, and that the others have been waiting for her since then. Feeling healthy and ready, she is lead outside where Trunks is, standing beside Piccolo and Dende. With Trunks, they bid their farewells and warps to Jav, who was at capsule corp.

           In Bulma’s lab, they find the young boy with Bulma deeply focus on their respective monitors, both filled with foreign symbols they were still sifting through. Trunks visited earlier and heard what Jav manage to accomplish – a virus that can allow him full access into any Epoch ship’s system. To help him, Trunks suggested he ask his mother, and to hasten their progress, he also gave his mother the monocles, allowing her to understand the alien code. Together, they had been deciphering lines of code, and coincidentally, upon their arrival, they had finished translating most of the raw data. Jav gave them the good news – they discovered vital information regarding the ship’s weapons, the machinas, and other technology they have yet to see, including its unique energy signature, meaning if they come across it, the jumper’s sensors can instantly point it out. Unfortunately, he does not know where they were before they fainted, nor any other vital information such as personnel, operations, agenda, etc. Neva points out they could have asked Shenron for the coordinates first. Bulma then joins in, stating they’d have to wait for a whole year or so since they used both wishes to summon the dragon again. With that option gone, Neva moves the conversation along to whether they manage to contact the others, which they haven’t due to her absence. With all said and done, the 3 of them prepare to return to the others. Trunks says his goodbyes to Bulma, and his mother gives Jav a gift for letting her help; a capsule containing a workshop he can use to his leisure. After thanking her for the kind gift, they finally set off, boarding their jumper, and instantly return to their extremely startled friends with their new ones.

Within the city of Liones, home to Elizabeth and the other seven deadly sins, and underneath the castle walls, Hendrickson, Helbram, and Hex join together for a secret meeting regarding the recent incident. Helbram reports the holy knight who went berserk, Dale, had been dealt with, thus, any intel regarding their operations has been secured. Now, with a fragment of the coffin of eternal darkness with them, Hendrickson orders him to start the ritual immediately. The cardinal recites a chant using the stolen handle and the complete coffin, while Hex observes quietly alongside Hendrickson, who is anxious for the demons’ return so he can start the next great holy war. Upon the ritual’s completion, the space in front of them tears open and grotesque figures begin spewing out. However, it proved to be a failure as it closes back up again, leading Hex to ask what had happened. Helbram explains they still needed the other pieces, mainly Elizabeth, thus, their objective to capture her became a top priority. Hendrickson then questions Hex on the arrival of his comrades and tells him they are due to arrive tomorrow. Sadly, the grandmaster did not wish to wait any longer; the final stage of their plans begins and ends tomorrow.

 

Episode 73 - The Resurrection of the Demon Tribe

           In the courtyard of Liones castle, Guila and Jericho spar one another, though Jericho lost focus, allowing Guila to disarm her. Guila inquires what troubles her, and she hears her story about how she followed the Roars of Dawn to a mission given by Helbram. She kept her distance throughout the trip but after the Roars of Dawn left with their target in hand, she stayed longer. Her curiosity was rewarded; she witnesses the seven deadly sins with their new friends fighting the armored giant. When the battle was over and the sins left, she took a closer look and obtained a pendant from the human remains. She gives it to Guila, who opens it up. The contents within however cause the girl’s heart to spike; a picture of herself, her little brother, and her father.

           Elsewhere, Howzer roams the barracks but stumbles into one of his superiors, Grand Holy Knight Dreyfus - Griamore’s father and someone in equal statues to Hendrickson. Dreyfus had been holed up in his private quarters after hearing the news of his son’s death along with Veronica – falsified by Hendrickson – and just recently came out for a breather. Howzer informs him of all the recent events after his seclusion, noting the new generation of holy knights have bolstered Hendrickson’s rank and the arrival of the outlanders lead by the mysterious Hex continue to pour in, signaling a large battle was brewing. Dreyfus had thought the same for some time now and wishes to have his long-awaited chat with his fellow Grand Holy Knight.

           Armored up, Dreyfus marches into Hendrickson’s quarters, where he finds him, along with Hex, both looking to be scheming something. He bluntly demands Hendrickson to tell him what his goal was for bolstering their ranks, and he replies it was in preparation for the holy war that is about to happen, prophesized by Dreyfus himself – they must be ready to fight the demon clan. Hearing nothing but madness, Dreyfus shares his doubts that they, themselves, will be a match to the demons. Sensing his resolve weakening, Hendrickson reminds him of a past sin he committed to reaching the position he has now – a means for both of them to attain their current status. He had done enough research to give themselves an edge against the vile race, as well as allies who are more than happy to lend their support. Hex enters the conversation, divulging their current plans in getting rid of the seven deadly sins and anyone else who gets in their way. After that, he suggests both Knights stand by the window to watch his work come to fruition. The 2 knights heed his words, and over by the north gate, a large black portal opens over an acre of land. Emerging out of the ground is a battalion of Machina troops; 800 Foot Soldiers, 97 Spearheads, and 6 Comets – 5 of them sent ahead of the reinforcements under Yagar’s orders. The sheer numbers and firepower of the army they now have was enough to topple any kingdom in the world and even startled Dreyfus to the point of sweating nervously over the thought of themselves fighting any army this mighty.

           Traveling over the countryside, Erb brought the away-team up to speed on their current events, and they did the same, though their news regarding Lilith’s mind to be in jeopardy didn’t sit well. But Jav shares a possible solution. He had devised a computer virus that can allow him access into an Epoch ship’s system and possibly their network; there he can gather whatever data he needs to find the location they were on or anything else they may need – troop numbers, personnel information, locations of current Epoch operatives. He does point out they need to get into a ship to accomplish that, as well as having a ship of their own. As for how to retrieve their friend’s mind from their network, he pits BB as his answer – a walking supercomputer that can contain the consciousness of one person. His plan was sound by everyone’s ear and BB accepts the role of being a carrier for their friend. However, Zeph states his plan was still just a theory at best and reminds the others they still need to fight through Epoch’s forces first before anything, including the mysterious fedora hat wearing man. They are soon joined by King, floating in unannounced, informing them the captain wishes to speak with them.

In the tavern, after Erb’s gang file in and spread out, Meliodas shares his plans to infiltrate Liones to retrieve his sword handle back. At first, his fellow sins decline for childish reasons. Later, he explains what it was; a fragment of the coffin of eternal darkness that sealed away the demon clan from long before their time. As for what purpose Hendrickson plans to use it, Meliodas guesses he intends to start the next holy war – humans against demons. Suddenly, Hawk’s stomach causes him to make an uproar, though he shares a thought that was lingering in everyone’s mind – if they had the handle for the seal, why were they after Elizabeth? Out of the blue, a woman – a holy knight of Liones - answers that very question, revealing she is the last key in breaking the seal. Almost everyone in the room was startled by her presence alone – no one having sensed her approach - and Meliodas, Zeph, and Erb rush in to attack her. But they were too slow; she disappears before their eyes with Elizabeth, teleporting back to Liones. Inadvertently, Hawk and Bulb were both standing next to the princess and were caught by the teleportation. Furious, Meliodas runs outside ready for battle, and the others follow. Erb tells the kai to teleport herself to the knight who took Elizabeth, but the Kai had already tried; she picked up their energy signatures far away, but then lost them. At the same time, BB and Zeph’s sensors detected a high energy output far above their heads, causing everyone to look up to spot a large beam of light raining down.

 

Episode 74 – To Battle

           From on top of the highest tower of Liones, Hendrickson, Dreyfus, and Hex stand by a window, having a clear view of the horizon. In a split second, a purple light beams down from the sky to the area their eyes are drawn to, and simultaneously, a dome of light erupts. The location of the light was where the Sins and the outworlders were. Hex had been tracking their movements for some time, using his cloaked ship stationed high in orbit. Just recently, he ordered the ship to fire upon their location – the main point of their surprise attack was to both weaken the enemy, as well as disorient them into making rash actions, such as charging into Liones headfirst for revenge. He also states Meliodas’s Full Counter would have been rendered useless against it due to how fast it was. He continues, confidently adding that the Machina’s he deployed are also armed with the knowledge to counter his power. With him gone, they, themselves will be the victors through sheer firepower and numbers. But what Dreyfus didn’t know, was both Hendrickson and Hex had ordered Vivian, the strongest magician in the kingdom, to kidnap the princess, and they just recently received reports of her success. At the same time, Hex had set up a machine that acts as a portable version of the Black Veil, blocking signals from entering and leaving, and hiding life signs - the same technology Nyx employed during her attack on Konoha. After hearing about how the same intruders on the space station are aligned with the those he fought, Hex had the countermeasures necessary for that to not happen. The only downside to the field was it can’t stop someone teleporting out if they are already inside. Hex then orders his machine troops, except for the Comets, on the ground and in the air to position themselves on the west gate where they will most likely meet the enemy.

           In a dungeon underneath the castle, Elizabeth, Hawk, and Bulb were teleported into a cell. They then meet Vivian standing behind them and are told of their current location. Before Elizabeth could order her to return them, the magician left them stuck inside. Bulb notices a steel door and is confident he can open it himself. But in a fortunate twist, Hawk, still in pain from his stomachache, musters the strength to headbutt the steel door clean open, freeing them in the process, but takes a few seconds to do his business. Stepping into the hallways, the trio tries to leave but a guard stops them. This time, both Hawk and Bulb launch themselves at the unaware soldier, knocking him out cold. Then, on the spur of the moment, Elizabeth realizes if they were in the dungeons, her family could be nearby. She goes to call her father and then her sister, Margaret, hoping to get a sign of them. Not long after, she hears Margaret replying, finding her behind another steel door.

           Erb, having thought they had died by the blast, opens his eyes to find himself back in Neva’s mirror dimension, and to his relief, everyone else, including Diane and Hawk’s mom, was safe and sound. Neva, using her quick wits, opened her mirror large enough to encompass everyone, saving them from getting hit. She earns praise for her efforts, though Erb had asked why didn’t she reflect the blast. She reveals her action to have been the result of her instincts taking over. Still, Meliodas asks t to let him out, but Zeph stops him and advises a plan of action. Reluctantly, the captain agrees, and so did Erb, who looks to Zeph, a former soldier, to lead their first war session. With great confidence, he reiterates the events that transpired, noting this was all an attempt to make them go and attack the enemy without a plan while weakened. However, thanks to the kai, the enemy is unaware of their location and their strength; and most importantly, they have revealed the location of their ship – the best opportunity to test out Jav’s theory. But, much to their misfortune, Bulb had been carrying the senzu beans in his dimensional pocket, thus they have no means to restore their health if severely injured. Zeph questions the dragon sin of possible locations Elizabeth could be held. He notes 2; the underground dungeon, and, if they do plan on resurrecting the demon clan, the magical research facility once owned by one of the other sins currently absent, the Boar sin of Gluttony, Merlin. It is a place secluded from the public and even to most holy knights. Zeph requests Neva if she can provide visuals of Liones through her mirror, and she can, though she also detects a strange field surrounding the kingdom. It blocks her from opening an exit for them, but through the mirror, they can see the kingdom, as well as a strategically positioned army of Machina’s and Holy Knights. Meliodas points out both locations, relatively close to one another, thus narrowing their searches. Before they can enter the castle, the group had to deal with the Machina’s, but also to keep the collateral damage to a minimum in populated areas. Additionally, they needed to get out of the mirror first, and although Neva tells them they are basically at Liones, they are just unable to leave their current space. Jav figures whatever was blocking them are the black veil – one of the few devices he found - either originating from the ship above or a deployable version. It was at that time, King suggests a remedy to their predicament, another way they can get out. With one whistle, he summons forth a black hound named Oslo and points out his ability – anything Oslo swallows will be transported to a different location, but he can make drops at a specific area. With the field not affecting them inside the mirror, Jav test Oslo by letting him swallow a wrapped candy bar, and to their delight, they can see it outside, falling and landing in a bystander’s basket. 

           After the large explosion, Dreyfus confronts Hendrickson regarding the allegiance of the agent from Epoch, believing they are simply using them for a more sinister purpose. Hendrickson, however, finds his complaints annoying and threatens him to simply join his cause or end up like his son. His words stir Dreyfus to grab his sword, ready to fight him on the spot. Not paying attention to the argument behind him, Hex awaits the result from his ship of their preemptive strike. His ship reports back, but found no signs of the enemy, making him wonder if they died from the blast or somehow escaped. He requests the visual feed and shortly after, out from a device from his hand, he observes the impact crater, spotting nothing – no debris whatsoever. Still, he had a sneaking suspicion they were hiding, and orders all Machina troops to increase their sensors range. Suddenly, the troops hovering over the kingdom’s west gate were under attack and nearly wiped out from a series of explosions high above. 

           Falling from the skies are Erb, Raix, Meliodas, Ban, and Gowther, all 5 of them had leaped out from the back of the cloaked jumper. Earlier, they along with Zeph, Neva, Jav, and BB board the jumper and allow Oslo to swallow them whole, luckily exiting out in the air over the town. Now, after the first group left - designated as Group A - Zeph provided cover fire using Blitz shots, destroying the enemy’s air defense. Group A’s task was to infiltrate Liones but also act as decoys to attract the enemy outside of the kingdom to avoid civilian casualty, while teams Group B and C accomplish their agendas. Group B, consisting of the people still in the jumper, plan to make their way to the enemy ship in orbit, get inside, upload the virus, and download whatever they need; if possible, cripple its weapons and the black veil. Group C had Diane, King, Tya, and Trunks, who will enter in another random part of Liones through Oslo and search for the princess as well, hopefully with less opposition.

           As Group A reaches the ground, Machina foot soldiers and spearheads recklessly fire at them. Erb retaliates with a barrage of ki blasts alongside Raix’s Nimbus Rings swarming the remainder of their air force. Meliodas uses his full counter for any of the attacks they missed, returning their attacks and clearing their landing zone. They are soon met by the Holy Knights, all of them unleashing a wide array of magical attacks, only to receive them back thanks to Meliodas’s power. Stragglers who avoided his technique were quickly dealt with by Ban, Gowther, Raix, and Erb. But all 5 of them stop their charge upon sensing a large presence, on the opposite side of the castle.

           Hendrickson and Dreyfus also sense the strange power, grouped in front of the southern gate, and earn a report from one of their sentries of an army hailing from Camelot waiting outside, led by their king, Arthur. 

 

Episode 75 – Overwhelming Force

           Hex, grossly underestimating their resourcefulness – getting past both his forces and the black veil while appearing out of thin air – and having his plans ruined, quickly hears from Hendrickson of another faction slipping under their radar - an army of holy knights from Camelot. Not wanting to make a fool himself any further, he planned to kill the interloper first, but Hendrickson had other ideas, telling him to not engage them, and that he, himself, would handle the new predicament. And so, Hex focuses what is left of his forces – currently, 40% left – to deal with the enemies at hand, hoping they would at least slow them down.

           Hendrickson informs Dreyfus he would go and speak with the people of Camelot while he handles the sin himself. He accepts, and the 2 Grand Holy Knights part ways. Dreyfus arrives at the bottom of the castle, where he is met by Helbram, sent ahead by Hendrickson to assist him, along with additional support. Behind the cardinal are Howzer, Guila, Jericho, and Gilthunder – a friend of Howzer and someone who had fought Meliodas in the past. To top off their small group, Hex gave Helbram a Comet to guard them. Dreyfus questions Helbram as to where the seven deadly sins will most likely attack next. The old man, unsure what to say since Dreyfus still didn’t know the real reason the sins are attacking was due to Elizabeth’s kidnapping, lied to him by pointing their attention to the magical research facility.

           Inside the mirror dimension, King, Diane, Tya, and Trunks prepare themselves to get eaten by Olso and join the battle. Tya stands on Diane’s shoulder and together they get eaten by the dog first. They arrive in a dark cavern but Diane does not recognize it. Unfortunately, a problem occurs; due to giant’s size, she is currently stuck halfway – her lower half is still on Oslo’s mouth who is getting choked. Tya desperately tries to pull her through, while on the other end, the 2 young men nervously push against her rear end.

After dropping off the first group, Zeph’s team continue upward, locating the Epoch ship. Neva still couldn’t sense any life signs inside it, but Jav believes it had its veil covering it, thus, the one in the kingdom is a portable variant. Fortunately, he knew just where it was, and with a single drone shot by the jumper, it was destroyed. After that, Neva counts a little under a hundred personnel. Locating what seems to be a bridge, she teleports herself, and Zeph. She guesses correctly, spotting terminals being manned by a variety of aliens. Swiftly, before they could set an alarm, they knock them out, reframing from killing them – they plan to let them go and bring them to the ground before taking the ship for themselves – if they can pilot it; if not, then destroying it is still an option. With the room cleared, Neva brings in BB carrying Jav’s holopad with the virus inside and installs it in the main control.

           At the southern border, Hendrickson with 2 holy knights by his side opens the gate to meet the army of Camelot, led by a single man wearing golden armor on horseback and a white-cloaked figure. Guessing the golden knight is King Arthur, he requests his reason for coming to their kingdom unannounced. Arthur introduces himself, following with his intentions to assist the King of Liones after hearing he had become ill. Hendrickson refuses his help, mentioning their best mages had attempted to cure their majesty, and then ask for why he brought his soldiers with them. Arthur apologies for his rudeness but much to the Grand Holy Knight’s surprise, the army he saw quickly vanish thanks to the cloaked individual – a powerful illusion set to catch their attention. Arthur points out the same individual is capable of healing their king. Hendrickson still refuses, but the king then wishes to help solve their current crisis in exchange for passage inside, and with that, the holy knight finally lets them in.

           Group A continues to fight the holy knights and Machina soldiers but with little difficulty, none of them earning a scratch as of yet. With the last of the robotic forces destroyed thanks to Erb and Raix and the holy knights remaining, Gowther unleashes his sacred treasure, Double-bow Harlit, and fires off his attack, Rewrite Light - a barrage of purple arrows piercing every combatant before them. The Saiyans were astonished by his attack and the level of precision he had, matching that to Zeph. But Erb questions why he chose to use it now, and Gowther explains his attack does no physical damage but rather mental, and it would have been ineffective against the metal puppets who had no minds of their own. Shortly after, the group notices the knights who were shot are unharmed, yet they charge at them with open arms, treating them as comrades. Gowther lets the others know he rewrote their memories in that they are treated as long-lost loved ones. Thanks to his efforts, the group was able to pass through the now dazed enemies and got themselves inside. However, their brief peace was shattered by the arrival of 2 Comets. Without thinking, both Saiyans chose a Comet, allowing their friends to continue.

 

Episode 76 – Improvisation

           Back on the ground, Dreyfus’s forces arrive at the research facility, finding everything relatively calm compared to the rest of the kingdom. Dreyfus inquires Helbram relating to what they did here as of recently, and the bronze armored man skillfully sowed a collection of lies that best suited the situation. As a means to change the subject, he encourages both Jericho and Guila to do everything in their power to kill the sins this time. But Guila passes her request, asking to know what had happened to her father after their mission is over. And with a cautious agreement, the matter was settled. In the back of the group, Howzer speaks with Gilthunder about his experience fighting Meliodas and what he thought of them now since he used to be their admirer. The pink hair man answers harshly about them, deeming them as criminals, nothing more. Howzer then looks back at the Comet, nervously wondering what it was and where it came from. Abruptly, a powerful rumbling from below catches their focus. Dreyfus creates a hole in the ground and leaps down in it. The rest follow him. Upon landing, they are met by Tya and Diane, both girls utterly shocked to have been discovered so soon.

           Outside, Erb brings the fightback away from Liones’s walls, where they first landed, and fought the Comet as a Super Saiyan, using his Greatsword to pummel it rather than wasting time in slashing at its hardened exterior. Raix, on the other hand, is stuck fighting near the edge of the rural areas, and unlike his friend, he had little means in harming the armored mechanism and continues using slash based offensive moves, chipping away at it slowly. Still, he is unable to avoid the damage it brings, and after one punch, he is sent tumbling through several houses. The shock from his hurdle nearly made his blackout. But feeling the cool winds made him remember his fight against Howzer – how he gathers the wind around his arms. His mind then wanders to how a normal human would have fair against it. He, himself, survive his attacks but if the winds were faster or there was some debris inside, he may not have come out of it unscathed. Then, an epiphany occurs, giving himself newfound energy, and an urge to try out a new technique. Springing back onto his feet, he dodges an incoming strike by one of the Comet’s appendages, and then keeps it contained inside his Nimbus Storm; a dome made of nimbus rings moving at high speeds – something else he made from his fight with the demonized holy knight. It still barges out, but by then, Raix had accomplished what he set out to do. Swirling around his legs like mini tornados, he covers them with nimbus rings, moving at a speed far surpassing his norm and with a density that made it seem more like armor. With a single kick, he shaves off a large chunk of the Comet’s armor and cuts 2 of its 5 metal tentacles with no trouble. Afterward, he continues his bout with the Machina, and gradually finds himself on equal footing.

Inside the epoch ship, their ambush in the bridge did not go unnoticed when BB informs them of a silent alarm was set off – by Zeph’s feet, he identifies the walrus looking man had pressed a button before he was knocked out. In seconds, Machina foot soldiers teleport in, leading to a brawl within the bridge. They handled them accordingly, but soon after, a Comet drops in, bulldozing both Zeph and Neva straight out of the bridge through most parts of the ship. BB stays put, still intent on finishing her task. Zeph and Neva are brought to a large factory area filled with machinas still dormant. When the Comet charges at them again, Zeph goes straight to Super Saiyan 2, stopping it in its track. Neva was about to assist him, but another Comet crashes into her, sending her impacting against now destroyed droids. With 2 comets to contend with, the Saiyan and the kai regroup, hoping to buy time for BB to get her side finished.

Elizabeth, Hawk, and Bulb still stand behind Margaret’s cell door, ready to free her, but Vivian teleports in, surprised to find the princess free. Hawk attacks her, but Vivian teleports him away. Elizabeth and Bulb demand she returns him, but they too get transported elsewhere. Vivian however, opens the gate for Margaret, allowing the princess to spend her final moments outside where she can see her beloved knight, Gilthunder, fight for them.

Tya and Diane are now being confronted by the holy Knights but regardless of their disadvantageous position, Diane commands they return Elizabeth. Dreyfus, not knowing this fact, strongly asks for a more detail elaboration. But the tension between the 2 groups rises as Jericho launches forward, causing both girls to thrash their weapons about, blowing a hole out of a cliffside and revealing the cavern to the outside world. All of the knights survived though Gilthunder had to rescue Jericho who went temporarily unconscious from the attack. 

On the other side of Oslo’s portal, both King and Trunks, still stuck inside the mirror dimension, can hear the battle taking place and desperately continue to push Diane out. On the defensive, Tya turns into a Super Saiyan while Diane takes a comfortable stance with her Gideon. Dreyfus orders both Gilthunder and Howzer to attack. Gilthunder makes the first strike, performing Thunderbolt Execution, a lightning base attack sundering the 2 girls. Sadly, due to Diane being stuck, the attack also affected Oslo. Howzer cannot bring himself to attack, but Dreyfus intimidates him, forcing him to use Rising Tornado in conjunction with Gilthunder’s, creating a combined attack, Dragon Castle – a black hurricane of wind and lightning. Helbram adds in his attack into the raging storm, Hail Bullet, sending large icicles inside. But both Diane and Tya break free, Diane performing Ground Gladius against Helbram – creating a mountain in the shape of a jagged sword - and Tya cutting the storm in 2 with her projected over-size staff. Tya remains in the sky, but Diane fell, though now free. Still, she lands in front of Dreyfus.

 

Episode 77 – Fighting to Survive

           Diane gets back up and Tya flies down by her head, both facing down the holy knights with Helbram being absent. Once more, Diane challenges them for the princess’s safe return. When Dreyfus belittles her for acting like a child who had her dolls taken away, the giantess uses Ground Gladius on him. Yet, he blocks it with one sword strike. With his magical power, Break, he shatters the premature attack into pieces. Tya swoops by, aiming her next swing at the holy knight. However, bursting out of the rubble, the Comet that was with them returns, defending the knight and throwing her back. Upon recovery, she recalls having trouble with the same robot from before, and yet, she stampeded back at it, throwing her astral projection. To her horror, however, it stops her assault only to then toss her into the air and fire a beam blast. She survives it but is sent rocketing to the populated area. Diane, watching her friend get hurt, lost sight of Dreyfus, but earns a devastating attack by his Break power, a beam of light piercing her right chest through. She fell to the ground, not knowing what happened, while the other knights could only gasp in awe over the strength of the grandmaster. At that point, Helbram returns without a scratch thanks to using one of his abilities, Switch, to transfer the damage to the ones who are connected with him via Link. But he earns Dreyfus attention relating to whether or not the Princess is in the castle, and he answers back much the same, fanning ignorance. But to their shock, Diane slowly gets back up, still making her demands, and attacks the grandmaster again. This time, Dreyfus pierces her right thigh with Silken Skewer, making her fall forward, following with his Demolishing Attack, sending her upward and towards the city. Without delay, he takes out a blue orb from out of his armor - a communication device – and uses it to spread the news of the seven deadly sins, using the townsfolk against them.

           Elsewhere, Tya, hidden under a pile of broken debris, leaps out of the way, just in time to dodge the Comet from caving her face in, and pushes it back. Still, it charges at her again, and a sense of dread and hopelessness fills her mind. Suddenly, her sense of time gradually slows as the idea of death crept up behind her, remembering her fight against Nyx – a fight she believed should have died but her luck saved her. Now, with her luck gone, she desires more power, and the ability to transform into Super Saiyan 2. But then another recollection slips in, a time when she was a young girl, watching, Gabriel, wielding 2 metal sticks, attached by a single chain link. He swirls it around his body, showing her how to wield it. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t do it and always ended up hurting herself. It was there, she heard him say to not copy him but form her style using her strengths – nurturing herself. His words lead her to learn how to use a bo staff, but she also continued to learn his skill, incorporating it as her own. However, when she used his techniques for the first time, she wielded it with anger – the day she first achieved super Saiyan. Afterward, she vows to never fight like that again, for fear of her strength; the only time she let part of herself loose was against Thunderwing, yet, she still held back, frightened over the weight and power of her astral projections doing more harm than good. But now, with Diane in danger, her friends fighting for their lives, and her own life in peril, she retells herself Gabriel’s words of encouragement, and as time begins to speed back up, the Comet closes in.

Diane wakes up on top of a destroyed house but is immediately attacked by the townsfolk, all under the influence of Dreyfus’s earlier speech. In spite of not harming anyone, they continue to berate her. Suddenly, explosions rang out all over the area, leading hysteria to overcome the citizens. Helbram, alongside Jericho and Guila, is the cause behind it to further frame Diane as the villain. But Guila confronts him, deeming his actions to be not what a holy knight should do and questions whether or not the information of the Sins overthrowing the kingdom was true. Abruptly, Guila hears her name being called and to her shock, she finds her little brother, Zeal, screaming towards her, right underneath falling debris. Then, in a shocking display of heroism, Diane flings herself at the little boy, covering him with her entire body, and saves him from being crushed. Soon after, Dreyfus, Gilthunder, and Howzer join them, and Dreyfus orders the giant's execution. But much to everyone’s surprise, Howzer steps up, and stands in their way, no longer able to stomach the injustice they are showing and intends to protect Diane. Guila joins him after witnessing her selfless act, and together, they face the other 4 knights by themselves. But in a shocking revelation, an explosion occurs behind them, and there, they see the Comet with its left arm and 3 appendages damaged beyond repair. At the same time, Guila and Howzer suddenly meet Tya standing before them with both her jacket and cloak skirt absent, and her blonde hair fashioned as a ponytail with white clothe tied. Also present on her person, is a weapon they have never seen; 2 short rods –her bo staff, miniaturized, and its astral projection whirling around with astonishing speed, generating a small tornado. Tya, still a super Saiyan, attached the 2 separate objects using a thin thread of aura with a nearly indestructible tension, essentially changing her weapon to that of nunchucks. Earlier, when the comet rushed her, she morphs her weapon and twirls the astral rod, using the centrifugal force produce to sunders the robot away. The result of her attack can be seen on the robot. Helbram had already figured out how she beat something that had been overpowering her from the start. Still, the Comet rebooted itself, ejecting the broken limbs, and replacing its arm with the remaining appendages. It and Tya clash once more in between the 2 groups and then drag themselves through several vacant homes. 

 

Episode 78 – Self Destruction

On the streets, Erb had finally managed to destroy a comet after briefly turning into a Super Saiyan 2. He is soon joined by Raix who left his in a shredded state, yet is surprised he accomplished that as just a super Saiyan. However, he notices his friend is heavily wounded and wishes to give aid until a familiar enemy arrives. Over their heads, they dodged spears coated with a strange energy, meant to kill them, and then spot the black humanoid man, Hex. With Raix in his current state, Erb asks him to catch up to Meliodas and the others. Unable to complain, he did as he was told, leaving his red friend behind to face the executive by himself. Hex, after learning 2 of his comets were destroyed and his ship is under siege, entered the battlefield, and chose Erb as his target, knowing if he killed their leader, the rest will follow suit. In high anticipation, his aura skyrockets out from his body in the form of a purple and white pillar, and Erb returns in kind.

Inside the Epoch ship, Zeph nearly finishes off a Comet by punching through its armor and blasting a mac buster point-blank, erupting it from the inside, making it’s absorbing attack null. He then looks for Neva, and finds her still holding her own against a Comet. She made use of her mirror bow as best she could, but is still losing ground, forced to retreat into the mirror. Zeph follows her before the Comet can catch them. Inside, they encounter King and Trunks, tending to a now injured Oslo. After hearing how Oslo lost conscious from being shocked on the other side, Neva opens the mirror for them, landing them outside the range of the black veil, along with hawk’s mom. From there, Neva tells Zeph to join them, but he refuses because of the Comet’s danger. But she assures him she can handle it herself, revealing she had a technique in mind to even the fight. Thus, Zeph reluctantly tags along with King and Trunks, while t went back to the ship.

Back with Dreyfus’s group, he and his knights strike first, but Howzer quickly traps them in his Rising Tornado and Guila riddles it with her shot bomb, creating a new combined attack, Bomb Cyclone. However, Howzer stops to block an attack by Gilthunder who had avoided it. Due to that, their combined attack ceased. Jericho falls to the ground unconscious, but Helbram and Dreyfus remain standing – the latter being completely unharmed. Dreyfus fires off silken skewer at Guila, nearly killing her. But she was saved by Gowther who was nearby, splitting off from Meliodas and the others when they first saw Diane’s first Ground Gladius. This is the first time any of the holy knights had seen the goat sin of lust, but Dreyfus immediately challenges the sin, and he accepts.

Erb, recalling how Zeph handled the blob man before, begins to formulate a plan to deal with the enemy’s so-called immunity by throwing him about, rather than throwing punches. For a time, he has canceled Hex’s movements, however, Hex counters by manipulating his flexible body to form spikes, extending them outward, nearly skewering the Saiyan. Erb earns a scratch from his protrusions, but when he attempts to power up, he lost his ability to generate aura. Hex goes on the offensive and overpowers him, making use of his aura defense now disabled because of his power – lacing his spikes with his immunity and in turn, transferring his power to Erb when he scratched him. But just before he goes in for the kill, he gets whipped away by a flying spear and then bombarded by ki blasts. Erb shifts his gaze to meet Zeph, King, and Trunks. King and Trunks quickly left, more concerned with their friends elsewhere, but Zeph stays behind giving Erb another helping hand, just time for when Hex returns, furiously throwing energy orbs containing his immunity. They both dodged, and in a few short moments, Erb’s aura returns. he goddess

Neva continues to hit the Comet but to no avail, unable to break its armor. To further put herself on the edge, she cannot use her mirror’s reflective powers for fear of it using its absorption. Having no choice, Neva dips back into the mirror dimension to avoid a beam shot from it. With no one to interrupt her, she safely charges up to perform one of King kai’s signature techniques, the kaioken – increasing her ki output as well as her power and speed. She multiplies the effect by 3, opens a mirror with the Comet in view, and then launches forward with a kick, imprinting her feet on its armor. She proceeds to destroy the Comet, ending its life with a well-placed Kamehameha wave. Despite having won, the after-effects of using the kaioken cause her to go limp from the pain. Still, she manages to get in touch with BB through her earpiece to relay the good news.

Down on the ground, as Hex fights off the 2 Saiyans, he earns a notification of both Comets he sent to the ship has been destroyed. Now, fearing the enemy plans to take it over or obtain whatever valuable information they have, he sets the vessel to self-destruct.

Throughout the ship, an alarm blares, catching Neva’s and BB’s attention. Jav, still in the jumper, detects the self-destruct sequence counting down, and warns them via radio. But in a few short seconds, the epoch ships erupt in a ball of flames, and Jav nearly avoids the blast thanks to the jumper’s shield.

 

Episode 79 – A King’s Duty

Erb and Zeph face down the executive, but watch him suddenly laugh joyfully. Afraid to ask, Hex instead points up above, and the 2 fighters watch the ship their friends are on now destroyed. Enraged, they attack him, but they get caught in his immunity power, halting their powers, and nearly get impaled. But Erb finally takes his sword out and angrily slashes at him, cutting him wide open. His slash causes the blob man to gasp in pain and retreat, letting the 2 Saiyans regain their senses. Erb, having finally hit Hex with his sword, wondered why it worked. From there, Zeph studies the enemy again and notices a wound left behind by King’s weapon – a tiny cut on his side. Erb sees as the agent squirms around, and both concluded that magic was the only means to harm him, and the red fighter’s weapons – which he had thought would be ineffective against the blob man – turns out to have magic. Erb also recalls Hex was excited to fight someone like him, meaning his power was meant mainly to counter an aura user. 

Meanwhile, Gowther and Dreyfus had each other pinned – Dreyfus stabbed the goat sin through but Gowther used Nightmare Teller on him at the same time. The 2 stood in place for a minute, while the other holy knights watched, waiting for the outcome. In the end, Dreyfus snaps out from his illusion, and the Sin fell to the ground. However, suffering from mental strain, the grand holy knight fell to the ground, only to be picked up by Gilthunder and brought away from the fight. To take his place, Helbram steps up, fighting Guila and Howzer for a short time until Diane surprise attacks him. Still, he conjures an iceberg and stabs her in her stomach, and was about to finish her off until King arrives.

Trunks fly to Tya’s location and find her fighting a Comet. But before he chose to help, he watches her slowly but surely winning. Tya continues to bash away at the Machina with greater force than before, breaking off 2 more of its appendages. Just as it was about to strike her down, from her free hand she projects one more nunchuck – conjuring more than one for the first time – and finally defeats it. Taking a long breather from her victory, she is joined by Trunks who congratulates her.

           King thrashes Helbram like a rag doll, displaying his full strength and anger, unlike their last battle. But eventually, King demands him to revert to his original form, and the old man did, revealing his true self to be that of a fairy. Suddenly, Helbrams summons a large root from the ground and attacks King with strength on par with Dreyfus, and took advantage of his kindness by attacking Diane and the others. King makes it in time and takes the hit for them. Helbram, creating more roots, pummels King until Trunks returns, cutting them down. Tya reaches Diane, Guila, and Howzer, helping the holy knights defend the giant. While King recuperates, Trunks, now in his super Saiyan form, fights the fairy, Helbram, gaining the edge in both power and speed. However, the fairy simply brought out more roots, too many for Trunks to defend. But instead of attacking the Saiyan, Helbram unleashes them all upon the others. The fairy soon stops and gloats over what he did. But to his surprise, a green sphere encompasses the injured combatants. The fairy then notices King is back up, who took the time to gather his magical power to create his sacred treasure’s 8th form, Pollen Garden. Shocked by the amount of power the Fairy king is generating, the fairy attacks him, while Trunks takes the chance to parry. But King tells the Saiyan swordsman that he would be the one to finish his old friend off. And so, Trunks retreats down to the others and watches. The fairy soon finds himself back where he was, being beaten by the friend and king he loathes even after absorbing the powers of every holy knight connected to his Link. He is defeated upon receiving a single unsuspecting slash by King, and after uttering his real name, Harlequin, he is put to rest. Victorious, Harlequin returns to Diane and the others and was asked by Howzer regarding what their intentions were in coming to Liones. After King explains their situation, out of nowhere, Dreyfus flies in, nearly cutting of Harlequins' head. But Trunks saves him and pins him to the ground. With Dreyfus practically captured, they urge him to help them in rescuing Elizabeth and stopping both Hendrickson’s plan and Epoch from resurrecting the demon clan. With little choice, he accepts their truce, and soon after, Gowther – carried by Howzer - awakens to sound off their charge.

           Positioned between the palace and southern gate, Meliodas, now alone, heads to a nearby clash taking place, sensing one of the strongest holy knights and main conspirator, Hendrickson, to be there. If he can eliminate Hendrickson, then the battle will be won. As he gets closer, he sees him fighting a young man in gold armor, and dashes in to intervene. Earlier, Arthur and his companion were ambushed by Hendrickson and his men. The grand holy knight fights the king by himself and was about to set him ablaze with his Hellblaze Scream – a black and purple flame much like Meliodas’s enchant hellblaze. But Meliodas comes in with his full counter, rescuing Arthur and joining forces. The captain of the seven deadly sins and Hendrickson then trade blows, but just as Melidoas was gaining the upper hands, the holy knight calls for Vivian, who in turn, summons Gilthunder on the spot. Arthur helps the young captain up, and together, they fight Gilthunder and Hendrickson. But they are soon joined by 3 more fighters, Erb, Zeph and Hex, who coincidentally notice their presence and decide to join their respective forces. Erb and Zeph stuck by Meliodas and Arthur, while Hex retreats to Hendrickson and Gilthunder. To even the playing field, however, Hex brings out the last Comet he had and enters inside it through the cracks. Using his immunity powers on the Machina, he now made it his armor, protecting himself against both ki and magical attacks/weapons.

           

Episode 80 – Friendship

After Vivian sent Elizabeth and Bulb elsewhere, they arrive in the upper sections of the castle, waking up in the king’s chambers. They soon find the king himself, Bartra, still alive, but grievously ill and bedridden. Vivian is also present and continues to gloat at the princess’s powerlessness in helping her friends. Suddenly, outside the king’s room, where a detachment of Holy knights was put on guard, a single other knight manages to beat them and has come to request a meeting with the king. Slader, leader of the Roars of Dawn, had a run-in with Gowther earlier, before the goat of sin met up with Diane’s group. He attacks the sin under the assumption they had finally invaded Liones to overthrow it. But after hearing the slender young man questions him regarding if he had ever met the king since their banishment and about his thoughts of the Grand Masters, Slader had a change of heart and decided to go to the king himself, to know his side of everything. And much to his dismay, he soon figures the king he had been devoted to had been taken hostage under his watch. But when he attempts to open the king’s room, he stumbles upon a barrier protecting it, and no amount of force can open it. Still, Slader tries to brute force his way in, only to have his attacks reflected at him, and Vivian mocking his efforts. Bulb attempts to help, headbutting against the door only to be flung back by the magic’s effect. Yet, he persists under the pretense that he is indestructible.

In the southern region, Meliodas breaks off their standoff by attacking both Hendrickson and Gilthunder. The newly armored Hex charges to crush him, only to be knocked back by both Zeph and Erb. The 2 Saiyans take advantage of his bulky form, but their attacks remain ineffective and Erb’s sword barely scratches the thick armor. Arthur assists Meliodas by handling Hendrickson by himself, leaving Gilthunder to the captain. The blonde boy and the pink hair man clash their swords, but Gilthunder’s technique and speed allow him to gain the upper hand, later sundering down his Lightning King Iron Hammer. In response, Meliodas releases parts of his hidden power, forming the same black tattoo on his forehead back during the Viazel fight, and blocks the knight’s last strike with his bare hands. Everyone notices his sudden power-up, and Arthur, the most surprised of all was dumbfounded. Hendrickson enlightens him by explaining he had simply released his demonic power; he resumes their fight, soon setting Arthur ablaze with his Hellblaze. But coming to the young king’s rescue is his cloaked aid who had dealt with Hendricksons’s guards with minimal effort. After a single snap, the cloaked figure extinguishes the flames but is told by Arthur he wishes to still fight against the holy knight by himself.

           Erb and Zeph find themselves cornered by Hex with little power remaining, trying to come up with another plan of attack. But the enemy’s immunity combined with the strength, speed, and durability of a Comet, prove to be nearly impossible to overcome. What they needed now is Meliodas’s full counter – if they can get their ki attacks reflected by Meliodas’s magic, they believe it would be possible for them to defeat Hex in one go if their theory goes accordingly.

           As their battle rages on in the distance, some of the people scatter to avoid it, while others lay low, too frightened to move. But elsewhere, reaching closer to the fight, Margaret longs to be by Gilthunder’s side, loathing her weakness and for having him fight Meliodas, someone he idolizes as a child, and still does to this day. 

           Amid the chaos, Meliodas quickly finds himself fighting both Gilthunder and Hendrickson after Arthur sits on the ground defeated. Shortly after, Vivian appears, offering her magic support to the knights. The knights and the magicians then prepare one final attack, but then, the screaming voice of a woman catches their eyes. On top of a wall, Margaret yells out to Gilthunder, pleading him to stop. Regardless, all at once, they attacked Meliodas with their strongest moves. Meliodas preps his technique, 1000 Divine Cuts, but a stray shot from behind hits him, making him lose his focus and get hit by the others. Hex, noticing Meliodas was wide open, takes a cheap shot by firing a beam at the sin. Zeph and Erb watch as they helplessly see the captain fall to the ground. But before they could go and aid him, Hex gets in their way, making sure they couldn’t. Hendrickson soars at the now immobile dragon sin of wraith and readies to pierce him through. But in a surprising twist, Gilthunder gets in the grand master’s strike, cutting off his sword arm in the process. Hex was on the brink of a meltdown upon the betrayal, unable to understand why the knight switched sides. Even Erb and Zeph were lost in the dark, until, arriving at the scene, their eyes are drawn to Raix with Margaret in his arms, and a piece of the portable Black veil hanging from his other hand.

A second before, Meliodas was about to unleash his 1000 Divine Cuts but in Margaret’s direction, sensing a parasitic creature, barely invisible, hovering beside her, and knowing it was the one thing keeping Gilthunder under Hendrickson’s control. He attempts to kill it for the young knight’s sake. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find an opening due to Hex’s interference. But a stroke of luck appears in the form of Raix running towards them on foot. The 2 made eye contact, but Meliodas couldn’t let him know of his plan for fear the enemy will figure it out. All he could do is point his finger to Margaret, hoping Raix would get the message. Raix didn’t quite understand him, but in his path, he sees the girl, and as he drew closer, a slightly transparent figure illuminates itself due to the sunlight refracting against it. Without hesitation, he lets his battle instincts take over; quickly slicing the air in front of him, and killing the parasite clean through, shattering the chains binding Gilthunder to Vivian and setting him free.

With Raix’s help, Gilthunder finally breaks away from Hendrickson’s side and attacks him while Vivian remains stunned by his betrayal. She questions Meliodas how he knew of the parasite, and he reveals he and the young knight had a secret code they shared for whenever he was in trouble.

 

Episode 81 – United as one 

Hex, with Hendrickson soon out of the picture and Vivian acting idiotically over her lower’s betrayal, gets hits by Erb’s Kamehameha wave. Still, he takes it, boosting his immunity powers to bounce it off rather than absorb it. But jumping into the path of the rebounded beam, Zeph, carrying the immobile Meliodas, returns it with Full Counter, hitting Hex dead on and revealing the comet’s chest cavity and himself. Erb launches one more Kamehameha but this time Hex uses the Comet’s absorption and fires it. Melodias uses the last bit of strength he had to perform one more full-counter, but this time, Hex dodges, allowing it to pass by and head to Raix, Margaret, and the rest of the populace, intent on taking out the bystanders as revenge. But Erb, using instant transmission, gets in the energy balls path, just as he predicted, knowing the executive wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice and use the people around them to his favor. In anticipation, he stops it with his full strength and then uses the energy to form his newly created technique, Dragon’s Horn – the same move he defeated Nyx with. Hex, frightened by the attack, attempts to run away but is stopped by a large mirror suddenly appearing before his eyes. His moment of hesitation costs him as Erb impacts his Dragon’s Horn onto his back, sending him rocketing through the mirror, erupting in a ball of golden fire. The mirror closes just before the aftershock can escape. Zeph and Meliodas are soon joined by Raix and later Erb, all 3 of them seeing the jumper high above. Standing on the rear open hatch are Neva and BB, both safe.

After Hex set the ship to explode, BB already detected it and without thinking, she rushes to the exhausted kai with blinding speed, traversing through the tunnel the Comet made. When she was close enough, she erects a barrier, allowing them to survive the blast. They were then picked up by Jav and made their way down to the surface until they discovered they can make radio contact – thanks to Raix having taken out the portable black veil. When they were close enough to see them, on the ground, Neva spots Hex trying to escape and Erb holding the finishing move, thus, she gave him a hand.

At the same time upon Hex’s defeat, Gilthunder had finished off Hendrickson and returns to Meliodas’s and Margaret’s side. Afterward, Tya’s group – consisting of Diane, Harlequin, Trunks, Guila, carrying an unconscious Jericho on her back, follow by her little brother Zeal, Howzer, Gowther, and Dreyfus - arrive on the scene. Now, with a bigger group, including King Arthur himself, their next destination is finally the castle. Gilthunder believes they were keeping Elizabeth in the king’s chamber, the safest place he could think of. Zeph radios Neva’s group to stay in the air for the time being and remain hidden; she complies. But much to their dismay, Vivian returns and teleports them elsewhere. Before they could do anything, Vivian retreats to Liones, leaving them behind. But shockingly, the group also return to their original location, perplexing the female magician until she suddenly comes under attack by someone else teleporting her to different locations. Eventually, Vivian, tired and frustrated, returns before the group and discovers her perpetrator was Arthur’s cloaked companion. She traps the individual in a mini hurricane. But in a surprising twist, the cloak covering the figure peels away to reveal a woman dawn with a crimson pig tattoo on her neck. Meliodas immediately knew who she was and identifies her as the boar sin of Gluttony, Merlin – the strongest magician in all of Britannia, and Vivian’s master.

Merlin handles her apprentice with no trouble, and with a snap of her finger, she teleports Melioda’s and Erb’s group in front of the king’s chamber, saving them the trouble of getting to it. They are met by Slader and his Roars of Dawn who have been unable to penetrate the barrier. Erb hears Bulb on the other side of the door, as well as Elizabeth. He attempts to pry them free but their warnings of its effects stop him. Merlin explains the barrier Vivian place is Perfect Cube - a spell from the demon realm that can ward off any types of attacks. But with her ability, Absolute Cancel, she destroys the barrier, freeing the captives. With their friends back, the group looks to Dreyfus, the co-conspirator of this entire fiasco. Dreyfus defends himself by accusing the sins of attempting to overthrow the kingdom and killing his brother, Zaratras, the previous grandmaster; but it was Margaret who shares what she saw 10 years ago – Dreyfus and Hendrickson murdering Zaratras in cold blood, and pinning the murder on the 7 sins. The disgraced Holy Knight drops his weapon, surrendering himself. He ends his case after saying he wanted to be someone his son would be proud of – a grandmaster – but with his son dead, there was no point. Elizabeth, despite having seen her friends with wounds done by Dreyfus and Hendrickson, lets him know Griamore is alive, causing the strong will man to shed tears of joy.

Outside, Vivian sobs in defeat over losing Gilthunder and the entire plan she and Hendrickson worked so tirelessly for. Suddenly, she hears the holy knight’s voice and turns to see him in perfect health and far younger than he was minutes ago, with half of his body covered in a black tattoo.

 

Episode 82 – The Real Battle

           In the jumper, Neva continues to recover from the rebound effects of kaioken while BB and Jav organize their findings. But her attention shifts to a new unfamiliar energy signature and locates it inside her mirror. Looking through the glass, she spots a dark cloak figure holding who she believes to be Hex, reduced into a small ball of what is left of him, and opens a portal from within, fleeing under her watch. In the cockpit seat, Jav saw the jumper’s sensors detect an energy spike high above. He recognizes the measurements to be a slip space rupture.

           With Dreyfus now in custody and taken away by Howzer and 3 of the Roars of Dawn – Jillian, Hugo, and Weinheidt – Merlin takes Bartras to heal him of his illness, along with Arthur to Camelot. Meanwhile, Bulb returns to Erb, Zeph, Trunks, Tya, and Raix, until suddenly, the entire castle they were standing on gets demolished.

           Outside, after being nearly killed by Gilthunder, Hendrickson returns after injecting himself with the blood of the red demon, saving his own life and increasing his power to a point where he destroys the castle with a single sword swipe. Now, through a ring, he chants a spell that causes all of the new generation holy knights to go berserk, turning them monstrous demons.

           Everyone in Erb’s and Meliodas’s party made it through the collapse, however, they spot Jericho and Guila screaming in pain and the entire kingdom under siege by the now demonized knights. Jericho’s demonic power ran rampant, and she turns into a demon, attacking Diane first. Gowther attends to Guila, using his power to stabilize her mentality. As the chaos through the streets reaches their ears, they are soon met by Hendrickson, announcing he was the mastermind behind the demon outbreak. Trunks, the only remaining fighter in peak condition, confronts Hendrickson head-on. But an invisible force slams him downward, digging him into a crater. The others were in disbelief over what befell Trunks, and they bring their eyes upward to spot 2 individuals, a large muscular blue skin man, and a small girl with orange hair. Erb recognizes them both to be the ones who ambushed him before.

Vishnu and Moon had arrived not too long ago but knew their comrade, Hex, was defeated by the absence of his ship and machina troops. Vishnu had contacted him earlier of their arrival time and ordered him to wait for them before attacking the sins and the outworlders. But Hex began the assault prematurely, believing he had the upper hand regardless of their involvement. Now, Vishnu and Moon take it upon themselves to finish the job – to kill the outworlders and resurrect the demon clan. The blue man begins by eliminating the fighter who was after Hendrickson just now. Though much to his surprise, the fighter gets back up, and the moment he made eye contact with him, he sees him filled with rage. Trunks knew Vishnu to be the epoch agent he met during his time, and with all the power he had, driven by the despair of losing his home, he lets out an explosive attack, using one of his father’s signature move, Final Flash. He engulfs both agents in a violent torrent of energy and it roars through the sky and beyond. But his attack yielded no effect upon seeing Vishnu and Moon still alive, together hovering behind a translucent circular barrier. Vishnu, the one responsible for it, turns the shield into a weapon, projecting out an air pressure attack – Sky Wall - pushing Trunks down and knocking him out. Vishnu’s ability, atmospheric pressure, allows him to super compress gas molecules in the atmosphere to make solid objects and ignite powerful shockwaves from any direction. Erb, in his super Saiyan 2 form, launches at them with a dragon fist. Vishnu counters. Both of their attacks cancel one another out, but the blue man catches the red warrior with a shockwave attack from his fists - Mach fist. Erb guards himself with both arms but is overwhelmed, resulting in himself being launched across the kingdom and crashing elsewhere. The rest stay put, unsure of how to approach their new enemy. 

Vishnu and Moon drop down to Hendrickson, and the blue man informs him who they were - his reinforcements. From there, Hendrickson approaches the remaining sins, pressing them to hand over Elizabeth. Harlequin takes advantage of their lax state by surrounding the enemy with his sacred treasure. But before he could attack them, a sword from Helbram stops him. Hendrickson had revived Helbram earlier to deal solely with King. Meliodas and Gilthunder charge at the holy knight, but they stop when Vivian takes both Elizabeth and Margaret as a hostage. Then, like the others, Vishnu dealt with them without lifting a finger. At that point, Elizabeth finally gives him, allowing Hendrickson to take her away. But before they left, Vishnu spots an attack from above, blocking a dropkick strong enough to make him wince. To his surprise, however, the one who attacks him is the Beta unit he had thought was destroyed back on the world Nyx worked on. BB was able to find blueprints and data regarding herself from the Epoch ship, though everything regarding her assault mode was missing. Still, she takes it upon herself to fight Vishnu using the armaments she was able to steal from the ship. The executive agent plans to deal with her alone, and orders Moon to follow Hendrickson in the meantime. She did so, and both she and the holy knight with Elizabeth in tow, escape.

Vishnu, hoping to disable the Beta, launches his sky walls at her, but she dodges it, seeing his attacks as clear as days thanks to her built-in sensors. The agent then gets bombarded by explosions and spots one of the Saiyans with the blue arms joining in. Zeph joins BB side and chose the fight from a distance and providing cover for her with smoke clouds. BB uses it her advantage, making it difficult for Vishnu to pinpoint both of them. But the agent takes to the skies, and flings a barrage at their vicinity, covering the entire area but also making more smoke. Then, before he could react, he finds himself inside the barrel of a cannon, materializing all around him, and meets face to face with an energy beam. BB, using her abilities to reproduce any weapon she scans, conjures up the epoch ship’s main cannon on the spot, and fires point-blank at Vishnu, sending him towards outside of the kingdom. Understanding full well her attack didn’t kill him, she still gives chase, and Zeph follows, both hoping to at least give the others time to retreat and recover. 

 

Episode 83 – The price for love

After BB and Zeph left, Jav lands the cloaked jumper down to the others and Neva begins bringing the others inside, also managing to bring back an unconscious Erb. She also brought Gilthunder, Meliodas, and Margaret, while King and Diane handle the demon outbreak outside. Amidst the chaos, however, she finds Bulb asleep with a bump on his head - struck on the head by a piece of debris – and is in no condition to retrieve the senzu pouch from his dimensional pocket. Nevertheless, Raix plans to chase after Hendrickson to save Elizabeth. Neva, somewhat back to normal, chose to tag along with him, whereas Tya wishes to stay behind to take care of Jav, Trunks, and Erb, and help out with the demon outbreak. Together, the kai and Raix teleport away. But by then, Meliodas recovers, missing his chance to join the other 2, but quickly leaves the jumper. But he soon met up with Ban with Hawk behind him and questions Ban’s past whereabouts.

Earlier in the battle, after Ban split off from Meliodas and headed for the castle under the pretense of finding the princess, he instead went in search for an item called the horn of Cernunnos; a relic that can allow the user to communicate with the long-gone goddess clan – foils to the demon clan. He intends to revive his beloved Elaine, a fairy girl, and sister to Harlequin. After finding the secret passageway that leads to the relic, he arrives at a dark room where a large horn hovers – his prize. But much to his shock, he stumbles upon Hawk and learns of the situation from him. He then proceeds to the relic, stating his wish. For a while, it was unresponsive, but a few moments later, he hears the voice of the goddess clan, informing him they can grant him his wish, but under the condition that he murder Meliodas. 

In the present time, with the kingdom running rampant with demons and Meliodas weakened, Ban attempts to kill him outright, in spite of Hawk protesting against his action.

Hendrickson and Moon land down in what remains of the magical research facility and make their way to retrieve the handle. Elizabeth follows them for a bit, but when they weren’t looking, she finds a knife among the rubble and grabs their attention by threatening her own life – with her gone, they wouldn’t be able to perform their ritual. But in a flash, Moon takes the weapon away, only to then slap her out of spite. Still, Elizabeth stands up with a defiant stare, causing Moon to ponder the thought of removing her limbs to make carrying her easier. Then, a shield erects around Elizabeth, protecting her from Moon’s slashes. Hendrickson spots a figure above and it is Griamore, using his perfect shell on Elizabeth. Before Moon could respond, she also gets trapped in his Perfect Shell. He attempts the same on Hendrickson, but the tainted knight, with his immense speed, gets behind him and tries to decapitate him. Griamore counters using Wall over his hand, blocking his strike. But coming to the young knight’s side, Dreyfus jumps in, assisting his son in fighting his now sworn enemy. Sadly, Moon breaks out of the Perfect Shell, shocking Griamore who boasts his wall can withstand a meteor strike. Moon rushes to Hendrickson's side to help him, but out of nowhere, Neva teleports by her, kicking into the rubble. Neva and Raix spot Dreyfus who tells them to he and his son would deal with Hendrickson. The 2 fighters pursue her, leaving Elizabeth in their care.

           In the grass plane area outside of the kingdom, BB and Zeph, despite their numerous attacks, had left little to no damage on Vishnu due to his unique barrier protecting him. To further worsen their situation, Zeph’s energy reserve had started to run low, and BB’s large array of weapons became ineffective.

           Ban and Meliodas continue to fight one another despite the chaos around them, but out of the blue, Ban asks if he is from the demon clan. Yet, the fox sin retracts his inquiry, knowing without a doubt he is, and then reveals his intentions. The captain expresses his sympathy to his cause, believing he would do the same in his shoes. Ban was about to deal the finishing blow after hearing what he thought was his captain’s consent. But Tya stops him, swinging her nunchucks at him with enough force to cleave him in 2. At that point, she yells at Ban for trying to murder his friend, and earns a retort back from him, noting it wasn’t any of her business. Meliodas stops her from engaging, but thanks her for doing what she did – in reality, he left himself open to deal a surprise attack of his own. Now, Meliodas states he needs to save the princess first before he can die, or else she will sacrifice herself rather than be used. Ban’s mind remains undeterred until Hawk brings up the possibility that the goddess will betray him rather than grant him his wish if the deed is done. He replies with his question; what should he do next – continue living in the world he views as hell? Suddenly, Erb joins the talk, staggering up to them. He was able to overhear their loud conversations and shares Ban’s point of view – waking up to an unknown life only to have half of yourself gone. He understands Ban needed the person, Elaine, to make him whole, just like he needed his memories; there is never a time he wanted to get his other half back. Yet, despite only having traveled for less than 2 months, slowly but surely, as he spends time with those around him in earnest, the loneliness gradually fades away, and recently, he had been having dreams now. He would never betray their trust for his gain, even if it meant he can return to his old life. With the tension between the group more or less settled, Meliodas orders Ban as captain of the seven deadly sins to help him save the kingdom and Elizabeth. He reluctantly obeys him, and Meliodas finally goes after the princess at last. Hawk helps by carrying him to where he smells her. Ban walks past 2 Saiyan fighters, not saying a word to them. Erb, not having recovered fully, intends to join up with Zeph and BB, hearing of them working together from Jav. Tya was about to stop him, but Erb didn’t listen and instead tells her to help deal with the demon outbreak.

           Neva and Raix went toe to toe against Moon and her sword skills and are pulling ahead of the fight. The agent produces a crescent shape beam, aiming to cut them in 2. But Neva reflects it, and although Moon dodges it, Raix reaches her and quickly disarms her. However, a beam strikes from the back where they left Elizabeth to make them look, and the goddess fears the worst.

           Up above, Dreyfus prepared his strongest technique, Starbreaker, while Griamore has Hendrickson trap in his Perfect Shell. With Hendrickson unable to dodge, Dreyfus unleashes his attack. But upon firing, the knight slips on a loose piece of debris, causing him to accidentally redirect it in Elizabeth’s direction, shattering the perfect shell around her and grazing the right side of her midsection. She fell to the ground and went into shock. While Griamore mourns over the tragedy that had befallen her, Hendrickson breaks out and strikes him with an elbow blow, putting him out cold. He then dealt with Dreyfus, using his magic ability, Acid, disintegrating him into dust.

 

Episode 84 – A Real Demon

At the battle sight against Vishnu, Zeph and BB settle into their roles, switching between long-range to short-range and tagging in and out against the agent. Their improvised teamwork put Vishnu on the defensive, and have finally begun to make progress in wearing him down. But all of their efforts were erased upon Vishnu unleashing a smaller but deadlier version of his attack – Air Pierce. Through his fingers, an invisible stream of highly compressed air shots out and pierces through Zeph’s barrier, wounding him in several places. BB was unable to follow its speed, but she continues to press on covering her foe in a minefield of ki blasts, erupting all at once. She made use of the distraction to get her friend, but several Air Pierce shoot out from the smoke, and one of them hits her in the leg, causing her to fall. Vishnu, predicting she would go after her companion, leaps out and prepares a Mach Fist to crush the Beta. But roaring in from Liones, Erb makes it in time, enveloping the enemy in his dragon fist. The dragon hybrid regroups with BB and the now comatose Zeph and tells the android to return to the castle with him. However, Vishnu heard him, and in an attempt to stop them from fleeing, he creates a large barrier equal in size to the kingdom around them in the shape of a cube. BB fires at one of the walls but watches it bounce off. Nowhere to run, BB carries Zeph and stays as far as she can, while Erb charges at Vishnu. But within a minute of combat, the dragon hybrid finds himself losing upon the sheer might of the executive. He manages to dodge an Air Pierce and ran in to deal with another dragon fist. But the agent’s aim was at BB and Zeph, and Erb peeks at them, seeing the deadly stream near their location. To worsen his dilemma, he sees his Sky Wall above and several Air Pierces – whether he dodges it or not, or save his friends, he will die as a result. Even with instant transmission, he wouldn’t be fast enough to get them out of harm’s way. As time grew slower from his view, his inability to escape this predicament and indecisiveness sets in, making him wish he can be in 3 places at once – take the hit for his friends, take the hits on the spot, and attack Vishnu. Suddenly, his instincts take over, and he felt himself splitting apart. From Vishnu’s point of view, he sees a mirage of his opponent, yet his attacks hit him, turning him to a gold cloud of dust. But to his bewilderment, he sees another Erb reappear in front of his friends, kicking them out of the way and taking the hit, only to then vanish into a cloud-like before. Suddenly, he felt being punched in the gut, and without a shadow of a doubt, he finds another Erb warping in with a solid strike. The dragon Saiyan, only having an inkling of what just happened, looks back just in time to see his body doubles disappear. BB saw the phenomena as well, and was able to deduce the one who attacked Vishnu is the real one by his energy signature – the other 2 exhibited the same but at lower levels. Vishnu returns and tries to again, firing several Sky Piercers and Sky Walls this time. Erb quickly grasps the same feeling he just felt, replicating it once more, and to his surprise, he conjures out of his body 4 more copies of himself, 3 of which parried the attacks while he and another charge at the executive. With his new move, he easily overwhelms Vishnu through sheer numbers. The agent could tell which were copies by their aura, but also senses their physical strength and speed are identical to the original. Still, when pushed into a corner, Vishnu unleashes a devastating wide range attack through the vents in his arms, flattening the entire area within his cube prison and turning it into a large deep pit, catching both Erb and the others in it.

           At the bottom of the research facility, after sensing Elizabeth’s life in peril, Neva tries to teleport to her, but Moon intervenes with another crescent beam, revealing she didn’t need her weapon to unleash the attack. Raix renders aid by grabbing the executive’s attention, getting into a fistfight with her. Sadly, because his opponent is a girl, he instinctively held back from dishing out fatal blows.

Hawk and Meliodas charge into the ruined building to find the remains of Dreyfus on the ground as well as Hendrickson looming over it. Behind him lies Elizabeth severely wounded. Hendrickson greets the captain of the seven deadly sins, and despite his humiliating defeat from earlier, with his new demonic powers, he believes he is on equal footing with him. But surprisingly, Meliodas passes him and retrieves Elizabeth. Before the knight would react, the dragon sin passes him again, handing her over to hawk. Hendrickson then attacks; Meliodas cuts his arm off, and then the 2 go toe to toe. But in an underhanded tactic, using his severed arm, Hendrickson fires a blast at the fleeing Hawk, only to have it blocked by a new party. Diane, King, Gowther, and Ban reach the captain’s side and send the mastermind down to the bottom of the facility near where the outworlders are. Hendrickson, surprised to find the sin’s already here despite the demon rampage, senses the chaos he had caused had been quelled. Earlier, the other sins with the help of Trunks and Tya – both healed up thanks to Ban swiping the super recovery orbs back in Viazel - were able to save Jericho and the other new-generation holy knights by removing the demon seed embedded in them. The other Holy Knights have begun to converge on their location, intending to stop Hendrickson. The seven deadly sins, Trunks and Tya, now joined by Raix and Neva, begin their bout against Moon and Hendrickson. 

Moon combats the outworlders, but they prove too much for her. She watched her client being beaten so easily by the seven deadly sins, and fearing she would face the same fate; if she remains in her current form. She taps her finger on her chest where a holographic circle shows and presses it. When it vanishes, her outfit emits an intense light, and her body erupts, producing purple, blue and black flames, unveiling her true form. Neva, Raix, Trunks, and Tya are unable to get close to her, but Neva can sense her powers changing to that of something close to Hendrickson’s. Raix’s stomach begins to act up again, but more strongly than before. Moon emerges out of the fire with a more enhanced appearance - her hands now large bestial claws, her legs taking the shape of a goat’s leg, her hair now wild and fiery, and her entire body covered in a dark purple fur. She proclaims herself to be a true demon but from another world, and exhibits her powers to be far greater than what Hendrickson showed, reaching the same power level as a Super Saiyan 2. 

Emerging from the earth, the sins who had dug Hendrickson into the earth and followed after him, are blown back out. Stepping out from the rubble is Hendrickson himself, with a new form due to taking in the blood of a dead grey demon deep below, now looking more like his normal self, except for horns and wings sprouting off from his body, and now having light purple pigment skin.

 

Episode 85 – New Power Arising

BB and Zeph survived Vishnu’s last attack thanks to their combined shield strength – the cyborg regaining consciousness in the nick of time. They find themselves in a large pit surrounded by the man-made cliffs with a single stone column still standing. Vishnu stands at the top of the lone column. BB, still undergoing self-repairs, informs Zeph the enemy still lingers above, most likely waiting for them to come out. But the barrier that held them captive is now gone – meaning they can leave. Zeph, confessing he was in no shape to help, asked for Erb’s whereabouts. BB locates him but measures his power level to be even lower than last time.

Erb, barely awake, but still among the living, attempts to get on his feet but discovers his right arm is broken along with several ribs and several other bones all over his body. Yet, he wasn’t bothered by the pain and the only thought on his mind was trying to recall where he had felt this way before – a strong sense of nostalgia. Not long later, he felt lightheaded and his vision grows darker until a woman’s voice tells him to wake up.

Above the pit, Vishnu recovers after pulling off his wide range attack, Sky Fall, pushing all of the particles in the air down to the ground, adding as much weight as he could. However, the technique also made him lose his focus on the barrier and had strain his arms. He then senses Moon’s power rising and knew she released her protocols - a device given to all executive agents as a means to forcibly inhibit parts of their powers and can take different shapes; clothes, choker, armband, etc. It was a means to make executive stronger, though in this case, it proved to be a hindrance. Suddenly, he spots Erb down below and went on to deal the finishing blow, not wanting to underestimate his opponent anymore. He launches one air pierce at him and nearly lands his mark. But abruptly, the man vanishes before his eyes, and lost track of him, until he felt something kicking him from behind, causing him to crash below. He swiftly recovers and turns his gaze to where he used to be, but found nothing. After a quick survey, he finally locates the golden fighter standing upright, carrying his greatsword with his good arm. Suddenly, as though the golden man was someone different, Vishnu finds himself guarding for his life as his foe teleports around him, swinging his sword with the intent to kill, and displaying a style of martial arts he has yet to see from him. In response, he performs Sky Fall once more, but Erb warps by him with his sword and nearly cuts him in 2. Vishnu saves himself by creating a solid wall of air by his waist, protecting him from being cut, though he still received damage. As the fight increasingly becomes one-sided, Vishnu recalls him fighting this way when they first met – killing his team members with an efficiency of someone with years of experience – and he begins to fear him as he can see his own imminent death.

Neva, Trunks, Tya, and Raix kept Moon at bay, while the sins fight the powerful Hendrickson. Soon, other holy knights, including Gilthunder and Guila, decide to join in, and upon seeing Moon and Hendrickson, they strike at them with full force. But their attacks did nothing, only to cause the demons to become annoyed. In retaliation, Moon fires a volley of energy orbs, but Neva uses her mirror to reflect them elsewhere. Raix, Tya, and Trunks challenge her in close combat. Moon catches Trunk’s sword and kicks him in the gut, then dodges Tya’s nunchucks, deeming her weapon to be the deadliest of the 3, yet beats her down to the ground. Raix, on the other hand, proves to be the nimblest of them all, and for a time his kicks have gradually started to wear her down. Still, she left a large slash wound across his chest and proceeds to cut him as a means to make him suffer. Neva, horrified to see Raix being mutilated, chose to forsake her wellbeing and use Kaioken once more, reaching up to 4 times. Her dramatic increase allows her to easily overpower Moon in seconds, and almost finished her off with a Kamehameha. However, the strain of the technique caught up to her, putting a stop in her blast, and giving Moon ample time to deploy a lightning base magical attack, set to tortured any who touch it to death before being incinerated by the high voltage. Moon throws it at the now defenseless Neva, knowing if she moved, the others and the kingdom behind her would pay the price. Tya, getting back up, sees the energy ball being formed and Neva about to take it head-on. Suddenly, she hears Raix yelling at her to take the kai and then sees him rushing into her view. Neva, despite being unable to move, chose to stand her ground, but Raix steps in front of her, and suddenly felt being carried. Tya ran to her side and carries her as far as she can and then summons her astral weapon to shield themselves. Neva watches helplessly as Raix’s body is engulfed by the blast. 

After the explosion ceased, the 2 girls spot Raix still standing but unconscious, and his body covered in cuts and cinders. Neva, seeing the man who she thought of till now to be nothing but a perverted man-child, saved her more than twice now, nearly sets off her emotions into a frenzy, evident upon the color of her left eye turning from their normal blue color to blood red. Tya notices her eyes changing, but they suddenly revert to normal and notes her once distraught face to be now that of bewilderment. She then sees Raix’s body emitting electric sparks. Neva’s sanity returns upon detecting Raix’s energy increasing and startlingly discovers his body is generating mana – magical power. In a shocking display, the possessed man screams out, outpouring black and yellow lightning while remaining a Super Saiyan. The agent takes to the sky, firing down more of her lightning attacks. But Raix survives with no harm and retaliates by roaring out a black and gold lightning blast from out his mouth, enveloping her whole. In the aftermath, Moon falls to the ground, defeated, and Raix finally collapses. 

At the same time, some of the sins and the holy knights were rendered beaten by the hands of Hendrickson’s attack, Dark Nebula. But Hendrickson witnesses the black and gold energy beam from afar, unable to believe someone was able to produce such power – eclipsing that of anything he ever felt. Then, from the corner of his eyes, he sees Meliodas still up, protecting Elizabeth. Given a chance to finally finish off the man who ruined his plans, he channels his magical power to produce one final attack, Dead End, and hurdles it at Meliodas. But Hawk gets in the path of the energy blast taking it head-on, saving him, falling soon after, blackened as a result. Elizabeth approaches Hawk’s still body, hoping he was still alive. When she finds him unresponsive, she drowns in sorrow, but at the same time awakens her hidden powers, generating a golden pillar of light from her body, pushing Hendrickson back. The demon knight knew the powers she is showing is her gift as an apostle of the goddesses; the main reason why he needed her for his plan - her powers can help unseal the coffin of eternal darkness. The effects of the light spread across the kingdom, and Neva along with everyone else injured, have been healed to full health, including Raix, who awakens in tip-top form.

 

Episode 86 - Mission Success

Outside of the Kingdom, Erb, in his dazed mindset, continues to miraculously put Vishnu on the edge, and the agent, despite his defenses, is unable to hold out, let alone keep his opponent far enough for him to release his protocol. But just as Vishnu was on the verge of being cut in half, the pillar of light from Elizabeth’s awakening catches his eyes, and Erb’s sword stops mere inches away from his head. Erb, along with his friends, were affected by Elizabeth’s power, and are restored to full health, brimming with power. Because of this, the dragon hybrid regains his senses, reverting to his normal self. Erb then realizes he was about to kill an enemy without even knowing, and backs off. Vishnu did the same, though out of precaution, yet, now takes the brief opening the golden fighter gave to unlock his protocols. But then a sudden voice from his head, a young woman, tells him otherwise. He knew who she was, yet he is startled to know she is even present in this world. After being given the order to retrieve Moon and retreat to the ship, he begins to shake violently from pure rage, unable to comprehend why she was telling him to leave a potential threat alone. But refusing her orders was equal to that of an execution, and so, Vishnu opens a portal and walks through. Erb, confused by what happens, is approached by Zeph and BB, both healed, asking what happened. He had no answer to give them.

Elsewhere, Tya and Neva tend to Raix and Trunks shortly comes up later. But Moon returns, still alive but missing half of her body. Furious, she charges one last blast as a means to take them out along with herself. But a portal opens up and Vishnu walks out, relaying his orders to her. But she refuses and almost sets off her attack until her superior knocks her cold. From there, he leaves through the black portal with his companion. Hendrickson, now alone, is soon defeated by Meliodas unleashing another technique, Revenge Counter, combining the might of the seven deadly sins and the holy knights into one, concluding their battle.

Far off in the distance, a woman wearing a black cloak stands because of the half-ruined kingdom, and in her hand, she holds Meliodas’s sword handle. Responsible for both rescuing Hex, ordering Vishnu’s retreat, as well as being the one heading their mission in resurrecting the demon clan, the woman waits for her employer’s arrival so to finally complete their task. As a gust of wind passes by, appearing out of the blue by her side is Dreyfus with a demon tattoo on his forehead – the true mastermind and puppeteer behind the events that had unfolded. After faking his death by Hendrickson’s hand, he went into hiding while holding on to the blood-soaked cloth, soaked with Elizabeth’s blood and with it her goddess powers. His misfire was also staged, a means to get her blood for the sake of the ritual. He thanks the mysterious lady for upholding their side of the deal – having her forces go along with Hendrickson’s plan under the pretense of helping him slay the demons. With everything they need, Dreyfus can finally resurrect his demon brethren’s and take over the world for themselves. At the same time, Epoch will have finished their end of the deal - to free a certain group of demons known as the Ten Commandments, in exchange for a certain piece of knowledge. She hands the fragment over the Dreyfus, and although he is anxious to set them free, he needs time and somewhere secluded to perform the ritual while the sins and the other outworlders are busy celebrating their false victory. Dreyfus also admits he needs to find Hendrickson for one last task, sensing him to still be alive despite the massive attack Meliodas dealt, but just barely. With nothing more to do until the ten commandments are released, the woman leaves through a portal and back to her vessel.

           After Hendrickson was defeated, and the battle won, Meliodas returns to Elizabeth's side, and Merlin soon appears with King Bartra, now completely healthy. All of the holy knights who are present, kneel before him, asking for his forgiveness but also wanting his harshest punishment for their misdeeds. But Bartra instead makes them continue to work as knights for the sake of protecting the kingdom from now on. Afterward, the seven deadly sins, along with Elizabeth, Neva, Raix, Tya, and Trunks gather around Hawk’s body. Ban and Meliodas, saddened by his passing, share their regrets – Ban feeling guilty for saying he wasn’t his friend, and Meliodas not having a companion anymore to take care of the Boar’s Hat with him. But in a stroke of good fortune, Hawk reveals himself to be alive, hidden underneath the ash, but his body shrunken down as a result. The outworlders were nearby to witness the miracle, and they all happily cheered for Hawk’s survival. 

           The next day, the entire kingdom was undergoing reconstruction and peace had returned to the streets. Erb and the others, using what little knowledge they had relating to construction, had put themselves to work, though with Erb’s newest technique, the mirage step – capable of creating up to 6 clones of himself - their pace had dramatically increased. 

Meanwhile, Raix and Neva venture off to visit Elizabeth and Meliodas back in the castle. Raix carries a bouquet for the princess. Neva assumes he wishes to give it to her as his way to make him appear more attractive to her. But Raix tells her it is a simple get-well gift and he had no interest in the princess – not wanting to ruin the romance blossoming between her and Meliodas. His genuine response made Neva think she had misjudged him and is more mature than she presumed. But when they arrive at the castle gate, they encounter Merlin with Princess Margaret, and the kai sees the same old love-struck Saiyan she despises. But with Merlin there, Neva inquires on her search for Meliodas’s handle. To her dismay, she has yet to find it even after using a location spell to search for it under the rubble of her old home. Soon after, they see Meliodas and Elizabeth walking out the door, and Raix finally gets to pawn off his flowers to Elizabeth.

           Later on, Jav went looking around the city with a large wagon filled with undamaged parts from machinas he found, hoping to get more data regarding who they were facing, as well as using their parts for his personal project. After finding a sufficient number along with sections belonging to comets, he secludes himself in an abandoned area of the kingdom and takes out the capsule he received from Bulma, using it to open up his workshop. He then begins tinkering away with the machinas, not giving up hope in getting Lilith’s back.

           As a few days passed by and the kingdom is on its way to restore, Erb, with the help of Zeph, Tya, and BB, were midway to finishing a small building. With the festival beginning tonight, the streets became livelier than normal, and the outworlders took notice. While Erb continues to add the finishing touches to the house, the others take the time to view things from a calm perspective. Close by, they see Harlequin with Diane – shrunken down thanks to an item given by Merlin. Zeph notes that Raix was right about the 2 of them being a couple. BB suddenly brings up what love meant, seeing examples from both the 2 sins passing by and from Meliodas and Elizabeth. Tya is the one who answers her, pointing out the bond they share was made through trust and devotion to one another – simply wanting to be by each other side no matter what gets in their way. BB was satisfied by her answer and expresses she felt that way to all of them, earning herself a big hug from Tya. But BB suddenly points out a familiar girl approaching Erb, and Zeph notices.

           As the red man places the last brick on a wall, his mind wanders to his fight with Vishnu - despite being alive, and the enemy retreated, he didn’t feel like he had won. Mainly due to his inability to recall how he ended up putting his foe at the brink of defeat is what scared him, but thankfully, the battle ended when it did. His train of thought soon cuts short upon hearing a girl calling out his name, and he turns around to meet Morgan again. She had heard Liones was saved by the seven deadly sins alongside a group of outlanders and rushed over to see what had happened and if she can help. But by the time she arrived, the kingdom looked the same if not, better than it did the last time she came. This time, Erb points out he still has the pendant she gave him and kept it safe. She thanks him for his effort in both keeping the item safe and saving the kingdom as well. Morgan soon leaves, but Erb asks if she plans to set up her shop in town. She replies she would not and is, in fact, heading to the next kingdom to conduct some business. But she hopes to meet him again one day under better circumstances.

 

Episode 87 – Who is she

           In the epoch space station, Vishnu’s ship had just returned and he disembarks with Hex, contained inside a glass capsule filled with a liquid that helps him heal his body. Moon is left behind, still recovering from her injuries. On the day they were defeated, Hex was brought back to Vishnu’s ship, but had no idea how he survived or how he arrived at where he was. Vishnu conjectured the woman he spoke to may have been responsible for saving his life, but to this day he has yet to understand why she left the outworlders alone rather than killing them. As they walk through the docks to meet the Overseer, they instead meet Yagar walking towards them, but this time he solely came to see them. Knowing they have failed to kill the outworlders themselves, Vishnu points out he was ordered to retreat by the woman who is considered to be on par with a director. Still the overseer rebuttals with the fact that she is an unofficial affiliate of Epoch, and that he disobeyed his primary directive. But Vishnu fights back, letting him know their mission was to resurrect the demon clan, and from what he heard last time he spoke with her, the mission was essentially complete. Still, if he wishes him to kill the outworlders, then he will gladly do it himself. However, Yagar chose to not give the executive that chance, and instead plans to assign a group specialized in hunting down other power users to finish the job – the Nova Faction. He then reassigns Vishnu’s team and Hex to a different mission that is about to reach its next phase, in addition to adding Nyx to their party, who has made a full recovery not too long ago. 

           At the end of the day, Erb and the others gather at the Boar’s Hat where they plan to spend their last night on this world with their newfound friends. Outside, Neva, Tya, and BB share a drink, though the android was more interested in the food cooked by Ban. The conversation starts with them recounting the many close calls they escaped from and Neva professes some of them were thanks to Raix’s intervention. From there Tya questions her about the condition she had, regarding her eye color changing when she thought Raix had died. But the goddess only tells her it was due to her other part aside being a kai, and gave nothing else. She returns an inquiry of her own to Tya about her brother, wanting to know more about his character. The Saiyan girl tells her much of what she already had guessed but hears he only ever gets serious in a fight if a girl he likes is involved. Still, she adds on that he would never fight a girl seriously either, but Neva heard Trunks telling her Raix had fought against the sea-green hair girl before and was rather pushing strongly at the time. There, BB reveals the agents they are refereeing to are named Nyx, knowing so from the data stash they acquired. Suddenly, Raix himself pops into their chat from behind, scaring Neva and Tya. His sister restates parts of what she just said, but in a demeaning tone, which Neva was thankful for – not wanting to show weakness to him. But she then asked him if he fought the green girl himself, yet she and the other girls received a perplexing stare from him. He then laughs and goes on to explain. At first, he was put off by the agent’s looks, thinking he was fighting a woman, evident by her voluptuous figure. But upon a quick sniff of the person’s odor, he discovers she was a man, thus he treated him as such. After he was done, both Neva and Tya return skeptic glances, but BB tells them Raix is only half correct, stating the gender of the agent they are speaking of is both male and female, having both reproductive organs. Her words cause all of them to widen their eyes out of shock.

           Inside, Erb, Zeph, Jav, Trunks, and Bulb sat together by the table counter, enjoying their drinks – Jav being the only one with orange juice. Jav informed the others he had finished organizing the data they acquired and learned everything he could from the ship’s navigation logs – where it’s been and when. He hopes it will lead them to the location where Lilith’s mind could be. Erb believes they should continue on their journey, but as a means to encounter Epoch intentionally so, they can acquire a ship and find Lilith. Zeph agrees with him but notes if they wait for the enemy to come to them, they won’t survive; they were lucky to have defeated the machina army and the agent's thanks to Meliodas and Elizabeth. He predicts they will bring a bigger army or more powerful combatants; after surviving 2 assaults, the enemy now knows what they are capable of and will have countermeasures against them. In the end, staying on the move is their best play, and pray epoch won’t find their friend. Trunks then add his own words in, suggesting they needed to get stronger first if they plan to fight against people such as the fedora hat-wearing man or the agents from before. They are soon joined by Meliodas who had been eavesdropping on their talks from behind the counter and informs them they should keep moving, make it harder for the enemy to find them, and at the same time, they should find and exploit whatever weakness they can get from them. Trunks reply with a question, regarding how do they plan to fight them if they leave, but the captain eases his worry and lets them know they can take care of themselves. The little captain then wishes to give them a toast for their help, handing them more pints of beer – another cup of orange juice to Jav. Suddenly, Raix barges into the inn and rushes to the others with news about the green hair girl being an actual girl. He earns blank stares from them, but then ask Jav for his holopad – also containing the same data. He reluctantly hands it over, and after a few swipes of his finger, Raix finds her – the executive agent, Nyx. Erb, upon studying her facial features, feels as though he had seen her from somewhere. Then it hits him, the faceless blue hair woman he saw – she and that woman seem to match. With Gowther nearby, he rushes to him, asking for his help once more. Gowther looks to Melidoas for confirmation and after a quick nod from him, the goat sin uses his invasion and helps picture the girl only with Nyx’s face on. After a few seconds and alterations, Erb was able to picture her and felt a part of himself having been returned - love at first sight. He then earns stares from his friends and realizes he had been crying.

           The next morning, with minutes to go before the wristgate activates, the outworlders are met by the Meliodas, Diane, Merlin, Hawk, and Elizabeth, wishing them safe travels to the next world. Ban and King were the only sins absent at the time, both taking off earlier in the morning for somewhere else. Within minutes to go, Merlin hands a magical item for them, as thanks for allowing her to experiment on them for research purposes, though the others felt she had tricked them by leaving out certain conditions. She hands a bottle full of pills that can change the user’s appearance to that of a human upon being swallowed; however, she states its effect only last for half an hour and is not considered polymorphism but rather an illusion – body features such as tails and ears become invisible. Erb thanks her for the gift and plans to make full use of them. Soon, the wristgate activates, and just before they disembark, Raix wishes both Meliodas and Elizabeth a fortunate future together.

Far from Liones, where a bright light shines from the depth of a crevice, Hendrickson, still alive and with the coffin of eternal darkness in hand, performs the ritual to release the demon clan. Hidden in the darkness, Dreyfus and the black-cloaked woman watch as the seal tears open. Dreyfus retreats to avoid the power backlash being thrown out from the ruptured space – a failsafe made by the goddess clan. But the woman stays, deflecting them away with just her aura wrapped around her body. Soon, her hood flies off, revealing her orange flowing hair and pale skin. Soon, the ritual was done, and Dreyfus returns, impressed to see the woman he knows as Morgan remains unharmed from being bombarded by the powers of the goddess. Morgan, the same merchant girl who befriended Erb, had been monitoring him and the others using the item she gave him – the gem. She also fed Hex their location and had planned on fighting them herself. But upon seeing Erb's battle against Vishnu, she became entranced – his killer presence combined with his methodical and efficient fighting styles, was like a breath of fresh air for her. She was able to gauge his battle potential to be something that had to be nurtured, thus she wishes to let him go, hoping the next time they meet, he will have fully embraced that part of him – and be a worthy challenge for herself. As of recently, she lost track of the gem's signal along with the young man's presence, surmising he had left the planet by some unknown means. But the woman didn't care, and as the light dims, she meets 10 figures varying in size and shape and introduces herself to the ones known as the ten commandments, commencing the next stage of Epoch's plan.