YEARS AGO: MOUNTAIN FUKUJIMA, TVARYN

"Where are you going?" A sad looking Ignis notices a leaving Feliticia.

Adjusting her giant bag on her back, Feliticia looked back. "I need to depart, Ignis."

"For how long...?"

"A long time. I don't even know if we'll see each other again."

"But... Why?"

"There's someone that needs me. He needs my help. I can't turn back on him."

"So that's it?! You're leaving?! Just like that?!"

Feliticia smiles, petting Ignis on her head, gently. "One day, you'll be visited by a Sanada, even if it's not me. I want you to take care of them for me, okay? Follow them. Fight for them. Show them the path."

"The path to what...?"

Feliticia lands her right index finger on Ignis' chest, smiling. "Here."

PRESENT DAY: MAIN PLAZA, ROYAL CITY OF FELITICIA, TVARYN

"What's this bet?" Ihote asks, waiting for the answer.

"Him against you." She points to Kenichi. "If he wins, our agreement is cancelled and you give me the information I want. If he loses, I'll return to the mountain forever and you can keep the information I want with you forever."

Ihote laughs. "For him to beat me, he first needs to beat Bernardus. And I seriously doubt he can do that!"

Everything said, Kenichi gripped his sword as hard as he could, as he jumped forward using his SOUL, hitting incredible speeds.

Bernardus seemed pissed, as he did the same, taking his claws out.

As both jumped at each other, screaming, they both slashed each other and...

PRESENT DAY: MAIN PLAZA, ROYAL CITY OF FELITICIA, TVARYN

As they approached each other, Kenichi threw his sword upwards, as he dodged Bernardus' slashes and grabbed his neck.

"Do you think you can choke me?!" His yellow eyes started to send little thunders around.

"No! But I can immobilize you for a bit!" Kenichi said, then jumping back.

As Bernardus looked up, he deflected his sword away. "That wasー"

Bernardus was suddenly interrupted as Kenichi used this opening to punch him right in the face, following the punch, with a hook on his flank, another to his face again and finally, a boot kick right in Bernardus' stomach, sending him some inches away. "If I can't defeat you by strength, I'll defeat you by being smarter than you!" Kenichi said, determined.

Distanced from them, several of Ihote's lackeys started to laugh as they were trapping Tarozaemon and Machi in a circle of them. Tarozaemon looked around as he noticed Machi's eyes shining red. "Tell me whenever you're ready, kid."

"NOW!" Machi shouted, making Tarozaemon throw himself on the ground, as Machi spread her arms quickly forming a fire circle that took the lackeys by surprise, defeating a bunch of them.

Tarozaemon stood up, cleaning his kimono. "Good job, kid."

"Thanks!" She said, preparing her weapons once again for the enemies that could dodge the attack somehow.

Ihote grits his teeth at the sight of this. "Where the hell is that mercenary?! Can't they work well for nothing?!"

Tarozaemon puts his sword in its scabbard, looking at Machi. "Can you take care of this?"

"By myself? I'm not sure..."

"Believe in yourself. I want you to try a SOUL Drive."

"A SOUL... Drive? What's that?" She asked, confused.

"You can think of SOUL Drives as special devastating attacks that consume more SOUL than usual. Just imagine anything that you could do as that kind of attack. Like this..." Tarozaemon's eyes shined, as debris started to fly around him. "「MIGHTY CRASH」!"

As Tarozaemon's foot met the ground, it created a huge crater that defeated another group of lackeys around them. Machi was unscathed, since Tarozaemon had grabbed her arm and avoided the attack to affect the ground beneath them.

Ihote gritted his teeth, but when he noticed a figure approaching he smirked. "Finally! I thought you mercenaries were starting to get afraid of coming!"

"Mercenaries?" Tarozaemon looked at where Ihote was looking, widening his eyes and pointing his sword at the newcomer.

Long black hair, bloody red eyes and black bandaged covering his mouth, this newcomer laughed. "C'mon, Taro. Is that how you greet me after so long." He had the mercenaries usual white, grey and red attire on.

"After you and the chief killed all of those children, I couldn't keep myself from leaving, Daemon."

"It's okay, Taro. But isn't this fate? I got paid to kill my own twin brother."

"Taro...?" Machi was scared about this new development, but not for long, as a bulky anthropomorphic crocodile lackey stood up, facing her.

"Girl... I'll kill you!" He said, showing a burn mark in his chest. "You hit me good, but that's the last hit you'll land!" He took a sword out.

Machi got into her usual stance, a kunai in each hand.

Back to Kenichi and Bernardus as they are trading blows, blocking each other's moves.

"You may be good in hand to hand combat, but that won't last!" Bernardus said, eyes shining yellow. "「MACHINE GUN FLURRY」!" He started to punch Kenichi's stomach with several electrified fast punches, until the last punch that send him away, falling on his back.

As Kenichi falls, he starts coughing. "Goddamn... He's way too much for me..." He looks back and notices he fell pretty close to the statue of his mother. "Can't let this be destroyed."

Bernardus grits his teeth. "Stand up!"

"Why are you fighting me, Bernardus?! What did Ihote promised for you to betray us?!"

"I didn't betray you... You were always a pawn to me..."

"That's a lie!" He screamed, his voice echoing in the plaza, Bernardus' eyes widening. "I can see it in your eyes! What's wrong?! I canー"

"You can't do jack shit!" Bernardus screams. "He has information on a friend of mine! I need to do this if I wanna see her again! I didn't want to hurt you, but if that means seeing her again, I'll do it!"

YEARS AGO: MAIN PLAZA, ROYAL CITY OF FELITICIA, TVARYN

Bernardus is resting on a bench, looking at the sunset sky.

A girl approaches him. Long blonde hair that covered half of her back, with yellow furred ears and a long tail. The hair, ears and tail have small brown and black spots on them. "Hey, Bernardus!"

"Uh? Oh, hello, Your Highness!"

"Can you call me by my name, please? We're the same age!" She says, pinching his cheeks.

"Okay, okay! Sorry, Bella!"

She stops. "Good!" They both laugh. "And then again, I'm only adopted, I'm not really royalty."

"Still counts. For all we know, you're the next Queen of Feliticia!"

"Don't even joke about that!" She blushes. "I'd need my king, though..."

"You'll get one eventually! I'll protect you until that day arrives." He smiles.

She sighs, still smiling. "Boy, you're dense..."

"Uh?"

"Forget it! Here! I wanted to give you this." She gives him a necklace with a fang on its end.

"What's this?"

"A gift, duh!"

"Oh, really? I thought it was garbage."

"Hey!" She punches him softly a couple times in the shoulder, while he laughs.

"I'm joking, I'm joking!"

"That's a fang from a shark."

"A shark?! How did you get this?! This is rare as hell!"

"I had someone get it for me. One of the perks of being a princess!" She laughs.

Bernardus laughs as well. "Maybe you're right."

"Hey, Bernardus..."

"Uh?"

"Should we get married in the future?" She says, looking at the sky.

Bernardus keeps his silence, looking at the ground for a bit. As he made his mind up, he turns to her with a smile on his face. "Yeah, totally!"

She laughs, a tear leaving one of her eyes. He smiles looking at her.

PRESENT DAY: MAIN PLAZA, ROYAL CITY OF FELITICIA, TVARYN

"I'll meet her again! Even if that costs my own life afterwards!" Bernardus says, tears filling his yellow lighted eyes.

Kenichi's eyes slowly turn silver as he gets ready to dash towards Bernardus. Closing his right fist, Kenichi's whole right arm is enveloped by a silver aura. "Time to end this..."

Machi was fighting the crocodile lackey. "I need to finish this quickly, if I wanna help Kenichi and Tarozaemon..." She thought, as her cheeks filled with air.

"Hm?" The crocodile noticed this and also filled his own cheeks with air, eyes shining blue.

"「DRAGON BREATH」!" Machi would spit a fire stream directly to her enemy.

"「KRAKEN SHOT」!" The crocodile spit a huge shot of water that put the flames away and hit Machi, throwing her to the ground.

She stands up, cleaning the dirt off of her face. "This will be difficult..."

Tarozaemon and Daemon clashed swords, as sparks flew everywhere.

"Do you really think you can beat me, Taro?" Daemon mocked his brother.

"I won't just beat you. I'll mop the floor with you!" His eyes shined orange as spikes appeared under Daemon, though he'd dodge them easily with some quick back dashes.

"Unfortunately for you, I know how you fight, Taro. Now... Let me show you my power." His eyes started to shine green as the winds around him raged, creating some sort of a wind shield around him.

Tarozaemon smirked. "Nature SOUL, uh? It's true that I never watched you use your SOUL, but that doesn't mean I can't defeat you."

"So you still think you have a chance?"

"Do you really think I'd be afraid of a little breeze?"

Daemon laughed. "Mockery will get you nowhere, Taro."

"No." He gets into an offensive stance. "But my sword will."

While this happens, Ihote is cleaning the interior of his cannon, after he cleaned his axe. Ignis sees this. "You seem very relaxed."

"Of course, I do! Not even my Lord knows half of the things I'm planning!"

"Your Lord...? What you're planning...?"

"I'm here to conquer this city for myself. I'll find all of the runes and use you guys for my own benefit. I couldn't care less about others."

"So you're betraying your master?"

"He never was a master to me. I only allied myself to him so I could get more powerful! Now, I can do anything I want!" He laughs, sadistically.

"You didn't even do anything yourself... You make others do your bidding for yourself!"

"Is it that bad, Ignis? Using others for my own devices? You want to do the same, right?"

She looks down. "Leave Sanada out of this. I'm not using him!"

"Wait... Sanada?" Ignis covers her mouth as she notices what she said. "So you're saying that little shit is part of the Sanada bloodline?!" He laughs, hysterically. "I can't believe this shit! You have to be joking with me! My luck is so on point today!" He grabs his cannon and axe again. "Maybe I'll finish this now to spare time!"

"No!"

"Uh?"

"We had a deal! Don't you dare go back on it!"

Ihote stops himself and smiles. "If you wanna delay his death, okay. Be my guest, Ignis."

The crocodile lackey laughed as his sword laid in the ground, shattered to pieces. "You actually broke my weapon... You goddamn brat, I'll kill you!" He starts running towards her.

Machi's right hand's claws get enveloped by fire, as her eyes shine red. "「INFERNAL CLAW」!" She slashed her enemy, as she passed by him.

"Gh...!" The lackey falls, as Machi's body flickers red for just a second.

As she looks at her hands, breathing with difficulty. "I'm... all out..." She drops to one of her knees.

As Tarozaemon and Daemon trade blows between Tarozaemon's Masamune and Daemon's wind blades.

Daemon laughs as this goes on. "Quit now, Taro. As soon as you get tired, I'll just finish you up."

"My stamina or your SOUL. What do you think will run out first?" He said, still trading hits with the wind blades.

"I trained for a long time, maybe you need to find for yourself."

Tarozaemon laughs. "Then let's go, brother! Let's fight each other and see who's actually stronger!"

"See who's actually stronger? Haha, poor Taro. That's obviously me!" As a wind blade hits Masamune with too much strength, the sword goes flying.

Tarozaemon grist his teeth, as a wind blade approaches his face at high speeds.

"DIE!" Daemon screamed.

END OF DOCUMENT X