Depths

The time was four in the evening; only an hour was left until Kirika's Tsuchigumo Mark took effect.

Deen Lhant drove down the dusty trails of Sylv; the side of the road where numerous magical vehicles sped down the desert-like terrain.

Deen himself hated the loud noises that they made- in fact, he made sure that his own motorbike was completely silent.

It was the MC-ETC Typhoon.

It was the ultimate monster of a military bike that had been created specifically for Deen's usage.

Its top speed was a thousand and fifty kilometers per hour.

The bike had a jet engine put in as if it were sticking straight through the body of the bike, linear engines installed inside the wheels that were completely protected by circular armour, wing-like arms stretching back from the left and right of the front wheel area, and boosters that both gave auxiliary power and forced steering.

It also had gyros for stability, completely electronically controlled anti-shock suspension, and wings on the back to keep the machine on the ground aerodynamically. All of these devices were needed to ensure the machine moved along the ground properly when driving at full speed.

Its specs had been solidified with the idea of being able to freely fly across Earth Land at over a thousand kilometers per hour and to climb cliffs with a slope of seventy degrees at over three hundred kilometers per hour.

Even so, Deen hadn't really used the Typhoon for anything other than random trips to stores or to travel from Sylv to Era –Alexis' location- in half an hour, whereas it would normally take ten hours.

Kirika herself had her slender arms wrapped around Deen's waist, holding on for dear life. The expression of her face was one of disgust; it had a hint of green—it was kinda obvious she did NOT enjoy transportation.

Breaking to an absolute halt as he reached his destination, Deen turned the motorcycle off as he parked it and helped Kirika get off; she struggled a bit, taking a few moments to throw up. The Typhoon had a special inscription embedded within it that wouldn't allow anyone other than Deen to use it.

Deen and Kirika wandered down the cobblestone path...

"Okay, so it should be five minutes from here if you follow the path. But then," Deen pointed to his holo-phone, displaying a holographic map. "It's a long jump—it's located right underneath the end of the road."

"Mm." Kirika weakly nodded; beginning to follow his instructions. The events that had transpired had given her a lot of think about—not only about her own mortality, but about being considered unloved as well.

CRASH!

The sound of a large explosion resounded throughout the air.

Deen quickly swirled around as harrowing screams howled in his ears.

What towered over him was an incomprehensible being; Cancer of the Zodiac Knights.

More of the mysterious creatures were standing behind the crab. The only difference was that these creatures were wielding odd, rusty spears, each of them seemingly prepared for a battle, or worse.

These were the hellions; otherwise known as symbiotes according to Tsuruko and the younger kids. Everyone had a different name for them.

Normally, he would have ran away; he didn't have the power or courage to face something from nightmares.

However...

Deen Lhant withdrew a golden ring which had an armoured face engraved upon it—with emerald compound eyes. Swiftly, Deen inserted the ring in the right slot of the Chimera Driver and turned it counter-clockwise, opening the front buckle that revealed the lion head inside. "Drive...ON!"

Pure magical energy was released from the Chimera Driver—which quickly wrapped around Deen's body, as an orange glyph manifested before him. Deen dashed through the glyph without any hesitation; the glyph erupted magnificently, cladding him in a black jumpsuit with golden armour covering his body, a large lion head-shaped shoulder pad covered his right arm with the lion's mane stylized to flow over his chest. His head was covered with an odd, feline-like mask with large green eyes.

"Soul Armour Knight…Zero!" Deen shouted at the top of his lungs. "Kirika, go!"

The Dusts, as they were called, dashed forward, the ones with the spears leading the charge. All of the stone monsters headed towards Deen. The first three Dusts leapt towards Deen, but with a calm and swift lift of his arm, Deen pointed the Eternano Saber that manifested within his hand. Immediately, he fired three concentrated blasts of crimson energy, sending the monsters flying back with sparks erupting from their bodies.

One of the other Dusts took a swipe at Deen with its spear, but with a quick duck and spin, the Rune Knight dodged and leapt up into the air as another Dust swept its spear low to get him, missing by a hair. While in the air, Deen spun around and flung his foot into that very same Dust, slamming it into the ground.

Other Dusts began to enclose around Deen, when he landed on the ground one of the unarmed Dusts rushed him, only to receive a roundhouse kick to the chest. Using the momentum from the kick he delivered, he propelled himself through the air to send the heel of his foot into the shoulder of another Dust, forcing the stone creature to the ground.

When he landed on the ground once more, five of the spear armed Dusts began to charge once more, but with the same calm demeanour he had throughout this fight, Deen merely pointed the weapon at the closest three and fired three more rounds that forced the stony creatures back.

One of the remaining five Dusts took a swipe at Deen, only to miss as the golden-armoured hero spun alongside the monster, while the fifth Dust took the opportunity to slam the side of its spear at the side of his head… Only to have the spear caught by the young man's free hand. Then, quickly, he pointed his eternano saber up and unleashed a volley of crimson blasts to the Dust's stomach, sending the creature flying through the air.

Aware of their fallen comrades, the recovered Dusts rushed towards Deen, their spears raised up and their monstrous cries echoing through the air.

Deen dashed towards the recovered Dusts, and with several clean smacks of the eternano saber, followed up with a spin, mowed through the stone monsters, sending them off to the side.

Deen lifted his head up to see that Cancer, now armed with an axe, was dropping from the sky. Sidestepping to dodge, Deen jumped over the wildly charging the crab in order to dodge the wild attacks. Deen landed amongst the Dusts, clobbering and defending with the weird weapon he used, even using one of the Dusts as a makeshift shield to block the wide swipe of Cancer's axe.

More of the Dusts stepped in front of Cancer, who growled loudly in a mixture of annoyance and exhaustion, the Dusts then charged forward while Cancer rested his axe on his armoured shoulder and began to charge towards Deen. "This is far from over."

"Naw," Deen laughed. "It's over." As much as he wanted to end Cancer once more, Deen still had the small army of Dusts surrounding him and trying to end him. With a quick low sweep kick, Deen knocked over a number of the Dusts down, forcing the remaining Dusts to stagger back so they wouldn't fall over either.

And even when the Dusts were back on their feet and began to charge Deen, he aimed his powerful eternano saber towards them as it began to charge up golden light.

And with a quick spin, Deen unleashed several golden blasts from the device, all of them crashing into the Dusts. The same golden runic circle appeared in front of each of the Dusts before they erupted into several fiery explosions, with the flames completely covering the knight.

As the flames died down, Deen dashed towards Cancer at full pelt.

A burst of electrical energy surged from Deen's belt that traveled up his body to his back, erupting into wings of flame, and then surged to his right leg. "Finishing move..."

[LIMIT BREAK]

Just as Cancer was about to wrap his hands around Deen, a loud bird screech echoed through the air as several red feathers appeared around Deen's body and he disappeared in a red and gold blur; leaping up into the air. "...Chimera Glanzer!" A titanic phantasmal red falcon appeared over Deen's body, his right leg extended in front of him and into the falcon's beak. The phantasmal falcon and Deen crashed into the hellion's chest.

Attacked from the front, Cancer gagged as several cracks appeared on his body, with blue electricity escaping from the webbed cracks; though he managed to keep his consciousness. "...This is gonna leave a mark," the hellion snarked, a bit annoyed. He didn't see the point in going after Deen again.

Deen did ask himself, "Why does he keep surviving?"

Of course, crabs were known for their hard shells.

And then, it hit him.

Cancer and that jester hellion were always together for some reason.

The jester hellion hated Kirika.

That meant...

Without wasting any time, Deen made a mad dash for Kirika.

As Kirika Hotsuin ran down the rocky paths; stumbling over and over again, she felt her life slowly slipping away. No doubt about it, if she didn't do anything about the Tsuchigumo Mark within the next seven minutes, then her life would be forfeit.

ZOOM!

A scarlet wave of energy zipped past Kirika; barely missing her by a hair's breadth.

"This ends here, Virgo!" An armoured being; black on the right side, white on the left, with elongated claws and jagged, red eyes; along with a toothy grin of shark-like teeth stepped from the shadows. A sextet of scarlet spheres surrounded her figure.

Kirika snarled like an angry dog; "Damn bastard..."

Gemini translocated in front of Kirika utilizing some sort of magic, slamming her fist into Kirika's gut at extreme speeds, exceeding that of a bullet train, with enough force to send Kirika rolling into a tree in a similar manner to a soccer ball.

"D-Dammit…!" Clutching her head in pain, Kirika stood to her feet weakly, still grasping her chainsword in his hand, tighter than ever.

As she blinked; Gemini was nowhere to be seen for the briefest of moments; Kirika quickly glanced to the sky, noticing her foe about to slam down upon her head with a bone-shattering axe kick. Utilizing her smoke-form to skate away, Kirika spun around, her hand gripping the ground to ensure that she wouldn't lose balance. Darkness coursed down the blade of her chainsword, as Kirika's eyes focused upon Gemini, who was approaching her unflinchingly.

Gemini revved the lever on her belt twice, causing it to belt out a resounding,

[LIMIT BREAK]

Gemini immediately utilized some sort of teleportation to translocate herself in front of Kirika and unleashed an exceedingly powerful high kick directed at her face, sending her careening into the ravine underneath...