Kawa froze as soon as he heard Graciela. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

“Your reaction is as I expected.” She smiled at him. “Nobody suspected me. Not even Akane.”

“W...who the hell are you?”

“I’m Valentina Silva, the Major General of the Ai troops from Venus.” She pushed back her black hair behind her ear. “You’re the only one I told you about. Only high Venusian officials and Lady Aurora know.”

“So, you’re a spy? That explains the whole…” Kawa widened his serpent-like eyes in realization. “It was you. James was trying to tell me back then… He wanted to tell me that it was Venus all along. That Jove, where all Europan samurais were killed… and… the Limitless the Venusians found and sold it to Mars…!”

“It’s impressive that you were able to figure it out all at once.” She gave a bitter laugh. 

“But why? Akane trusted you! James and I… We trusted you!”

“So what? We, five districts, had been fighting for a long time even before the war started. All we did was to give them a push.”

“So, the one who killed the wives is…?”

“A Venusian that was sent by Lady Aurora, yes. That was me. Everything had been as we planned.”

Kawa shook his head furiously, almost surprising himself that he still had strength left to do so. He hissed in pain as his head suddenly started throbbing.

Valentina sighed sadly. “It’s too bad that Akane is dead now. I would have allowed her and you to live as well. She is my only friend.”

Kawa’s breaths began to become more laborious and heavy. “What is it that… Lady Aurora wants?”

“Total domination of the solar system, but hey, she is not the only one who wants that,” she said. “All other Lords and Ladies want it too. Why else do you think they have been fighting for a long time?”

Kawa began to close his eyes, which were getting heavier and heavier. 

“Akane truly loved you, even though you are the Earthling, the enemy of Mars,” She said sadly with a light sigh, changing the topic back to the dead Martian samurai. She stood up from the floor, much easier than before when her back hurt badly. “She would never stop talking about you.”

She turned to walk away, leaving Kawa to die alone. As soon as she got to the icy wall, she sliced her katana through the air, disappearing the entire ice instantly.

“You.. fucking lying bitch!”

“Oh, you’re still alive?” Valentina scoffed as she turned around only to be shocked at the sight of him.

He was standing.

“H-how?” She asked, her voice trembling. She noticed that he was holding something in his free fist.

“You’ve been playing all of us for a long time!” He quickly slammed his hand on his mouth and gulped immediately afterward. “I will never forgive you! She died because of you! She joined the war because you decided to give us a push to start the war!”

“What did you just take?” Valentina was now in panic mode. She never expected that Kawa would be still alive this long.

Kawa growled loudly, starting her. Two dragon-like wings grew out of his back, tearing apart his blue spandex top. “The last two remaining Chaos pills.”

Shit! I thought he took all of it?! Valentina bit her bottom lip in frustration. She quickly withdrew his katana one last time. Without even a swing of her sword, the wall behind her instantly became frozen with thick ice.

As soon as she blinked her green eyes once, Kawa was completely gone. Before she even finished gasping, she got sent flying through the air by a sudden explosion of the flames right in front of her. She hit the icy wall not only with her back but also the back of her head, crying in pain. She collapsed to the hard floor, whimpering lightly.

Kawa walked calmly toward her and stopped when he got closer. He whispered a few words, but she could not hear him, shooting him with a confused look on her face.

Then, he glanced up at the icy wall. Even without the help of his katana, the ice turned liquid quickly, opening the only exit door.

And so he left her all alone, with her wondering what the hell he just said.

It’s for the Solar System.

~EARTHxMARS~

“Fuck this! It isn’t worth my life at all!” One of the Europan samurais cried as he was running away with his fellow comrades. “I thought the Lieutenant Colonel Hernandez took care of him?!”

While most Venusian and Europan samurais fled the unwanted battle with the Dragon Samurai, most of the Martian samurais decided to stay at the palace in order to protect their precious Lord.

“Kill him at any cost!” One of the Martian samurais yelled as they charged toward the calm Dragon Samurai.

Yet somehow Kawa was able to dodge every sword attack without even using his own katana to block them once. Even though at least ten samurais went all at once.

As if he was taking his time, he sliced one by one at once with his roaring katana, which was turning blacker and blacker. It was as if his katana was stained and covered with more and more ashes. 

Soon, the Martian samurais started to back off from him. It was not because of how fast he was, but it was because of nearly unbearable heat emitting from either his body or katana.

Each calm step Kawa made, the spots of bright green grass below his combat boots turned black burned stone instantly.

In his own world, he only thought of nothing but revenge. He did not even bother to acknowledge any samurai who tried to strike him down at all.

Soon, he was getting more and more annoyed by the fact that an increasing number of samurais were consistently going at him. He yelled in anger, sending another wave of flames coming from his own feet all across the open field.

Some unlucky samurais caught up with flames on their bodies and started freaking out and running around trying to put them out.

The closer Kawa got to the building in the middle of the palace, the more anger he was feeling at the thought of facing Lord Ares one last time. He had to hurry. His body was not going to stay intact forever.

So he ran. Within a second, he disappeared into the Japanese temple-like building.

~EARTHxMARS~

“My Lord! You have to leave as soon as possible!” A Martian samurai barged into Lord Ares’s private chamber without knocking first.

“I told you to knock before you barged into here!” Ares snapped at him after he was startled by him.

“This guy who defeated Lieutenant Colonel Graciela Hernandez is coming here! The same guy who took First Lieutenant Wu away from us!”

“So, that Earthling guy again? How in the red hell did he get in here again? I thought I increased the number of patrols?”

“Never mind, sir! You have to leave now! This guy is very dangerous!”

Suddenly, the panicked Martian samurai got cut in the vertical half, separating and falling over the floor with a sickening quiet thud.

“W-who are you?!” Ares yelled in panic, not recognizing Kawa at all. He was completely different from the Earthling guy who was here only a few hours ago. 

“I am… a samurai from Earth. I’m here to defeat you in the name of not only Earth but also the rest of the solar system!”

“Shit!” Ares shouted as he withdrew his katana, but he was way too slow for the Dragon Samurai. 

As soon as Kawa made the first step, he was already at Ares’s throat with his blackened katana. 

“Please don’t!” Ares cried in panic, his tears streaming down his face. “Please spare me! Have mercy!”

“Where was your mercy for Akane in the first place?” He asked dangerously and angrily. “You didn’t even give her a second chance.”

“I’m so sorry! I will do anything you want!” At this point, Lord Ares was literally sobbing out of fear.

Kawa was hesitant at first, but he knew that his time was running out. Although Venus was at fault for causing the war which led to so many deaths of his loved ones, still if it was not for Lord Ares, then Akane would not have to die.

No, it was his own fault as well. Kawa frowned at his own thoughts. After all, Akane tried to save his life by turning herself in.

Unaware of what Ares was trying to do, Kawa gasped at the sudden pain. He quickly looked down to discover that he had been stabbed in his stomach by Ares’s small dagger. His own blue spandex top was getting soaked with his own blood.

As the sweat drops were sliding down from his forehead due to the heat of the flaming sword, Lord Ares laughed out loud in either anxiety, relief, excitement, or all of them at once. “You should have killed me first!”

It was a big mistake, especially when Kawa’s katana was still at Ares’s neck. So, out of rage, he slashed it cleanly. 

He was watching as Ares lifelessly fell onto the hard wooden floor. He moaned loudly when he felt every pain from his body that had been numb ever since the moment he took the last two Chaos pills. It did not take long before he suddenly coughed out his own blood. His intestines had been filled with his own blood from the wound.

At this point, he was not sure which would kill him first, the overdosed drug or his deadly wounds if not treated.

He carefully laid down on the floor as he was getting more and more dizzy every second. He gasped lightly at the sudden increase of pain.

He was in deep thoughts for the entire time that he had been staring at the red ceiling. The red color was still reminding him of his own rage, but it did not matter to him anymore.

He actually did it. He got rid of Lord Ares for good. That meant the war should be ending anytime soon. Earth would definitely win.

At this point, he did not care about Venus even though they triggered the war between Mars and Earth. Right from the start, all he wanted to do was to stop the war. If Venus sided with Mars, and Mars lost the war, then they were fucked the moment they joined their side anyway.

He chuckled softly at himself. A sole Earthling defeated the whole Mars. He did not give any damn if nobody knew who did it.

He stopped the war.

He finally closed his eyes into darkness.

~EARTHxMARS~

“No, that is not it, Kawa. The war will not end just like that.”

Kawa snapped his normal dark eyes open, wondering who the hell said that in front of him. He carefully got up, but he felt no pain at all. He began to wonder if he had gone to heaven yet, even though he was not religious at all. He glanced around, finding himself in the nothingness.

“He is right, Kawa. There is still a threat lingering around,” another voice said, but this time it was female.

“A...Akane?”

“Hey! Are you even listening?!” James yelled angrily as he came out of the brightness. “Look at what revenge has done to you!”

“W-what do you mean? Where are we?”

“We are trapped in our own katanas,” Akane said calmly as she came out as well. “How many times have I been telling you? Revenge is not the answer!”

“Yeah! Venus did it! Well, actually…” James scratched the back of his head. “It was Lady Aurora. She…”

“She is not from our solar system,” Akane finished for him. “She is an alien. At least that’s what the katanas told us.”

“...What? How did you get your katanas to talk to you?” Kawa raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“Beats us.” James shrugged his shoulders. 

“Shit!” Kawa grabbed his own hair. “What should we do?! I…”

“Ka…? Kawa…? Yo… disappear...” Akane’s voice was getting fainter and fainter.

“What did you say?”

“Ka…” James looked like he was shouting but it was getting quieter and quieter each time.

~EARTHxMARS~

“We can tell everybody that the Mars Lord was killed by an Earthling,” a familiar voice said. “Although I have no idea how he made it through hundreds of samurais from all of Venus, Mars, and Europa.”

“But how are we supposed to explain? What if Earth will take advantage of the victory and attack us?!”

Kawa’s vision was still blurry, but his eyes were half open. But to every person in the same room, his blank eyes were dead to them.

“You don’t have to worry about that.” It was Valentina, as Kawa finally recognized her voice. “From what I heard, most of the Earthling and Lunan troops were wiped out back in space months ago.”

“You can’t be serious, ma’am.”

“Yeah, it was thanks to the Europan samurais on the Jove, although most of them died honorably. An Earthling and Lunan managed to escape… and then see what happened to Lord Ares.”

No… she is lying. She did the whole thing… Kawa was trying to move his mouth, but was not able to. He could not even blink at all.

“I see. Thank you for the report, ma’am.” The Martian samurai left the room.

“Ma’am?” It was another male voice.

“I am going to Earth and do my final job.” Valentina turned to the male Venusian samurai and gave him a small smirk.

“Ah, that’s correct. You’re going to dress up like a Martian samurai and assassinate the Earth Lord --”

“Shhh!” Valentina snapped at him. “Don’t say it out loud!”

“I apologize, ma’am!”

No… Kawa thought sadly. He was now regretting the decisions he had been making for the entire time. He was really thinking that with the dead Lord Mars, Earth would definitely seize the victory at last.

“Ahem… yeah, I’m doing that so I can ensure that nobody wins the war at all. Sooner or later, Earth, Moon, and Mars will turn to Venus for their assistance. That means Venus will have their absolute rule for the entire solar system.”

“Wait, Moon?”

“Lady Sabrina was killed a few days ago.” Valentina ran her hand through her messy black hair. “It was an Europan spy this time.”

“Ah, I see…”

A single tear came out of Kawa’s blank eye as he was going back into darkness once again, never coming back to see James and Akane again.