Disclaimer: There's gonna be a bey battle in this chapter and I'm not an expert in the technical side of beyblade. So if anything I wrote doesn't make sense to you, sorry. Anyway, back to the story.

"Alright , everyone! Take five before the next training session!"

Ever since the Asahi brothers' victory in the Ultimate Tag Series, The Bombers club has been receiving an influx of new members who were inspired and eager to battle against and alongside the two young Legends. This, however, also meant more work for their current and only coach, Rantaro 'Honcho' Kiyama. Fortunately for him, the brothers, as well as the three original members of The Bombers; Chuck, Gun and Raika; were always available to lend a helping hand in handling the team, though they knew that they wouldn't be enough to maintain the increasing number of new recruits. But since Hikaru and Hyuga were on that "vacation", four of them now remain to keep everything in order.

Currently, they were all taking a break after a few rounds of training. Rantaro was kind enough to treat his three little helpers to some sandwiches that his mother made for him. The four of them sat together on a bench while munching on their lunch.

"Man, these sandwiches are so GOOD!" Chuck commented.

"The salad is crunchy and the meat just melts in your mouth." Gun added.

Rantaro couldn't help but chuckle at this compliment. "Well, what can I say? My mom's a champ when it comes to food!"

"Too bad Hikaru and Hyuga aren't here. They'd definitely love these." Raika said, lamenting on the absence of the brothers.

"Hey, speaking of Hikaru and Hyuga, I wonder where and how they are now?" Gun said. "Mr and Mrs Asahi said they went on a vacation with Valt, Aiga and Drum but they never said where."

"Come to think of it, it does make me wonder too," Rantaro stated while pulling out his phone. Displayed on the small screen were tons of unread messages from him to Valt. "I've tried texting Valt like a hundred times but I haven't heard anything from him."

"You think they went to a secluded island getaway?" Chuck wondered, imagining the five Legends relaxing on a nice beach. But this thought faded when he heard the blonde teen shrug.

"Pfft, I doubt Valt would spend all of his hard earned victory cash on something like that. If anything, he'd use it to buy all the beybread and pork buns in the world. Regardless..."

A menacing aura suddenly surrounded the lollipop boy. "Once he comes back, I'll show him the consequences of leaving his old pal in the dark like this. How dare he not invite me to join his vacation." he uttered as he nearly crushed his sandwich with his hands. It was from here that Rantaro started ranting to himself about how he was going to make Valt "pay" for ignoring his messages and not inviting him along for the vacation as his three students looked on.

"He's seriously getting worked up over this?!" they collectively thought while sweat-dropping.

As the boys were staring at their teacher, Raika's attention turned to a television screen hanging from the ceiling. The news was on, but it was not about beyblade.

"We move on to international news," the news anchor on TV said. "A graveyard in the city of São Paulo, Brazil has been robbed and vandalised, with three graves found exposed and the bodies missing. This is the most recent in the string of incidents involving the vandalism and robbery of several burial sites around the world in the past few days. By now, 10 burial sites have been found in states of disarray - two in the Americas, one in Europe, two in Africa and four in Asia. The International Criminal Police Organisation is still conducting an ongoing investigation into the identity of the perpetrators of these crimes."

This news caught the eyes of almost everyone in the gym. Normally, youngsters wouldn't really pay much attention to the news. But with such a large scale crime occurring across the globe, even the kids would have trouble sleeping at night.

"10 grave robberies in just the past few days? That's crazy!" Chuck exclaimed.

"Not to mention that it happened all over the world in such a short time." Gun added.

The everyone was obviously concerned about the situation, but none more concerned than Rantaro himself.

"My cousin lives in that area of Brazil. Hope nothing bad reaches him." the blonde said to himself.

Suddenly, a little chime alongside a small vibration came from Rantaro's phone. He quickly looked at the screen only to realise that it was a text from his younger brother, Ranjiro.

Alarmed, the older Kiyama texted back.

What Ranjiro replied next was not what he expected.

🔸🔸🔸

In the outskirts of Beigoma City, stood the Kiyama Family Cemetery, which was now surrounded by police. Two graves have been severely damaged, with the ashes of the deceased and incense sticks scattered all over the ground. As the case had a relation to his personal life, police detective Ryūji Kiyama was allowed to lead the investigation.

Outside of the crime scene, his wife and youngest son stood, distraught over the destruction of the graves.

"How could someone disrespect our ancestors like this? What did our family do to deserve this, Jiro?" Mrs Kiyama lamented to her son, who was trying his best to console her.

"Don't worry, Mom. I'm sure Dad will solve this case in no time," he assured his mother. "Once he gets enough clues, it'll be jail time for those idiots. After all, no one messes with us Kiyamas!"

Back to the crime scene, Ryūji was constantly scanning the area in search of any plausible evidence that could lead to the culprit's identity. That was when he discovered something in the scattered ashes. Strange repeated marks were in the ashes, their pattern resembling footprints. However, these "footprints" didn't seem to match up with any animals native to the area, at least to Ryūji's knowledge.

"How strange. What kind of thing would be capable of destroying these stone graves other than a human?" the detective thought to himself. For the first time in his long career as a police detective, Ryuji was stumped.

He then turned to one of his colleagues. "Contact the Beigoma City Zoo. I need to make sure none of their animals have escaped."

"On it." the colleague responded and rushed to his vehicle.

While the investigation was continuing, a figure observed the event from afar before leaving.

🔸🔸🔸

Back in Aether, Valt, Aiga, Drum, Hyuga and Hikaru were with their partners in the throne room of Suria Castle, surrounded by towers and towers of books. After the interrogation with the devil Malphas a day prior, they began researching on a peculiar character that he mentioned, one who was the mastermind behind all of the recent devil attacks targeted towards the boys. The elusive figure known as Echidna.

"Ugh, there's not a single mention of her in these books," Valkyrie said frustratedly before turning to her fellow spirits. "Did you guys find anything?"

"No." Dragon and Drum said simultaneously surrounded by already read books.

"Nah." same thing for Achilles and Aiga.

"Nothing." And Helios and Hikaru.

"What about you, Hyp-" Valkyrie turned to the king only to find him fast asleep on his throne with his head slumped backwards. Hyuga was also asleep while sitting on Hyperion's lap. A book was found near the king's feet.

"Like blader like bey..." Valkyrie thought while sweat-dropping. Seems like even a king cannot escape the sleepiness that comes with reading history books.

Then she turned to Valt, who was staring at one of the books for quite a long time. Specifically, on a page depicting an interesting illustration. It showed a female figure riding a horse and wielding a sword, battling against a giant fiery goat-like beast.

"Valt?" Valkyrie called out to him, prompting him to turn his attention to his partner. "Did you find anything?"

"Uh, no." Valt said while sheepishly scratching his head.

At this answer, Valkyrie fell backwards and laid down on the floor in exhaustion.

"Seriously, there's absolutely no record of anyone named Echidna?" she asked, partially to herself and the others.

"Not even the library's restricted section has anything regarding her," Helios stated. "It's as if she never existed at all."

"I think it's logical that she hid herself from the kingdom after Typhon was sealed," Dragon theorised. "But if she's been hiding for that long, why is she making a move now?"

As the group was trying to find their way through this dilemma, a Celestial suddenly walked into the throne room.

"Your Majesty," he hollered politely to Hyperion, who was still asleep.

At this, Achilles gave the sleeping king a slight nudge. Luckily, it woke him up and so too did his blader. They both sluggishly opened their eyes before letting out a yawn.

"Huh?" it took some time for Hyperion to fully wake up when he saw the Celestial. "O-Oh, sorry. I had a little nap back there. I-Is there anything that needs my attention?"

"Someone wishes to see you." the Celestial then moved aside to make way for the guest in question.

The individual walked into the throne room. It was a tall, lanky man wearing a yellow collared shirt, black pants and black shoes. A black glove covered his left hand while the right hand remained exposed. A black long coat was slung behind his shoulders. On his head was a black fedora hat with a yellow rim on the sides. The brim of the hat obscured his eyes but his hair was still visible, which was yellow in colour. In his mouth was a long smoking pipe. To the boys, he looked like a grown up Rantaro.

The arrival of this man made everyone stand up except for Hyperion. Not that this man was a threat, but it was someone quite close to all of them, though the bladers were unaware of this at first.

"Ah, Ragnaruk. It's you." Hyperion said.

"Ragnaruk? Honcho and Cap'n's bey?" Hikaru questioned.

"That's him alright," Dragon confirmed. "Although, something feels off."

The others felt the same tense atmosphere when the man, Ragnaruk, entered the room. He just stood there silently while looking downwards and avoiding eye contact with anyone, giving off an ominous impression.

Hyperion continued to speak to Ragnaruk. "You seem upset."

The man finally spoke. "Oh, how can you tell, Your Majesty?"

"Your eyes. They are red, aren't they?"

At this, Ragnaruk lifted his head slightly, revealing his eyes, which were bloodshot red with slit pupils. Not only that, but there were veins popping out all over his face. This appearance struck fear into the bladers. They never thought that the beyblade of the jolly Kiyama brothers would have such a terrifying look.

"Not only that, but your claws and tail are showing." Hyperion added.

It was here that the bladers finally noticed Ragnaruk's right hand, which had long, black and sharp nails while also covered in popped up veins. A long tail with fire at its end could be seen swaying around behind him.

"As always, you have a keen eye, Hyperion." Raganruk complimented. Though it was clear that he was angry, his speech remained calm. "It is for this reason that I have come here."

He then reached for his pocket and pulled out something. What he took shocked the bladers, but especially Aiga.

In the demon's palm was his very vessel, Glide Ragnaruk. More specifically, Ranjiro's Glide Ragnaruk.

"In hopes of releasing this pent up rage, I demand a battle." he declared as he showed off the beyblade.

"Hey, you stole that from Cap'n?!" Aiga yelled at Ragnaruk. He was more concerned about the fact that his friend's bey was in the hands of someone else.

"This is my vessel. I can take it as I please." the demon answered back in a more irritated tone.

"Don't approach him with that tone, Aiga," Valkyrie advised. "Ever since he became a bey spirit, Ragnaruk rarely shows his demonic traits nowadays. But when he does, you know that something is going on."

"And since he's showing a lot of them here, it's safe to say that something very serious happened," Helios chimed in. "I suggest we fulfill his wish, lest we want to see this castle burn down."

The bladers looked at each other, wanting to decide on who was going to battle the demon. Eventually, it was Aiga who volunteered.

"Since it's Cap'n's bey we're going up against, I think I'll do it." the Scarlet Supernova said as he pulled out his beyblade, Infinite Achilles.

"Well, guess it's my time to shine." Achilles said confidently before disappearing in a flash of red. The bey in Aiga's hand glowed slightly afterwards, signaling that the warrior was ready for a fight.

🔸🔸🔸

The team gathered in the training arena to witness the battle between the current world champion of beyblade and the guardian demon of the Kiyama family. Through his magic, Hyperion provided a beystadium for the battle and even volunteered to be the referee. The two opponents stood on opposite ends of the stadium, preparing to launch their beys.

Aiga made sure to put Achilles on attack mode to get a higher advantage over the stamina type. Ragnaruk on the other hand, had conjured up his own launcher, which was seemingly made out of fire.

"Is defeating you what it takes to calm your nerves?" Aiga asked the demon.

"If you can satisfy me enough with your show of strength, then yes." Ragnaruk replied.

Aiga let out a snarky chuckle. "I've won against Cap'n many times. This is gonna be a walk in the park."

"We'll see."

And so, the battle commenced.

"Ready...Set!" Hyperion announced.

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Go...Shoot!"

The two launched their beys into the stadium. The five Legends took note of how radically different Ragnaruk's launch style was from his bladers.

The two tops spun around opposite to each other before they came to the middle. When the beys came into contact with one another...

BURST!

The pieces of Achilles were thrown out of the stadium, to the shock of Aiga and his friends.

"Burst finish! Ragnaruk is the winner!" Hyperion said aloud.

"That burst was instant!" Valt commented. "I've never seen a battle end that quickly before."

Aiga picked up Achilles' pieces and put him back together.

"No way! Surely your parts weren't loose?!" the brunette asked his bey in disbelief.

"Nope. You put everything together properly." Achilles said from within the beyblade. "This is what happens when you try to go up against the actual spirit of a bey. The beyblade's power grows tenfold."

"Hmph, weak." Ragnaruk said bluntly while huffing out smoke from his pipe. This obviously didn't sit well with the world champion.

"Oh, now you're pissing me off." Aiga grumbled at the demon before locking his bey onto his launcher and going into his launch stance. "One more time!"

So they had another battle, and...well...Ragnaruk just proved to be a bit too powerful.

BURST!

BURST!

BURST!

The demon continued to overpower Aiga for the next 10 battles.

"Blow him away, Achilles!" Aiga commanded his partner, whose Attack Ring began glowing a bright blue. The red bey rushed towards the orange and white one that had taken the centre of the stadium.

Unfazed, Ragnaruk used his special move, his form bathed in a flaring orange hue.

"Glide Tornado!"

The stamina wings of his vessel glowed as it created a strong whirlwind. Achilles tried to maintain his balance while entering the current, but it proved to be futile. He was instantly lifted up by the tornado and bursted in midair.

"Burst...huh...Finish..." Hyperion panted, clearly exhausted from having to announce Ragnaruk's victory over and over again.

While Ragnaruk was carelessly smoking his pipe, Aiga was growing increasingly frustrated.

"Are you satisfied now?! You've already won this many times!" the brunette yelled at the demon, only to hear a scoff.

"You barely even provided a challenge. It only took a mere fraction of my power to burst Achilles. Give me a reason to use my strength to its fullest!" he proclaimed.

"He's really asking for it, huh?" Achilles whispered to his partner. "In all of the times we've been hanging out, I've never seen Ragnaruk this mad before. But I know that if there's anything he'd be extremely serious about, it would have something to do with the Kiyamas. He's very protective of them."

Aiga began to feel concerned about this statement. It implied that something must have happened to his friends. "Y-You're not saying that something bad happened to Honcho and Cap'n, right?"

"It's possible. But we won't be sure until we give Ragnaruk what he wants. In this state, he isn't willing to answer any questions."

"Hmm...you have a point. First though, we need to figure out how to get through that tornado. It's like 10 times more powerful than anything I've seen from the Kiyamas."

"Well, what's your plan, buddy? The beyblade modifying is your job, not mine."

Aiga stared at his beyblade for a moment to think of a strategy. He then turned to Ragnaruk.

"Hey, hope you don't mind me stealing some time for some strategising." he said.

"You may, but quickly. I'm growing impatient by the minutes." the chain-smoking demon replied.

The wild boy resumed to his planning. He once again stared at his bey, specifically at the Infinite Sword ring. He later took out the counterpart to the blue ring, the yellow Infinite Shield. He glanced at the two rings back and forth, carefully comparing them.

After only a few minutes, an imaginary lightbulb finally lit up above Aiga's head.

"I know what to do." he said as he removed the Infinite Sword from Achilles and fitted the Infinite Shield onto him instead.

From the sidelines, the other boys were curious about their friend's choice of action.

"He's putting Achilles on defence mode?" Hyuga questioned.

"Isn't that gonna give him a disadvantage? He's facing a stamina type after all." Drum wondered.

Valt only smiled, having no doubt about Aiga's plan. "Aiga clearly knows what he's doing. Let's just see how it goes."

The 11th battle began.

"Ready...Set!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Go...Shoot!"

Once more, the two beyblades entered the stadium, with Ragnaruk immediately taking the centre.

"Alright, Achilles. Charge straight towards him!" Aiga commanded.

At this order, the red bey spun towards the stamina type bey in the middle.

Ragnaruk didn't seem impressed by this move. "Rushing towards me again? You certainly haven't lost your recklessness, Aiga Akaba."

Surrounded by flames, the demon cried out, "Glide Tornado!"

His vessel conjured a powerful cyclone that threatened to slow down Achilles' movement. However, to the surprise of everyone, the balance type managed to survive the strong winds, successfully reaching Ragnaruk without losing much stamina.

"Achilles made it through!" Drum cheered.

"But how?!" Hyuga asked.

"I think I get what's going on," Hikaru said. "The Infinite Shield has a rounder design than the Infinite Sword. The circular shape reduces the intensity of the wind that hits Achilles, which helps him to withstand Ragnaruk's tornado!"

"Huh, never thought Aiga would know something like that." Valt mumbled, only to receive a "I heard that!" from Aiga.

Meanwhile, Ragnaruk stood in shock at Aiga's strategy before grinning, showing off his sharp fangs.

"Now this is more like it!" he exclaimed. "Now, witness my true strength!"

The fire around him grew brighter. The black glove on his left hand burned away, revealing a black mark on the back of his palm.

His claws grew sharper and his hat flew off, only for curved horns to grow from his head. The long coat on his shoulders morphed into two pairs of demonic black wings. Aiga swore that he could see the demon's avatar form for a split second.

"BLAZING GLIDE TORNADO!!!"

The swirl of wind turned into a swirl of fire, its size and intensity increasing tenfold. It was unlike anything the five boys had ever seen from their lollipop-loving friends. The cyclone was strong enough to lift the red bey high into the air. Fortunately for Aiga, he didn't burst and kept on spinning.

His hair proceeded to turn red as it flared up and broke the rubber band that kept it in place.

"ACHILLES!" Aiga screamed, unleashing his bey's avatar form. "CRUSH HIM! INFINITE BUSTER!"

Achilles glowed a bright yellow as he hurled down towards the demon bey like a meteor. The two beys collided, causing a massive shockwave that forces everyone to cover their faces with their arms.

Achilles and Ragnaruk clashed with one another with a powerful force, one desperately trying to overpower the other.

However, as the beyblades fought...

CRACK!

A large yellow crack formed across the flame demon's face, which later extended towards other parts of his body.

Everyone's eyes widened at the sight of this. Ragnaruk was about to break.

That was when a memory flashed through the world champion's mind,

.

.

.

"I AM ACHILLES!"

.

.

.

He was extremely immature at that time. And he was not going to repeat the same mistake with Ranjiro's bey.

"Move out of the way, Achilles!" he screamed at his partner.

Achilles obeyed and bounced off of the stamina type, but in the process, he swirled out of control and was thrown out of the stadium. His blader managed to catch him in time. Glide Ragnaruk was left to spin in the middle before eventually losing stamina, causing the spirit
connected to it to kneel down in exhaustion. Achilles promptly exited his vessel, appearing back in human form.

The bladers and their partners rushed to Ragnaruk's side, whose demonic traits had since disappeared. His horns were gone, his claws had retracted, his wings had changed back into a long coat and his red eyes had turned blue.

"Ragnaruk! Are you alright?" Valkyrie asked her friend.

The demon raised his head, the crack still visible on his face. "I'm fine. This crack is nothing."

Aiga came forward with the orange beyblade in his hand. A visible crack could be seen on its energy layer.

"Sorry..." he apologised to his friend's partner. "Guess I went a bit overboard."

"No, it's not your fault," Ragnaruk replied as he stood up. "It was me. I got too excited that I pushed myself too hard."

He then took his vessel from the brunette and held it in his fist. A faint glow was briefly emitted from his hand before he opened it, showing a fully repaired beyblade. The crack that was previously on his face had disappeared. He tossed the bey into the air, which faded away in a flash of yellow.

"There. I've returned the bey to Ranjiro. Hopefully it wasn't gone for too long." the demon said while wearing back his hat.

"Well, now that you've calmed down, care to tell us what made you angry in the first place?" Achilles asked.

"Certainly."

Ragnaruk proceeded to tell the boys and spirits above the happenings that were going on back in the human realm. From the world wide grave robberies to the vandalism of his masters' family cemetery. His tale caused concern for the bladers. It has been awhile since they had heard about anything from home, so to receive this kind of news was a shock to say the least.

"No wonder you were mad. Your former bladers were defiled in death." Valkyrie said.

Ragnaruk sighed. "The amount of rage I felt once I saw those broken gravestones was incomprehensible, even to me. It's especially so since I had just finished caring for them last night, only to find out they ended up like this the next morning."

The group felt sympathetic towards the demon's situation. The spirits knew how intertwined Ragnaruk's bond was with the Kiyamas since the former had been by their side for generations. It was a disheartening event, though there was another part of the story that peaked their interest.

"You mentioned those grave robberies," Hyperion stated. "You said that they happened across different continents in the span of a few days, correct?"

"Yes."

"When it happens in that kind of pattern, it's hard to chalk it up to mere coincidence." Dragon said.

"Precisely. In fact, I actually have another reason to come here other than that battle."

"Oh, and that is...?" Helios asked intrigued.

The demon cleared his throat a bit. "First of all, I've heard from some of the other spirits that you have a problem regarding devils? Something about a cult of them wishing to cause havoc in Aether?"

"You are right about that. In fact, we've recently uncovered more information about them." Hyperion answered.

"Is that so? Care to share the details?"

"It's a bit much, but essentially...."

Hyperion proceeded to tell Ragnaruk about everything they had gathered from their time in Tartarus, trying his best to summarise it so that it could be easily digested by the demon.

"A scorned dark queen wanting to free the love of her life through humanity's suffering...." Ragnaruk muttered, slowly understanding the gist of the situation. "Yes...that does match with what's happening in the human world right now."

"Wait...so you're saying that our problem here is related to those grave robberies?" Valt speculated.

Deep inside, Ragnaruk wanted to chuckle at Valt's words. It was hard for him to believe that this was the same kid who frequently slept in class, had stage fright and often made dumb decisions in the past. He has truly grown up to be a more mature and intelligent person. As much as his demonic instincts wanted him to tease the Wonder Boy, Ragnaruk restrained himself due to the seriousness of the situation.

"Indeed, and I have a substantial proof to strengthen that theory."

The demon then reached for his pocket and took out a picture. He proceeded to show it to the group. The image appeared to be a footprint of sorts etched into dirt. The print's abnormality captured the curiosity of the group.

"Rantaro and Ranjiro's father found this in the ashes from the two graves that were vandalised. I managed to get myself a copy of this picture to show it to you," the flame demon explained as he gave the picture to Hyperion. "What do you make of it, Your Majesty?"

The king stared at the picture for a few minutes before sighing and uttering:

"It cannot be denied. This footprint is neither human nor animal. It can only mean one thing - devils are indeed the ones behind this. They are most likely exploiting human death to accomplish their goal of reawakening Typhon."

Everyone became silent at this damming conclusion, their faces painted with concern.

"So, they gave up on going after us?" Drum said.

"Guess they figured that going through you guys to get us wasn't the easiest idea." Aiga said, referring to the spirits.

"But still, if they managed to get into our world, that means they could hurt others as well!" Hyuga worriedly pointed out.

"Hyuga's right! If we don't act quickly, our friends and family are gonna be in danger!" the older Asahi added.

Everyone understandably agreed with the brothers. But there were still some details that were still shrouded in enigma. The biggest one being, how did the devils managed to open a getaway to the human realm, an ability that was otherwise exclusive to bey spirits and certain spirits that had permission from the kingdom's ruler?

"There are still some things that are a little blurry, but to dwell on that for too long would be a waste of time," said Hyperion. "The only thing we can do about that is to wait for Lucifer to release his findings. While that happens, we must monitor the gateways between the human world and Aether to make sure no devil attempts to harm any humans."

The other spirits understood their mission. The safety and peace of both worlds now rest in their hands.

🔸🔸🔸

In a dark corner of Aether...

"Malphas had failed me. What a shame."

"Nonetheless, with what my loyal followers have gathered, it seems that I won't be needing those children anymore."

The shadowy figure held up a dark crystal-like object, its colour matching that of blood.

"Oh my love, be patient. For the moment of our reunion and reign are near."