"He said that he wanted me to survive until we reach his castle, so he can kill me personally," R.D. explained, thinking back on the conversation after the battle, "And that we'd see if history would truly be bound to repeat itself."

"The first time we met was on Kattelox," R.D. said, "Before anyone knew who he was. After that, I fought him one-on-one a few days ago at the Pillar of Dawn in Japan, and won. Which, sadly, released him from Maya's body and made him that much stronger. And then just now, after I slew the replicant."

R.D. gave the Ancient a sidelong look. "Why would I lie? If I met him before that, I don't remember it. You know I have amnesia. I can remember very little of anything before we first met back with Matt in that city, and none of those memories feature NightShade in anyway."

Nope, not of NightShade, he thought, Just about Mesia, really. Whoever she is.

R.D. looked off into the distance, spotting the creatures flying towards them. "Fuck," he growled.

"Hartnetts, get your asses up here!" he roared, causing the Dragon King Armor to materialize around him.

Clenching his hands into fists, rings of light and orange energy pistons appeared on R.D.'s forearms, charging energy into the fists. Waves of flame issued out of the arm cannons as the pistons slammed down together, sending the torrents of fire at two approaching ice dragons. On the Riptide, the three CIWS guns activated and unleashed a stream of armor-piercing bulletfire at the surrounding enemies.

"...I hope you're right," Mikoto said.

Damian let out a sigh, staring around the forgotten battlefield that made up Paradise Lost. "Very well, Lust," Damian said pensively. "Your energy must be released, here I will not die, and here you will not leave no matter what frenzy drives you to do things beyond your control."

His feet came together, and Damian backflipped through the air landing a good distance from Tsul. Gloved hand raised in front of him, Damian said silently, "Release your energy upon me, Lust."

"Don't worry about it," Papillon said, briefly touching her friend and co-worker's arm. "We'll be alright."

===In Paradise Lost===

"Perhaps it would be wise," the voice of a young man, with a eerie echo warbling along it, "If such a battle did not take place."

Standing a short distance away from Damian and Lust, a tall young man in casual, unassuming clothing stood, surrounded by patches of Paradise Lost's unusual purple grass. His skin was unusually pale, almost gray in the sickly light, and very thin--some of the skin was actually rotting, revealing blackened flesh beneath. The face, however, was obscured by a ebony black mask molded to it, a large crack running down from the top on one side, to the opposite side of the chin on the other. The only openings in the mask was the two eye sockets, revealing darkened, fathomless eyes. The stench of death hung around him strongly.

In a brief instant, lightning flickered behind him, silhouetting him for a second and causing his eyes to glow.

"Perhaps you would like... a more suitable opponent, Luxuria," the man said.

"Oh, I'm quite aware of what would happen if one of your normal opponents survived," the rotting, masked man said, "But I am not a normal opponent, Lust. I am much more than that."

The man watched as Lust shot forward at him, transforming as he lunged. Light seemed to halo above him as the vampiric entity rushed forward, and then something massive, pulsating and black, shot down from the sky and slammed into the rotting man's back, causing the animated corpse to explode violently, sending putrid flesh in all directions. If Lust did not move quickly, he too would be struck away by the black tendril. The cracked ebony mask hung in the air silently, and was then drawn upwards.

It settled in front of a swirling, angry maelstrom of sickly violet and yellow energy, with debris of rocks and obliterated body parts striating around it at rapid speeds. The light of the maelstrom silhouetted the black mask, shining light through it in a malevolent manner. Black tendrils whipped around it at a frenzying pace.

I am Ziatoch, the entity declared in a thundering, psychic voice.

Damian released a baited breath as the corpse appeared. Ziatoch would be merciful and spare him of the pain he'd feel from battle with Tsul. It was His Lord's fight now. Taking a step back, Damian was enveloped in a quick birst of Gouka, reapearing about a hundred feet back. A smile cracked the boy's face as Ziatoch revealed himself to Tsul.

All that could be done now was watch.

The very air that Lust attempted to breathe in with the sickly energy would be like fire to the Sin, burning at the throat and innards as it was sucked in. The entire anomaly that made up Ziatoch seemed to back away from Lust, or was Lust being forced away through unknown means? It was impossible to tell. Paradise Lost was His, and here, His desire became law. Physics held no meaning in this barbaric land.

Ebon tentacles lashed out at Lust, coiling around limbs before snaring themselves tight. Energy ran along them, traveling down and across the Sin's body before expanding into an orb around him; a containment field designed to prevent an ill-advised escape attempt. Within the tendrils, dozens of incredibly thin, incredibly sharp needles lanced out to pierce skin, to inject the Sin with a cursed gift quite unlike any other, one that would race through veins and arteries, bringing a horribly sweet mixture of indescribable ecstasy and agonizing pain:

The viral blood of the Destroyer of Worlds.

And on cue, several missiles flew from the cabin entrance. Bryant’s four barreled launcher did well with locking onto the enemy targets and closing in. The missiles would of course make impact and explode. Hopefully this would assist the fly boys by cleaning the sky all the more. Veronica sat on the top of the deck, a semi-auto .50 cal rifle in hand. He guided the scope around the sky, predicted the movement of one of the dragons then fired. The powerful bullet would penetrate the dragon’s head and blow whatever brains it had out.

As support for the machineguns already firing, Brandon then came on deck, holding a large chain gun. The barrel began to rotate with a loud whining noise. He aimed the barrel at the sky, and tugged on the belt of rounds to bring a box of ammo closer to him. The box was also covered with a shatter proof glass to prevent any advantages of the explosive ammo. Brandon squeezed on a trigger the gun then firing fairly accurately into the sky. Because of Brandon’s human analysis and thinking he would be able to cut off evading dragons with his quick and powerful chain gun. Thus he would get several dragons perhaps and clip their wings to send them falling to the sea.

Throwing his arms out wide, R.D. channeled Earth energy and created several chunks of rock, which were quickly disintegrated and reconfigured with the matter converter. The armor along his right arm warped in shape and color, while spiralling prismatic light formed the three flattened spikes on his back, creating Shell Bullet.

The deck dented as R.D. punched it with Shell Bullet, launching him high up into the air. Almost immediately he saw an Ice Dragon bank around to attack him, and he grinned. Chambering his right arm back, the lowest bullet piece disintegrated and released a jet of emerald flame.

"Shocking First Bullet!"

He spiraled around rapidly as he rocketed forward at the ice dragon, swinging his fist around at the enemy's head as the panels on his arm split open, ready to crush the Ice Dragon's skull.

The ebon mask stared down at the entity imperiously, the light shining from the eye holes casting an eerie glow on the energy being. Thunder rolled overhead.

You belong to Me, declared the Eternal, And I bind you to My will. Undone by blood, by blood undone.

Ziatoch unleashed His will upon the newly-created beast, binding it with powerful controlling enchantments to prevent it from escaping. The enchantments would allow the new Lust to sustain without the hunger for much longer, and allow Lust to control itself while the the hunger takes hold.

Thunder crashed as the binding was completed. Had He a mouth at the time, Ziatoch would've smiled with unholy glee.

Edited by RisingDragon on March 3, 2008 at 18:40:04.

Time had passed and life on Repli-Earth continued as normal. Matt's effect on the crew, however, had not go unnoticed both ways.

Jim tipped up his hat as he paused in his sweeping, eyeing the armored teenager as he worked on EnRyu. "...that kid's not right," he muttered to himself, not directly speaking to the other crew member near him.