Meanwhile, at the Osiris Red dorm, the doorway to a room was kicked open with a resounding SLAM, the door knocked aside as a grenade flew in just behind it. Lila then instantly moved for cover on the other side of the wall, as about a second later an explosion rocked through the room, sending flames out both the door and the windows of the room. As the smoke began to clear in the room, Lila peeked out from her cover to look through the door, looking around the room for any survivors.

"Empty... Dammit, nobody's here!" She cursed aloud as she walked away from the room with a hand on her hip. "I go through all the trouble of coming here and orchestrating the destruction of an entire school, and nobody shows up! Jeez, why do I even BOTHER?!"

Lila walked past many other doors, most of which were still exuding smoke and all of which looked as though their doors had been kicked in and something had been blown up inside of them, before she walked down the stairs and away from the half-destroyed dormitory. As soon as she stepped off of the stairs and away from the overhang, the remaining half of the building collapsed under its own weight— Most of its supports had been destroyed by Lila's systematic 'search' of the dorm, room by room. The inventor seemed unperturbed by this, though, as she started to walk along the path away from the dorm. I'll check the Yellow dorm next. There has to be SOMEONE important around here. I mean, jeez, did the other guys who tried to take over have it this easy?

Though the short mechanic may have been unfazed by her wanton acts of destruction, the feeling of peace among chaos was not necessarily shared via genetics. In fact, as a similarly petite figure approached the apparently bored inventor, his features ranged from shock, sadness, disgust, and, finally, anger. 'This... This used to be the dorm I slept in...'

"Lila!" Ed shouted, pointing at his sister. "How could you do this?! People live here!" He knew the futility of the question, of course, but he couldn't help but blurt it out anyway.

"Huh?" Suddenly, Lila had heard a familiar voice... and saw a familiar face. "Oh, Ed! There you are— I've been looking all over for you!" She seemed to be ignoring the question in favor of throwing another grenade at her kid brother. "It'd be boring if there wasn't anyone here to fight, after all. C'mon, let's have some fun!"

Two seconds later, the grenade exploded.

"Gwaah!" Ed cried out as he dove out of the way the second he saw Lila's arm move to toss something at him. It was pure instinct, really— She could've thrown a kitten and he would have done the exact same thing. Of course, it was never, ever something so harmless...

"You...!" The boy gave a quick cough as he stood back up. "You didn't answer my question! How could you do this?! And what are you here for, anyway?! Talk to me, Lila!"

"Oh... Me?" Lila giggled, putting a hand over her mouth and shutting her eyes in glee. "Well... I guess I was looking for someone to play with. I'm here to destroy the school after all... but it'd be boring to just carpet bomb the place. I wanted to smack someone down personally, since it's been soooo long. And then you showed up. Ahh, Ed, it's just like destiny."

She hefted her gun up and pointed it at him. "... I raised you. Now I'll kill you. That sounds like a great game, right?"

So that means she still doesn't know about the Spell Seal being incomplete! I think. I mean, she'd say something about it if that was the case, right? He didn't really have time to contemplate it, though, as Lila signaled the start of the 'game' by raising her gun. But you heard her. Destroying this place, killing you, calling it a game... There's no way you can forgive that!

During the time he thought this, Lila might have enjoyed the frightened look upon her little brother's face. He had never been more transparent...

At least until he grinned and stood back, putting one hand on his hip and making a rude gesture with the other. "Sure does, sissy! But you gotta catch me, first!"

As soon as he said that he leapt up into the air, jumping farther than any normal human possibly could. Then, if that wasn't incredible enough (for him, who she'd likely never seen do anything like that, let alone flip her the bird), he made an about-face and blasted off and away from the scene. Fast enough to annoy her, but slow enough to lead her on, almost as if he was teasing her.

"... weh?" Was Lila's response as Ed very... uncharacteristically made a rude gesture at her and then turned tail to run away. It seemed so very unlike him that it simply threw her off for a moment, and by the time she'd realized he was dashing off he'd gotten a good lead on her. She ran off after him in a flash, trying instinctively to suck in whatever spell he was using to dash on ahead of her.

It didn't work. That surprised her even more. She was supposed to suspect that her kid brother was that fast without some kind of spell? Lila wasn't that stupid. "Oh Ed!! Slow down! I just wanna talk to you!"

---

Meanwhile, some distance away near the forest Ed sat in waiting. "... Hey... Hikari... You think they're close? I mean..." He nodded. "I feel... anxious. Reeh... But I'm sure you must feel it too... You're still a little girl and you're fighting like this... Stay safe, okay?"

"..." Hikari ignored Ed's question, looking in the direction of the Red dorm. She seemed to be waiting for something.

"..." Ed seemed unsettled by Hikari's ability to ignore him; however, he clenched his fists and nodded. "Okay... Then... let's make sure we get everything done right! Right? Right!"

Well, that certainly caught her attention! Mylene thought as she flew towards the place where her friends (or Team Ed as she'd dubbed them) were waiting for her and their 'special guest' to arrive. She looked back quickly to see where Lila was at the moment and, when the time was right, gave herself a little boost to put a nice stretch of distance between herself and the mad redhead. Once the gap had been made, she spoke into a communicator connected to Ed.

"ETA's about 15 seconds. Get ready."

"BLARGH!" Ed yelped, nearly falling over at the shock of hearing his own voice unexpectedly warn him of something. "Rr... Right. Hikari, she'll be here in 10 seconds! Battle stations!"

With that, he ran behind a tree and waited.

Here... It's almost time. While Ed was running to a tree, in that brief moment he wasn't looking, Hikari had vanished as well. It was probably nothing, right? She probably just went to a different tree. Regardless, she was out of sight, and thus probably safe.

Just as she'd predicted, getting Lila to follow her to straight into an ambush had been all too easy. Now comes the hard part, Mylene thought as she checked behind herself one last time to confirm the situation. We gotta fight her... and win! Though she had boasted that her plan was 100% fool proof (actually, she'd said "Ed proof," but that's not important), she knew that she'd constructed it while lacking a vital piece of information: How the Spell Seal actually worked. Ed hadn't bucked the plan, though, and right now it was too late to consider changing tactics anyway.

In the end, we'd have wound up facing it head on anyway! Having reset her confidence, Mylene proceeded to effectively get the show on the road by arcing her back and executing an Immelmann turn. As she sped back towards Lila, she touched the palms of her mechanically gloved hands together, creating a spark between them that grew in size until she could no longer hold it, and fired it at the woman.

Lila looked at the spark and held out a hand, catching the spark in it. A second later, it was gone, having been sucked clear into her hand. She then ducked and hopped quickly to her left, dodging around the flying Ed-apparent. "... Huh... So you're flying without magic, and tossing lightning around... You're definitely not Ed. You're too competent. So, where is the little brat at, anyways?!"

It was then that a fireball flew out of the woods at Lila's back.

As soon as it touched her, the spell was also taken in.

"Oh. There he is." She turned towards the forest behind her, putting a hand to her hip. "Get out here, bro!"

Sounds like she's getting annoyed. "Heh. Good." The sudden flash of fire only served to bolster Mylene's confidence even more. She assumed that Ed had thrown it, which meant that he had his head in the game. Good boy!

Unfortunately, though, small victories like that could only last for so long, and this one only lasted until Mylene turned her attention to the fact that Lila had absorbed not only one, but two magical attacks in a row without having lifted so much as a finger to do so. Of course, she'd already figured that it had to be one of the Spell Seal's powers. It only made perfect sense, after all.

And with that confirmed, Mylene thought as she dove into a sea of trees and landed on the ground. It's onto Phase Two: Work together to confuse and overpower the target! Lila could have probably easily kept track of where the Electric Ed had landed, but now that all parties were on the ground Mylene felt that they had a better chance of keeping up their little game of shells. She hoped that Ed wouldn't worry about her sudden disappearance and keep on fighting Lila— She needed him to keep going so she could figure something out. As soon as she felt she had a good lock on the woman, she fired right along with him. If she can handle two or more at once then there's only one other thing I can do before we're totally screwed. I think.

As it happened, Lila was walking right towards where a torrent of fire and things were hurling out of a forest. None of them were getting through, each one being absorbed, but they weren't exactly effectual either, as it was just a distraction. "Ed... I told you... get out!" She threw a grenade into the bushes.

The resultant explosion blew Ed out of the bushes and he rolled to a stop nearby, before jumping back up to his feet. "Lila, you were going to kill me! How could you do something like that?!"

"A-duh!" Lila replied, shifting her head to keep an eye on the other not!Ed behind her. "It's fun, and I don't need you anymore. So c'mon. Throw everything you got at me. I want it to be exciting, mmkay, bro?"

At this point, one last Ed, having remained silent and hidden all this time, simply threw a rock at the back of Lila's head.

WHAP. The rock hit square in the back of Lila's head. She paused for a moment, anger lines showing all over her forehead. In an instant she'd turned around and leveled two SMGs at the area the rock had come from. "THAT'S IT! DIE YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" she yelled as she unleashed a hail of gunfire in the direction the stone had came from.

Another rock flew from another angle.

This rock was shot out of the sky as Lila moved her guns to point in that direction. A few seconds of sustained fire later they started clicking, and one of Ed's tiny fireballs was flung in the direction the rock came from next.

"DIE ALREADY!"

Mylene halted her attack for a moment in order to try to figure out what had just happened. Was that...? It must have been Hikari! Way to go, kiddo! She grinned as she not only realized this, but also noted how effective something as simple as a tossed rock had been. If physical is what works... then let's get physical!

As soon as she'd decided it, she was off. The same processed energy that had allowed her to fly earlier gave her enough oomph to close the gap between herself and the raging technophile in a couple of steps. If all had gone well, Mylene-Ed would practically be on top of Lila the moment she turned around from her flaming fireball attack, arm raised to deliver a right-handed punch to the inventor's face.

As Lila fired off her fireball, Ed saw Mylene charging in. There was no way he was going to let her steal all the thunder! He rushed forward with a wingbeat, landed nearby, and launched himself at Lila as well, his own right arm stretched out in a punch of his own. Lucas had said she could only take magic, so a regular punch would work! That had to be what his rival was thinking... and she was a genius!

One, two... By the time Lila had calmed down there were two fists coming at her. One connected square on the chin. It hurt like something made of metal. The cold kiss of metal against her skin was almost enough to help her relax a little... except it was punching her. Plus, there was also a second fist punching her in the back of the neck, and it wasn't made of steel. She made a strained 'Ghh!' noise as her head twisted along with the blows. She dropped the guns she was holding to the ground and pulled another pair of them out of her main, massive gun— This time a pair of pistols. She folded her arms over her chest, holding the guns to the two in melee with her.

"Bleed out slowly for me... Mmkay, Ed, sweetie?" She pulled the triggers on both of the large-caliber magnums quickly, and fired until all eight bullets in the gun's clips were spent.

As soon as Ed saw the guns, he did the first thing Lucas ever taught him. He popped up a quick sanctuary right in the path of the bullets, over himself. The shots knocked him back away from his sister, and he tumbled slowly to the ground, before standing up again.

The real Ed... There's three of them. Ed's a coward. He doesn't fight head on. That little brat with the rocks is the one I need. That's gotta be it! Yeah!

Mylene had been so focused on her own punch that she only noticed that Ed had joined in as she pulled her arm back. The fact that she'd actually managed to hit Lila had been one pleasant surprise (she'd been so sure that she would have been blocked or dodged), but having Ed join in made it even sweeter; however, that joyous feeling didn't last very long. As soon as Lila drew her weapons, she instinctively covered her face with her arms and closed her eyes as the bullets pelted and dinged her suit. That sweet feeling had been replaced by panic. Ed, you idiot! How could you?! You can't just jump in like that and come out...

She opened her eyes when the hail ended. ... perfectly fine?

"Oh, I don't believe you!" Mylene-Ed shouted at Ed-Ed, despite knowing she should be using every second to fight Lila. (S)he sounded angry, but quickly began to laugh as she shook herself off, rounding her shoulders. "Come on, let's do it again! Round 2!"

"Right! Gotcha, me!" Ed yelled as he clutched his hand into a fist and nodded. He drew his hand back, before vanishing into a wingbeat charging at his sister.

This time, however, Lila was focused. The wingbeat was absorbed in her seal halfway through, leaving Ed sliding on a straight collision course with her at an absurdly high speed. The two slammed into each other, and slid to a stop several feet back. She stood up, shoving him off of her before putting a hand to her hip.

"What the HELL?! You're supposed to do it at an angle to get behind me, you idiot! What is this, your first fight?!"

Ed scrambled to his feet, clenched a fist, and put it to his own hip, glaring right back into his sister's eyes. "No way! Everyone tries to go behind, so if I go straight ahead, you won't ever expect it!"

"If you went at the angle, you could have set up for a shot where I wasn't expecting it! That's why everyone does it, nimrod!"

"But when YOU grabbed it, I ended up tripping and flying forward into you, and you WEREN'T expecting it to be behind, were you?! That's why it worked!"

"Yeah? Well if YOU weren't too much of an idiot to figure out how to use a move right, then I would've--"

What she would have done was never quite stated, as a sudden bright light interrupted their fight. The two looked over at where a brilliant bright light much like a solar flare had formed in midair from a magic circle, shot at the ground, and was then dissipated midway through.

"... I didn't do it."

From the general direction of the magic circle, one more Ed walked out. Slowly, self-assuredly, quietly. He approached with no spells, nothing more than a simple, slow, walk, until he was at the location of the other Ed and Lila.

He then hit Lila with what can only be described as a bitch-slap.

SMACK!

The sound reminded Lila that she was in the middle of a fight, with not one, not two, but three Eds. She was pretty sure, now, that the real one was the one who was standing next to her... but he could wait. Someone had just slapped her. She turned around to look at the third Ed, snarling at him.

"Okay. That's it. I've played nice too long. I'm going to get a little serous with you..."

Her snarl was suddenly gone, replaced by a grin and a giggle. "Let's play, mmkay? ♥" Then, she started throwing tiny red ball after tiny red ball at Hikari. Each one exploded into a blaze as it impacted with anything, reminiscent of a certain little girl's form of attack.

Now, you all might have been wondering where Mylene had disappeared to. Well, it's pretty simple. She had charged Lila at the same time as Ed, as in sync as two people with very different abilities possibly could be. But then, something unexpected had happened, and Ed had gone tumbling into his sibling, removing her from the spot she should have been in when Mylene threw her second punch. It had taken Mylene a moment to turn around and re-evaluate the situation (and also try to consider what had happened— she eventually went with her standard, 'Ed screwed up'). By the time she had, she was staring up at the thing that had grabbed Lila's attention...

... and by the time she looked back, Hikari-Ed had gone and slapped their foe. It didn't take Mylene long at all to figure that Lila was going to counter in the worst way possible, so she had to act quickly. She boosted her way to the illusion-enshrouded girl, grabbed her, and kept boosting as long as those tiny red balls kept coming.

"I gotta admit that I like your style, kiddo..." One of the red balls hit something just behind the two, exploding into flames. "... but you're getting her attention a little too well, don'tcha think?"

Hikari didn't even blink at the sudden kidnapping.

"Hold a straight line." She ordered Mylene quietly. She then produced a pistol from... Wait, she must have had it this whole time. A close inspection would show it was one of Lila's.

She then aimed at Lila's head and pulled the trigger.

"I'll do what I can," Mylene replied. Of course, she had no idea what kind of plan the girl had up her sleeve, but she figured that if they were going to be in this together that she had to trust her.

Within moments, Mylene launched the two of them off of the top of a tree and into the sky. They were a good distance away from both Ed and Lila, and steadily growing further away, but she couldn't help that. She was about to ask Hikari what she had in mind, but then she saw the gun and understood.

"Tell me if it hits or not. If it doesn't, I'll try to get us back in for a closer shot."

Lila hopped back a bit, letting the bullet drive itself into the ground at her feet as she looked up at her foes. "Huh... You got one of my guns..."

Lila put a hand to her hip as she stared up into the sky. She was momentarily aware of someone charging her from her left, but she quickly punched whoever it was in the face, and a satisfying thud occurred afterward. She assumed it'd be okay for a couple of minutes, anyways.

That meant it was time to deploy the Hidden Fun Stuff. She grinned for a moment, before swishing her hand into a pocket and pulling out a short, tubular weapon. She put it on the ground, angled it, and stepped back a little more before stomping down on a foot-pump.

An explosion ripped out of the weapon, sending out a single missile towards the two. It broke apart and split into two. Then four. Then eight. In a couple of seconds, over 100 much smaller missiles were flying through the air at the group, each one having the explosive power of your average fragmentation grenade. Making things slightly worse, they were also heat-seekers.

Hikari tugged on Mylene's collar.

"Full stop, wait one second, then dive until you're at ground level, then fly back towards the crazy one."

Thanks to the illusion, Mylene's 'collar' was actually the semi-soft portion that ran along Mylene's neck. That much didn't matter, though, or at least not as much as the fact that the girl's first shot had apparently missed. She'd figured it probably would, though, and gave a nod and a "Gotcha" in response to her passenger's request.

Of course, when she realized why Hikari had given those particular instructions, she let out a small yelp. "J-Jeez, what the he-- Lila, you bitch, are those heat-seeking missiles?!" She already knew that they were, of course, given that they were following them down and going boom, boom, boom as the two flew through various branches and the like. "Well, I hope that Ed's gotten himself out of the way, or else he's about to get a part of this Return to Sender!"

As luck would had it, a killer punch from his sister had knocked Ed clear into a tree. He staggered to his feet, shakily, eying Lila and preparing to charge in again when he noticed Mylene and Hikari flying out at his sister. Followed by tiny missiles. Ed simply stood back— He knew better.

Lila's foot slid to the side, kicking up a small amount of dust as she held her ground against Hikari and Mylene's charge, and the missiles behind them.

"... So that's it, eh...?" She grinned slightly, showing off her gritted teeth as she stared down onrushing missiles of her own design. "Fine then. Wing--"

She vanished, and for a moment Mylene would hear the word "--beat." right by her ear. Lila landed behind her aerial opponent, staring down her own missiles. She folded her arms over her face as one, then a second missile rammed into her, kicking up a massive explosion all around her, and filling the air with dust, smoke and debris.

Click. Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr--

From inside the explosion, an odd sound like a turbine starting up could be heard. The smoke began to dissipate, as though it was being funneled into something like a high-powered vacuum. It seemed to be blown out the other side as well, as some machine or another whirred to life. The high-powered turbine quickly finished clearing the smoke away, and as it cleared Lila Daughtily stood in the middle of a massive wind, having pulled a pair of goggles over her eyes as she eyed Mylene and Hikari. She seemed covered in soot and fairly scuffed up, but overall about as beaten up as Ed normally did after someone blew him up in a fiery explosion or two. "ALLLRIGHT. Now I'm going to go ahead and STOP playing around, mmkay?! I'd like you to meet my baby, the Lilacannon."

She started to giggle manically as the gun whirred faster. After a second more, it started firing bolts of compressed air out at supersonic speeds, literally firing miniature sonic booms at her enemies as the suction itself kicked up the winds around her, creating a dangerously powerful area of suction all around her as the air around her was forcefully circulated into the gun to be fired out in the compressed air shots at ungodly speeds.

Naturally enough, Mylene had no idea what the flying hell was going on. It was only natural, then, that she turned around and slowed to a stop after she'd heard the first missile hit her opponent. Seeing the second hit was even more shocking that simply hearing the first, and although she was dimly aware that her opponent probably had something planned, she couldn't help but gawk anyway. Was she committing suicide or something?

'Course not. Something as easy as that simply couldn't be the case. Mylene set Hikari on the ground as the loud whirring started, then pushed her a little and yelled over the huge influx of wind for her to run and hide herself. She didn't know what was coming, but she had a sick feeling that whatever it was, she A) couldn't run from it, and B) couldn't shield Hikari from it. And when the word 'Lilacannon' popped up, she knew she was right.

As she put her arms up and summoned a Synergy shield in an attempt to stave off the first shots, she remembered something her father once told her. "Being right doesn't automatically rule out being wrong. Don't rely on it to save you." She'd figured out what it meant a long time ago, but it had never hit her as hard as it did now. In fact, she thought wryly as the second sonic boom cut through her defense and hit her square on, sending her flying. Nothing's ever hit me as hard as it has now!

The second thing that broke was the disguise bracelet Ed had made for her. Lila had already guessed correctly that one of the Eds was Mylene, but if she was looking for a confirmation, well... There it was.

In the midst of it all, Mylene somehow managed to turn herself around in an attempt to save both herself and her suit from sustaining a particular kind of damage. That same kind of determination and luck somehow managed to save her from sustaining another direct hit, at least for a while. Even then, though, an indirect hit from one of those things was dangerous. The shots themselves were invisible, but the damage they were wreaking upon Mylene's suit was clear. And, in the end, one of the shots did manage to make its mark, blowing a particularly deadly-looking hole right in the center of Mylene's back and pitching her forward so far that she disappeared into only God knows where in the forest.

And from the look of it? That disappearance seemed to be, well... permanent.

Ed... You... You'd better do something spectacular, or I'll... kick your ass...

For a second, Ed couldn't believe it. It was like everything was moving in slow motion. Mylene's shield. Then her bracelet. Then her.

Rival's hurt... It may be more than hurt. All I can do is magic... It's not like I can outfight Lila alone... and now she's hurt Rival... and I haven't... I haven't even done anything! What's wrong with me?! I can't... All I've done is throw one punch and get knocked around! He slid into a stance that looked ready to charge, as he pulled out his staff and spun it around in his hand. No way... I can't do that anymore. I have to fight!

While Lila was busy shooting off in Mylene's direction, Ed put his hand over his heart. "Doriado... Lend me your power!" In a matter of seconds, he looked much older, his clothes growing along with him as his coat fluttered in the wind Lila was kicking up. He heard her calm, measured voice as he finished the transformation.

"Ed, you're stronger than you give yourself credit for. Just attack."

He nodded, and in a beating of wings he was at his currently preoccupied sister's side, swinging his staff like a baseball bat.

The attack caught Lila square in the face, and her neck jerked back as she finally let go of the trigger of her gun, the winds around them dying down. "Ghk... So you FINALLY decided to get your act together! Good boy!"

She dropped her gun to the ground, pulling a small pistol from her pocket and pointing it at Ed. With a grin, she pulled the trigger.

Ed threw up an arm, and a ball of fire met the bullet flying out, melting it entirely...

... before it was sucked in by Lila's seal. She nodded, before jumping back and grabbing her large gun along the way. She leveled it at him and pulled the trigger as the turbines within it began to whir to life again.

He'd seen the attack once. It definitely wasn't fast, giving him time. "Josephine... Welcome!" He said, again putting a hand over his heart as a pair of wings shot out of his back.

"Josie's here and ready to help!" The bug-girl Duel Spirit shouted cheerfully inside Ed's mind. "Let's give it our best, Ed-dono!"

Ed nodded, before punching towards his sister. As he did, a spike flew out the end of his arm and shot towards Lila, jamming itself right into the barrel of her gun, plugging up the cap of it and causing thick smoke to exude from the weapon after just a couple more seconds.

As the gun started to smoke, it became incredibly hot. Lila dropped it to the ground and hopped away from it, reaching again into her pocket and pulling out this time a tiny, mouse-like object. She threw it at Ed, followed by a second, followed by a standard grenade.

The mice, as they scurried forward, ticked down to explode with a tiny timer on their eyes. They were headed for Ed, scurrying at him amazingly fast.

Alright... I got the gun... Now there' s just those explosives! I can't wingbeat, she'll grab it this time, and those things are moving fast... Oh! I know! Once more, Ed put a hand over his heart. "Blaze, Hiita!" He opened his eyes as he felt a rush of power flow through him. Small red marks appeared running down his cheeks as a pair of fireballs burst into existence, one over each shoulder.

"Man, you had to bother me now?" The annoyed voice of Hiita rang through Ed's mind. "Tanaka and I were just about to-- Heheh, just kidding! But you'd better make it worth my time or you're toast!"

"Right!" Ed yelled, blushing slightly. He reached forward and snapped his fingers, putting a small spark into the wiring of the mice. They whirred to a stop as their circuitry fried and exploded short of him, and the magic was too small to be dangerous if Lila stole it.

She grabbed it anyway, of course, spinning a submachine gun into her hand. She was going to keep the pressure on the boy. If she started using magic, he could use some to block it; however, if he used it right now, she'd steal it. That was the key: Just keep attacking him physically while cutting off his magic. Eventually he'd have to do something big just to stay alive. She pointed the gun at him, grinned, and pulled the trigger. "Die for me, Ed-kun~"

Ed put his arms over his face, already ready for the attack. "Mobius, guide me." he muttered, as a suit of armor burst into existence around him, deflecting the bullets one after another.

"It's been a long time, Edward; however, I'm looking forward to this now more than ever. Let's end this together."

Ed simply nodded as he continued to keep his guard up. After a short time, the gun had run out of ammo. While Lila reached to reload it, Ed ran forward. She punched at him again, noticing his approach. Almost instinctively, he weaved under it and delivered an uppercut right to his sister's jaw.

It landed with a sickening thud, carrying Lila up and over onto her back for a moment. She scowled as she began to scramble to her feet. When did you get that strong, Ed-kun?

"Hey. Onee-san." Ed said, as he watched his sister stand up again.

"What do you want?! What could you POSSIBLY want?!" She yelled, pouting at him.

"I don't want to think you're a bad person. You were mean as a big sis... but you weren't evil like this. Why?"

"Why? You want to know WHY?!" Lila asked, starting to laugh as she threw her head back. "Aww... How cute! Little Ed-kun wants to know why his big, mean sis wants him dead!!"

"Not just that. You've done a lot of bad stuff. You hurt people. Killed people. Killed our family. Lila... Why?" Ed put a hand up to his chest, curling it into a fist. "How could anyone do something like that?! I want to know."

"Heheh... You wouldn't understand. Daddy always loved you best." She muttered, standing up and looking down at the ground. "Dad was... a magician. My mother was a normal person. She left 'cause he was so weird... She wanted to give me everything I ever wanted. Like an idiot, I went with daddy. I wanted to do magic."

She gave a bitter, hollow sort of chuckle. "Did you know that almost everyone on earth has some kind of magical aptitude? Anyone, no matter who they are, can learn at least something trivial if they really try. Only one person in a million is completely, totally unable to use any magic at all, no matter how they try. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't learn from him. I couldn't do magic, not ever... and he told me so himself. My own daddy. I stayed with him, though. Mostly. I was there when he found a new wife. She used magic too." She spoke in a sort of far-off tone, staring wistfully at the ground like she was looking back into the past. "Daddy and my new mommy ended up together. Happy, in their magic world. The world I wanted to be part of. It was okay, though... Daddy and mommy gave me a lot of attention. I was allowed to be part of their world, too.

Then you came along."

Lila looked up, affixing Ed with a glare of unbridled hatred, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. "When you were born... mommy and daddy were so happy. They said you had a lot of magic. More than any they'd ever seen before. I knew what they were really thinking. They were glad they could replace me. They told me all about how special you were. About that seal you had. About what it meant. You were some kinda' magic genius... and they loved you. They just ignored me... even when I won awards for my projects. Even when I got scholarships. I didn't have magic. I wasn't special enough for them. But you. You had a seal that was magic itself."

The tears seemed to subside slightly as she broke into a wide grin. "I took one of daddy's magic knives. The ones he used for rituals. And I walked up to you while you were in your crib. I didn't even think about it at first. I just knew what I had to do. I cut off your seal with that knife. It woke you up. You screamed." Lila started to tremble, holding a hand to her forehead. "But I couldn't worry about that. I ate it. The seal. It became a part of me. All so that I could do magic too. But... but that didn't work out at all..."

She stared down at her hand. "I had magic then. Daddy and mommy came in. They wanted to see what was wrong. I told them how I got magic. About how smart their little girl was... how she'd managed to do the impossible. Daddy... Daddy got angry. He wanted to stop me. He said I did bad. Daddy hit me..." She clenched her hand into a fist. "... I didn't like it. I fought daddy, and mommy after him... I showed them how strong my magic was. I killed them both with it. But they still never loved me. Not even until they died. They loved you more."

"Lila..." Ed reached out a hand.

"You don't understand! Everyone loves you! I had to build everything from scratch! I took what daddy had, and I borrowed some money from my old mommy too... and I built everything up from there on my own! Everything! I made people fear me! I killed people to get what I wanted so that they wouldn't have any choice but to appreciate me! I just wanted to be noticed! All I wanted..." She slumped down, teardrops finally flowing freely again, dropping against the burnt, shattered earth below her. "All I wanted was to have someone say that they were proud of me... to love me like daddy should have. But nobody will..."

"Onee-san..." Ed said softly, taking a step towards his sister. "What you did was wrong. You shouldn't ever hurt people, or steal from them, or anything like that. But... If you want someone to be proud of you... I'll do it. If you stop all this madness and turn yourself in for everything that you've done, I'd be proud to call you my sister. Even after everything. Okay?"

"Even after all that...?" Lila asked, her voice cracking slightly as she eyed her brother. "You could... find it in your heart to forgive me...?"

"Of course I could... We're family, right?"

"Ed-kun..." she muttered, staggering towards him. "Th... Thank you." She practically fell forward, wrapping her arms around him.

He paused for a second before hugging Lila back, patting her on the back as he nodded. "It'll be okay... Don't worry... Okay?" He held her for another second, before he felt a sudden, sharp stabbing pain in the small of his back. "Reeh?!"

"Vibroknife." Lila said coldly, her previous demeanor entirely gone. "Cuts through pretty much anything." She grinned, hugging her little brother tighter against her and twisting the blade slightly. "You actually felt sympathy? I gotta hand it to you, Ed-kun. You're the biggest idiot I've ever met." She tore the knife out of his side, opening a large gash all along the way, pausing to inspect the nails on her other hand as he fell to his knees. "Where did I go wrong with you? Oh well. Can't worry about it now, hmm~?" She giggled to herself. "Yeah... Just one more!"

Oh, Lila was about to get 'one more,' all right. 'One more...' right across the jaw.

WHAM!

And before she had a chance to even think about reacting to that, the figure of the one Lila had likely assumed she'd taken care of before roared and jumped on her. Both females tumbled to the ground, kicking up a fair amount of dirt and grass as the armored one straddled her former 'mentor' and began to wail on her.

"He is not--!" Punch! "--an idiot!" Punch! "He just has--" Punch! "A HEART!" Punch! "Unlike you, you evil--" Punch! "--, cold-hearted--" Punch! "BITCH!" Punch!

Mylene's anger grew with every punch she delivered. As it grew, so did the amount of synergy she attempted to pour into her hands. Her suit had been damaged, and badly, but it was still together enough to do what it could to carry out her mental commands. In addition, her newfound electrical powers began to run rampant. Sparks were literally flying everywhere as the girl continued her assault, not sure of who she was more mad at: Lila for taking advantage of Ed's kindness, or Ed falling for it (she would be positive later that it was the latter).

Finally, as if to punctuate her little 'speech,' Mylene put all she could into both hands, raised them into the air, and thrust them both downwards with a primal scream.

It'd been a while since Lila was anything near as hurt as she was now. Being punched in the face six, seven times... She was bleeding out her nose and she could taste the rust in her mouth— There had to be bleeding there, too.

But Mylene gave her an opening. She would have smiled if she wasn't so darn mad. Instead, she simply released her seal. She started to glow for a second, as her right arm became a giant drill. She rammed forward with it, catching the girl square in the chest as the rest of her started to be encased into what appeared to be a sort of cross between a mecha suit and an actual giant robot as well. You little brat! Hitting me?! DIE!

What is this?! Is this part of her seal?! I had no idea something like this was even possible!

This, and about another million or so thoughts sped through Mylene's mind. Within nanoseconds, however, they all came together and formed one loud, cohesive thought: It hurts.

Then, the explosion happened. Now, this was something that both of them should have expected. Mylene had built the thing, after all, and Lila had seen all of the plans for it (or at least all of the ones submitted to her before Mylene changed them at the last moment). The manner in which it expressed itself, though, wasn't what either of them might have expected. They had both agreed that Duel Energy itself was a 'funny' thing, so, naturally, they had also agreed that processed Duel Energy must have its quirks, too. They'd never had a chance to test it thoroughly enough, however, so the piercing of the 'core' of Mylene's suit was going to provide something of an example for them.

As soon as the tip of the drill pierced the armor surrounding the suit's main core of energy, a tiny ball of light appeared. As Lila drove it inward, the ball grew, forcing Mylene's body up and off of her adversary. If Lila wasn't absorbing any of Mylene's electricity, then it was being diverted into the ball, dramatically increasing its size at uneven intervals. Although it was better than being gored, the pressure that was being exerted upon Mylene's chest was incredible. She felt that there was a strong possibility that the energy was still being directed by her thoughts. If that was the case, if she didn't do something, and soon, she was going to be crushed to death. If she did do something, though, she was probably going to be blown to pieces (or maybe disintegrated; she wasn't sure which).

So that's it, huh? Die painfully, or die horribly. What are the chances that if I do X, she's gonna live through that, too...? Heh. I always said I wanted to go out with a bang, but...

Mylene closed her eyes for a moment and thought about all of the things that she loved best.

Then... she let go.

From inside her armored chassis, Lila's eyebrow quirked. She was expecting the drill to just go right through Mylene like it did most everything else. Instead, it got stopped up on the energy of her core.

Suddenly, she remembered something from back when she was going over the project. This suit... It's based on the momentum energy... Synergy... that Mylene was working with. The entire suit is powered on Duel Energy that's been compressed to move through the suit in a way that powers it. She designed the core herself... It was the place where the energy was kept when it wasn't in use... wasn't it? But... that kind of energy isn't something we know how to predict outside of controlled circumstances. What happens when it gets loose? Her eyes widened in shock. This... This energy is going to--!

She wasn't sure what was going to happen, but she tried to back away from the ball of energy. No good— It seemed her drill was stuck in it. All she could do was watch as it grew larger and larger. Lila cursed quietly to herself, just waiting for the inevitable.

KABOOM.

The resulting explosion didn't actually send Lila flying. Instead, it just shoved her further down into the earth. The force of it created a large crater, the brilliant orange energy swirling through the air and positively leveling the forest around them. She felt herself bleeding, but she was somehow still conscious. She was able to stand. Maybe.

Testing proved that yes, she could barely stand. She gasped for breath, holding her drill-arm as a mix of blood and oil flowed out from the machinery. After a couple of seconds, the bleeding had stopped. She'd used a healing spell she stockpiled several of just in case. "H...Haha..." She looked around for Mylene; there wasn't a trace of her left. Ed was still lying prone. It seemed the blast had knocked the already bleeding brat away. Maybe Mylene's body had shielded him from the blast. Hard to say. Either way, she could mop up now. There was just one Ed left, the gun one, and a gun wasn't going to do much against her armor. "Let's finish." Her left arm glowed for a moment, changing into a chain gun as she looked around for the last of the Ed Trio.

A bracelet hit Lila square in the forehead.

As a result, this third Ed was nowhere to be seen; however, in his place, a young girl approached Lila. Her dress had become slightly tattered in the fight, her hair dragged on the ground behind her, and her expression was still absolutely blank. She simply walked towards Lila, not stopping even as the chain gun appeared.

"... It's time..."

The bracelet bounced harmlessly off of the metal surface of Lila's shiny metallic body, though it certainly did a good job of getting Lila's attention. "Oh... So you must be the third Ed." Never seen you hanging around him before... "That was pretty gutsy what you did back there, stealing my gun and trying to shoot me with it."

She pointed the chain gun at the little girl. "Tell you what. Since you're so cute, how about I let you come along with me if you want. Or you can say no..."

The barrel of her gun started spinning. It was pretty obvious what 'no' would mean.

"... You... are weak, aren't you?" Hikari asked, but it was really more of a statement. "You wear armor and use a seal that prevents magic from harming you, and fight with guns... Is it because you are afraid of getting hurt? Or are you afraid that when all that is stripped away, light will be cast on the real you? The pathetic one who has to use underhanded methods to fight children..."

"... You couldn't even defeat them fairly." Hikari noted. "Even when I was only assisting them minimally... And then you made the largest mistake..."

"I like staying with Isabel... She's useful, and... she cares about me. She was the first human to do that... She wants to protect me... So I concealed it. If I showed who I was... I don't know how she would react. But you hurt her friends... who would tell Isabel everything, if I revealed myself in front of them. Now that you've made them unable to see..."

The back of Hikari's dress exploded off, revealing a large, glowing wing-like design that covered most of her back. Wings of light spread from the mark, lighting up the area as bright as day. Shadows flickered around the area, as Hikari became too bright to look at directly.

"I will kill you."

Lila found herself squinting, largely because of just how bright everything had suddenly gotten. "... That power..." There's no doubt about it: It's there. Either that's the seal of light or I've gone off the deep end... We hit the jackpot, for sure! Calling me WEAK, though, where does she get off?!

"Hah! You call that POWER?! You call what I got WEAK, you bratty little overgrown firefly?! Hah... I'm still standing 'cause I'm NOT weak! It's like they say, everything's fair in love and war!"

She started firing her gun, various multicolored streaks firing off in every color, lightning, fire, wind, and earth elemental shots being spewed forth at Hikari like they were going out of style. "And I positively love war! ♥"

When the attacks were spewed, Hikari was very simply not there. Instead, she was beside Lila, pointing into the sky.

"Beginning experiment... Look up."

"... Uweh?" She muttered, looking up if only to humor her. "What about it?" Girl's fast. This is either a trick, in which case I drill her... or a viable threat, in which case I'll absorb it. Definitely.

Hikari was now a very good distance from Lila. This was because there was suddenly, out of nowhere, a meteor the size of a person bearing down on her. Far, far too fast and close. Physics was weeping.

"Heh... A freakin' meteor?! Well-that's useful. But this..." Lila chuckled darkly, watching the rock. "THIS IS A DRILL!"

She jumped up at the meteor and reared back before ramming her drill into it. The point rotated on the meteor's surface for a moment before she broke through it, shattering the thing into a million pieces. She kicked a couple of the shards at Hikari while still in midair, then peppered the area with more elemental shots.

Hikari was simply gone again. "First test, success." She reappeared behind Lila, pointing up again. "But I'm not done... You shouldn't have looked away..."

This time, however, the sky seemed to be perfectly normal.

"I'll look wherever I please! It's my right!" And right now, Lila was still keeping an eye on Hikari. Seal of light. Huh, that means she's moving at the speed of light? Wait... It's not physically possible to move that fast. And even if she is... That means attacking is useless. A solid object hitting something moving at the speed of light is... It just goes through it. Then again, she has to slow down if she's going to attack physically... But she can attack indirectly through meteors and who knows what else. That means...

Lila came to the conclusion that the next attack (heck, all of the attacks) were likely to be indirect in nature. This was unfortunate. Let's see. What beats the speed of light..? she thought to herself, landing on the ground again and just keeping an eye on Hikari.

The light from Hikari's back had dimmed. With the lack of the island's lights, the light pollution was gone, and though no one was particularly paying attention, it was truly a beautiful night. A myriad of stars shone over the battlefields, points of light from thousands of light-years away reaching this tiny event...

In this case, it was literal. Each point of light from the stars would pierce Lila like a needle.

The only thing that can out-pace light is sheer gravity, and for that I'd need a black-- Too caught up in her thoughts to realize it until it was entirely too late, Lila found herself pierced by a thousand, maybe two thousand tiny points of light. They sunk straight through her armor, somehow, and she let out a grunt of pain as they pierced through her.

She wasn't sure what surprised her more. How much it hurt, or that for some reason, she couldn't absorb this spell. What... what's going on here?! My seal is supposed to be able to take in any spell like this that's as powerful as it! There's no way that this little firefly's stronger than me!

"I said it before... you are weak." Hikari pointed once more. A large ring of light appeared in the air, maybe ten feet above Lila. A massive, crushing blast of light came from the circle.

Dammit... I'm not going to lose here! I built a freakin' empire out of some crazy garbage called the blood of the exploited working class! I will NOT lose here!

Lila looked directly up into the light and punched right at it with her drill-arm with all her might. After the beam died down, there was smoke exuding off of the diminutive mecha, and portions of her looked about ready to fall off. However, she was still standing. "I. Am not. Weak."

Hikari's wings of light unfolded once more. As she did, feathers... or arrows of light? Something began to be fired from the wings, hitting just as hard as her other attacks.

Unable to do a great deal against the wings, Lila just threw up her arms and took it to the chin. Despite her sliding back, and despite her blurring vision, there was no way she was going to fall over. Not now. Not to some little glow-bug.

"THAT'S IT." She knelt down and put a hand to the ground. Her gun, the bombs that had fizzled earlier, even the various discarded shell casings and the like that had been discarded over the course of the battle glowed, before vanishing. As they did, the armor on Lila's body seemed to thicken and grow in size, reinforcing itself. Beyond that, the gun on her left arm changed, becoming less of a chain gun, and more of a single barrel. "That's how you hit light." she muttered, pointing her left arm at Hikari. "I'm strong! I'll show you, you goddamn firefly!"

A massive golden laser-beam fired out of the new gun on Lila's left hand. "DIE, YOU ANNOYING LITTLE BITCH! YOU'RE NOT TAKING THIS WIN FROM ME! It's MINE, you hear me?!"

"Final experiment... The subject loses rationality and makes a foolish mistake... Showing the weakling she is."

The laser curved away from Hikari, doubling back on the one who fired it.

This was where Lila cursed to herself. DUH. You turn MAGIC back with the MAGIC seal. Obviously you don't hit the LIGHT seal with a freaking LASER BEAM. Heheh... I messed up...

She jumped aside, moving out of the way of the brunt of the beam, the remaining amount catching her right on the drill and sending her into a spin before she hit the ground a short distance away. Dammit... I need more resources...! she thought, struggling to a knee and reforming her left arm again, this time into another gun.

Suddenly, there was a bright, violent green glow on her abdomen, a brilliant circle glowing even through her armor.

At the same time, a pinpoint of matching green light shone on Ed's leg, also brilliantly visible despite his clothes being in the way.

What's going on..?! Lila looked at her seal, then at her brother. Did I break something?! Why's HE shining?!

Hikari stared on, her back shining even brighter. With a small mental shrug, she held out her hand. Even if the light was emanating from various other Elemental Seals... no matter the source, light was light. And light was hers. That pinpoint Ed's leg, the brilliance from her own back, even the light coming from Lila's own leg... Even the other Seals on the island that were resonating with all of this, all converged into one rainbow-colored final lance of light, aimed straight for Lila's heart.

Lila saw the attack coming, and just as fast she moved. The lance hit home right in her right shoulder as she winced in pain. She squinted towards the girl who shot it, gritting her teeth and pointing her left, gun arm at Hikari. "I won't give in...!" she yelled between heavy breaths, firing what appeared to be metallic shrapnel in a ridiculously wide-angle at the girl.

Hikari was once again elsewhere. Movement at the speed of light was something that made her difficult to hit. At the same time, the tiny flashes of light from the gun's own muzzle flares were being turned on it to destroy it.

Lila watched as her gun was torn to shreds almost instantly by the light from the muzzle itself.Her control over light's that complete... Hah... Fine then. I'll use something that light CAN'T stop!

Again, Lila's armor began to shift. This time it changed to something significantly more cylindrical, the drill on one arm and the gun on the other both disappearing to provide the parts she needed for this particular rearrangement.

"Hey. Brat. Ever heard of the Large Hadron Collider?" Lila asked as the cylinder finished itself. "It creates a miniature black hole. Just perfect for studying their effects on the universe..."

She shoved the cylinder inside the steel on her armor, and it was taken in quickly, the metallic plating shifting around it seamlessly. "Just made one. Only... mine's a little more ambitious of a project. It's a bigger black hole, with the same technology. Say. Lightning Bug. What do you think would happen if this thing cracked...?" Lila's face held a sort of manic grin that just screamed 'Go ahead. Find out.' "I don't care how fast you are. The planet can't stop an unconstrained black hole's gravity from crushing it, and you can't outrun that kind of pull."

"You can't." Hikari stated simply.

"You're throwing muzzle flashes as weapons. I'm stealing magic and throwing it back at you. One person got disintegrated in an explosion of orange energy that makes you better at drawing trading cards in a game, and THAT BOY OVER THERE WENT THROUGH PUBERTY IN TWO SECONDS AND SPROUTED WINGS. Don't you tell ME what I can and can't do, especially if I just did!"

"If you do that, you will die too. There's no way that can be avoided." Hikari stared on. "And that will mean you were unable to defeat one single child. Unleashing that is admitting you were weaker than I... And your pride cannot accept that, can it?"

"Hah... That's what you think, eh? Well, you're damn right. If this fight kept going like it had, you'd win. And I'd lose. You miscalculated, though. Twice, actually." Lila pointed at the little girl. "You have something you care about. That Isabel girl, you want to stay with her, right? She'll die too if this thing gets unleashed... and then you won't be able to see her again. That's one." Lila materialized a gun, pointing it at the column that she'd made. "Your second is about me and my pride. I've seen what you little babies can do before. And if I'm going to lose... Hah. A world where I lose doesn't deserve to exist. I'll crush it with my own two hands, if I have to. That's the real extent of this pride you're talking about. Now, shut off your seal, or I'll break this puppy open and kill every last damn one of us." The tone in Lila's voice was unexpectedly cold, and there was a fiery glare in her eyes that belied a feeling of absolute hatred.

"... You have miscalculated as well."

Throughout this whole battle, Hikari had never once changed expression. Indeed, ever since she arrived on the island, her face barely ever changed. It was as though she simply did not know how to show her feelings like that. However, when she heard this, for the first time Hikari... smiled.

"Please, do it."

Lila just smiled right back. "... It's been nice knowing you, little girl." She tossed the canister in front of her, and in one shot she'd blasted it clear in half. This much was certain: Lila Daughtily was not one to bluff. As the machine broke, a tiny black point appeared between the two of them. Then, it started to pull things in. It started with the canister itself, then what was around that... and it just kept growing, bit by bit, as it did.

Hikari simply smiled, the smile of the victor. There was only one conclusion to draw from this— The demise of all that lived was precisely what Hikari wanted.

(( OOC: As for what happens next? Well, you'll just have to wait for Hino's description of what happens when reality gets ripped a new one, which'll be posted when the time is just right. Stay tuned...! ))