What the hell was R.D. doing? He said it was a page from Matt's book...Hugo's eyes widened as the armor solidified into something monstrous. Was that...?

The aura surrounding R.D. and the warped Dragon King Armor began to intensify, and spread out. Tendrils of energy lanced out from it, spreading across the room. As they neared, Dario's flames wavered fitfully, like a candle ready to go out. As the Crystalis began to strengthen, so did Dario's powers begin to weaken.

And then R.D. bellowed in a wordless snarl, flinging his hands outwards. The dragon gauntlets swept up over his hands, and waves of orange flame erupted from the right hand, even as swirls of silver began to rage about his left hand.

He leaped into the air, as four plated extensions along either side of the Nova Reactor on his back swung up and opened, igniting in brilliant flame. Dragon-headed binds of energy erupted from his gauntlets and strung themselves around each others opposite, tying the hands ever closer together.

"DRAGON SOUL!"

The hands touched and clasped together, causing a blinding bluish-white light. As it cleared, the energy swept back into a spiraling drill, and R.D. launched forward, straight at Dario from above the clashing infernos.

Dario noticed R.D.'s attack as it came crashing down. "What the FUCK-?!"

***

A massive explosion burst from the tower above, causing Matt and Soma to look up. "What the FUCK?!" Matt shouted.

"We'd better get up there," Soma said. He looked back down at Dmitrii, wallowing in a sea of his own bruises. "It's over, Dmitrii. I'm not going to take your life, but you'd better get out of here."

Breath seething, Dmitrii struggled to rise. "You...you dare take pity on me?" He glared up at Soma. "Save it...save it for when your luck turns foul."

Dmitrii's eyes widened and he gasped before falling face-first into the snow. From his body, a orb of dull grey energy rose, hovering for a few seconds before charging into Soma's form. "Gahh!" Soma cried out, clucthing his chest.

"Soma!" Alasea cried, canceling out her wards as she ran up to him. "Are you alright!?"

"Yeah," Soma managed.

"What happened?" Matt demanded.

Soma slowly shook his head. "I...I'm not sure. It felt like I gained dominance over a human soul...but I don't feel like I received any kind of power from it."

Matt's gaze swung around to Dmitrii, lying in the mush. "So...he's DEAD? I didn't even hit him that hard! Just roughed him up a little!"

"Hold still and I'll see if I can find anything different," Alasea said, standing up straighter and taking Soma's head in both hands. "Try to relax a bit."

As she began her delving, blue light shone down on them. "You guys beat Dmitrii already?" Ileyna asked as she flew down. She still held a piece of the Essence in her hands. "Good, I'll extract the other piece from him now."

She handed the piece off to Matt before readying her Purification powers on Dmitrii's body, not aware that he was, for all intents and purposes, likely dead.

"Recro! Singulus... restituo... animus... substantia!"

"We'd better haul ass back up there," Matt said, jabbing his thumb at the point of the tower. "Do that later, Alasea."

"Matt's right," Soma said. "Not much else we can do here anyway."

"But what about Dmitrii?" Ileyna asked, as Alasea reluctantly backed away from Soma. "He needs to be sealed, like Dario does!"

In a moment, the Essence formed above Dmitrii's body, and Ileyna quickly plucked it out of the air.

Matt jabbed his hands into his pockets. "Yeeeeeah, that's not gotta matter. He's kind of...dead."

Ileyna blinked at the statement and looked back at Dmitrii's corpse before quickly backing away from it.

"Let's get going," Alasea said. "That explosion couldn't have been anything good."

"Let's roll." Matt shot his fist into the air and soared up. "Tally hoooooooooo~!"

Soma looked at Alasea. "Can you fly? I don't have a power that lets me do that."

"Not on my own," Alasea said, shaking her head. "I probably can on my world, but without the Pillar of Dawn, most of my power is useless."

"I'll take you guys up there!" Ileyna exclaimed. Quickly, before either could get a word in edge-wise, Ileyna embraced her power and used her telekinesis to lift Alasea and Soma into the air next to her, and then took off after Matt, albeit at a slower pace.

Reaching the top first, Matt entered the smoke generated by the explosion, slashing the stuff in front of him away with gusts of wind. "Everyone okay in there?" he shouted, making his way deeper.

As the other three arrived, Alasea quickly cast a wind spell to suck the smoke out of the chamber. What they saw was a room filled with devastation. Nearly all of the walls had been melted into slag, and most of that had been broken apart into fragments. Parts of the melted stone were still glowing hot. Helena and Hugo were standing together, looking on at the armored figure standing over Dario's prone form.

"... R.D.?" Alasea asked tentatively, looking at the fierce design his armor had taken. Only moments after she spoke, the four extensions on the back of the armor folded up and swung downwards. He turned to look at the others.

"Guess you didn't need our help at all, huh?" he asked.

"He folded pretty easily," Matt said. He gestured at Dario. "Same question goes to you, I suppose."

Hugo kept his gun aimed at Dario. "He said that Celia's magic keeps recovering his wounds. Soma, you'd better form that seal before he gets back up."

"Got it." Soma stepped forward and spread out his arms, tracing them in the air in a new pattern, one probably reflecting the seal Alasea had created for him. He completed it with a point above his head, and the magical ring flared, dispersing its magic throughout the ruined room.

"Okay, let's get out of here," Helena said. "I really don't want to be here when Dario wakes up."

R.D. looked at his gauntleted hand for a brief moment, as if noticing the changed design, with the large dragon-head plate and the more claw-like fingers, for the first time since the armor changed.

"Yeah, about that," he started. He motioned for Soma to back away from both him and the defeated candidate. "Let's make sure he's harmless for a little while longer."

"Hey, man, Dmitrii's already dead," Matt said, holding up his hands. "I think we can leave it at that."

Helena shot Matt a look. "He's DEAD? What happened?"

Matt shrugged. "He just fell over and died. I pulled my punches. I've got no idea what could've done it."

"What're you going to do?" Alasea asked, looking curious.

"Overload this bastard full of Crystalis," he said. His body suddenly flared with the bluish-silver light, with erratic tendrils of it flailing off of his form. "Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll sterilize him of his power. But chances are it'll wear off and his power will return to him after a while."

And with that, R.D. began forcing the energy into Dario's unconscious form. It seemed to writhe, and Alasea backed away as her spiritual senses felt the Crystalis begin its attack on Dario's power. It was revolting for her, and she had to look away.

"Hold on a moment, cowboy," Matt said, walking over. "You haven't even told me what the hell that thing you're wearing is."

"He said he was taking a page from your book," Hugo added, suddenly looking very suspicious. "I'm not sure if I like it."

"Yeah, I don't know why my armor changed," R.D. said, glancing at Matt and Hugo. "Its happened before... back at the Eternal Sanctuary. I can't control what it looks like, it seems. The only tactic I pulled to beat Dario here was using Dragon Soul."

"Dragon Soul?" Alasea asked.

"I figured, hell, if Matt's capable of using Hell and Heaven without GaoGaiGar, I can use Dragon Soul without KishouDoragon," he explained. After a moment, he cut off the Crystalis, leaving Dario be. The candidate's body still seemed to glow for a moment, then faded to normal. "And I was right."

"If that's all we have to do, then let's go," Helena said. "Soma, do you have a power that can teleport us back to Yoko's house?"

"Not a power, but there's a series of portals in the castle that lets demons travel to certain areas more quickly. We can take one of those."

"Are there any around here?" Alasea asked, finally turning back now that R.D. had turned off the Crystalis. She could still feel it, but it was no longer fighting off Dario's power, which now felt muted and dim.

"If there isn't, we can just use Chaos Control again," R.D. volunteered.

"There's one nearby," Soma said. "Come on."

"What about Mr. Cheerful over here?" Matt asked, gesturing at Dario's prone form.

"I will take him," a familiar voice intoned, and in a burst of light, Celia appeared in front of Dario. "You may have defeated Dmitrii, Soma, but you haven't won the day yet."

Everyone froze at the sight of Celia's return in the room, and listened to her intent of retaking the surviving Dark Lord candidate.

"We'll see about that," R.D. said, his eyes flaring beneath the darkness of his helmet.

And then he struck, his right hand shooting up, the Azurewrath reforming in an instant, its barrel ready. He squeezed off the trigger several times, firing several emerald blasts at the witch.

Celia just raised her arms, and in the same flash, she vanished along with Dario. The blasts crashed into the ruined castle wall and tore clean holes through it.

"Guess it ain't over until the bitch sings," Matt remarked. Rubble clattered from the holes to the brick floor. "You need to rest up before you take her on again, anyway."

"I'm fine," Soma said.

"Soma, don't be that way." Helena wrapped a claw over Soma's shoulder, which seemed to capture his attention more than anything. "You fought hard. At least get something to eat first."

"You sound like you're hungry too," Hugo said.

Helena smiled. "Guilty."

"Helena's always hungry," Ileyna noted with a slight smile. She went and handed the last piece of Omega Essence to Matt as R.D. lowered his weapon.

"We still need to see if whatever Dmitrii did to you will have any kind of lasting effect," Alasea said. "Yoko can probably help me figure out whatever happened."

"Plus it was time for a soda break anyway," Matt said.

Soma nodded. "Yeah. Let's go. It's not far from here."

They left the shattered, beaten room through the double doors and moved up the clock tower, leaping across the golden gears and zapping medusa heads that sauntered through the air. At the top, Soma lead them through another short hallway lit with wall torches into a new chamber. Winged griffon statues surrounded a golden ring atop a pedestal, lines of power carved into the surrounding walls.

"It's disorienting at first," Soma said. "A lot like Chaos Control, really."

"Shouldn't be too difficult for us then," R.D. noted, looking around at the structure. "How do we use this thing, anyway?"

"Go ahead and give it a whirl, Soma," Alasea instructed. "I'll figure out how to operate it from there."

"You just stand in the ring and think about the place you want to go." Soma walked onto the platform and in the center of the ring. "It'll take you to another portal room as close as possible to the location you were thinking about."

"I hope everyone remembers what Yoko's house looks like," Helena said.

"Let's hope I do as well!" Matt chirped. "Because that could get awkward, otherwise."

"Matt, if I were you, I'd be more worried about falling flat on my face," R.D. remarked.