Ouroboros Cycle

"Mivange!" Shien opened his eyes through his visor. "Mivange! Are you there?"

He looked around, expecting to find his girlfriend or mom in Choro Emplexion. Instead, he saw a cockpit where a crusader droid piloted.

"Where am I? What's a crusader droid doing here?" Shien panicked. "Am I kidnapped?"

He gasped when he saw a familiar girl in a tattered blue Yukata who was severely scared and bleeding through bandages on her face and chest.

"You?" Shien struggled, realizing he was tied up. "Let me go!"

Kyrinna said nothing but glared at him with cold, expressionless eyes. "Panthereal Shiva: Eyes of Krishna!"

Shien felt a cold wind roll his eyes back into a deep sleep, unable to change his fate.

***

"Shien!" Mivangeline awoke from her bed in Choro Emplexion. "Are you there? Shien?"

No answer. Red sirens blared through the icy hall of corpses and monstrous crystals.

"Shien! Where are you?" She took off her visor and tripped. "Elysia? Ritom? Anyone?"

It had been many years since she walked in the real world. Mivangeline crawled through the ice, searching for Shien.

"Mivangeline! You're okay. You're okay!" Lansen waddled from the hallways where UICA soldiers tended to their wounded. "I miss you. I miss you!"

"Lansen, I missed you too," She hugged the round bird. "What happened here?"

"Big battle. Big battle!" Lansen hopped in circles. "We saw an ice queen attack with a big buddha!"

"What ice queen?" Mivangeline then remembered Kyrinna's Panthereal Shiva. "No way. Kyrinna attacked the base while we were fighting Emphynixyion? I hope Shien and everyone else is okay."

She knelt and watched the UICA soldiers struggle to repair the destruction. Nashura and Calice helped those in critical condition to the medical bay. Many were brutally sliced or clawed by Kyrinna's Sanskrit art.

"You awake too, Commander?" Elysia crawled out of bed and chucked her visor at Lansen. "Stupid visor thing!"

"Elysia!" Mivangeline jumped to hug her. "Thank God you're okay!"

The two helped each other stand as Lansen gulped down the visor, believing it to be garbage. "Yum! Yum!"

"Elysia, have you seen Shien? Anyone?"

"Uh, I think I saw Naivern, Ritom, Enshiron, and most of the squad resting. Hmm, but I don't recall what happened to Shien. Wait, I have the perfect way to attract Shien here!"

She yelled. "Shien! You're short anyway, so no wonder you're too hard to find. That's right, a chickadee is a tiny pipsqueak, just like you!"

Elysia grinned, hoping Shien would rampage at her for the short joke, and imagined what he would say. Who's a tiny pipsqueak, you dumb fox? Do you want to fight?

The UICA soldiers stared at Elysia with raised eyebrows as if she'd lost her mind.

Her Vulpi ears drooped when nothing happened. "Well, it was worth a shot."

"Mivangeline!" Familiar voices called. "Good to see you!"

"Mom! Dad!"

"Give us a moment!" Niode nodded to her. "We'll be right there!"

Niode and Tetsuyin were carrying someone familiar. Mivangeline and Elysia gasped to see Isrina bleeding from her forehead bandages and jagged crystals that pierced her belly.

"Why can't I beat Kyrinna?" Isrina bawled in tears, flailing against Mivangeline's parents. "Shien, please come back! My Little Chickadee! I want you in my arms again!"

"Take her here! Quickly!" Nashura led them into the medical bay.

Mivangeline knelt and cried on the crystallized floor. "Kyrinna took Shien? That can't be!"

"That ice queen with Mr. Muscle bot back in Syanic Earth? What in the world does she want with that shortie?" Elysia huffed. "We just got back to the real world! Can't we take a break?"

Mivangeline clenched her fist. We promised to date after the Syanic Earth! Why does the Federation want to stop us?

Elysia shuddered when Mivangeline's fist cracked the icy ground. "Damn, girl! That tiny chickadee's training is still in you?"

Mivangeline exerted a breath of rage and determination. "We'll find you, Shien. I promise with all of my heart!"

***

"Master Iagen," High Visionary Joltiarre walked on the prism road of the Archkaos, the music dimension.

A fleshy blob of coagulated human bodies screamed with giant mouths. Arms and legs erupted from their distressed mouths, silencing them by wrapping the bodies into shape. They molded into a shadowy Vulpi with pentagram pupils.

"My dear friend, Joltiarre," Iagen's fangs grinned through melted pores. "What do you wish to tell me?"

"Kyrinna has captured Shien. Isrina is separated from her son."

"Ah, good, my dear. And what of the three sarcophagi?"

"Fanghui began his assault in Africa to open Delmisa's sarcophagus hidden in the Kalahari Desert, and we already opened Terrhina's in Hualien. All that's left would be Indeavorga in Niagara Falls."

"Good! Good!" Iagen pat Joltiarre on the shoulder. "You've done well, my friend."

"Just promise me I can be prettier than Mivangeline. Thinking of her makes me sick."

"And you shall, indeed, Joltiarre! I'll grant you what you desire once our tasks are complete."

"Thank you," The jealous High Visionary stomped her scepter onto the prism floor and vanished.

A brown-robed lady wearing a skull mask with horns erupting from her eyes and nostrils materialized into the musical realm.

It was Terrhina, the Earth Sister. "I still can't devour any women! Grandmaster Aian's curse has ruined my magic and beauty."

"Have patience," Iagen ran his long, skeletal fingers on Terrhina's chin. "Once we have awakened the other two Prognosticus and have Shien's blood, your old powers to drain the beauty of other girls shall return."

"We're making good progress. Sol Eszkeios Epsilon will return and erase all musical life. And I shall surpass Aian and take her place as Grandmaster!"

"And you still plan on using Joltiarre as your host? She's weak! Surely, that girl isn't your next pupil of the Ouroboros Fang."

Master Iagen grinned, stroking his necklace of human ribs. "I never said she would be my next apprentice, my dear."

"Then who? Who have you found worthy to continue the Ouroboros Cycle?"

"Not to worry. I found a new disciple far more powerful than any other," Iagen laughed with his eyes envisioning Isrina.

End of Meteonis Arc