Following the Great War against the Link Joker on Cray, the Stardust Knight clan had been crowned and paraded as heroes; as the ones who saved Cray from imminent death and destruction.

However, that victory came at a heavy cost. Their leader and founder, Shooting Star Dragon, and his fierce human tamer, Shimada, had both mysteriously disappeared in the fight. Neither of their bodies could be found, so they were reported as missing.

This meant Shooting Star's second in command, Starshooter Caller, a young demon, had been thrust with the monumental task of leading the most powerful clan on Cray.

However, Caller could only think about one thing day and night. It was Shooting Star Dragon and the circumstances regarding his mysterious disappearance, or more likely, his death.

His first act as clan leader was launch a full scale investigation on where Shooting Star could be. Despite the abundance of prosperity and wealth that had fallen upon them, Caller had invested almost everything they had earned into finding out where his saviour was.

Shooting Star Dragon was more than just an amazing warrior, a powerful dragon, or compassionate leader. He was someone that would let almost anyone into the Stardust Knight clan, and show mercy and forgiveness for sins they've committed in the past.

In fact, Caller was one of the very few demons within the clan's ranks. Formerly, he was a wandering demon, known as Myo-kurenai, and one day savagely attacked the clan.

Myo-kurenai was a demon unlike any other on Cray. He had no home and belonged to no clan. His violent and angry heart caused destruction wherever he went. However, deep down, all he wanted was companionship, and for someone to accept him in this world.

After ruthlessly attacking the Stardust Knights in rage and jealousy, Shooting Star easily subdued the wild demon and saw a great potential inside of him. Taking him under his wing, Myo-kurenai was baptised as the "Starshooter Caller", taught to use the Lazarus Flute of Musca, and quickly rose the ranks to become Shooting Star's second in command.

A brilliant and wicked strategist, Caller was responsible for victories at the Battle of Orion, Battle of Ursa Major and Battle of Perseus, which secured the Stardust Knight important strongholds for defence and locations rich in resources.

In fact, Orion had been transformed into the clan's capital, and was where Caller was declared as new clan leader. However, with no more Shooting Star Dragon to call, he changed his name - or rather, reverted it back - to Myo-kurenai.

Many people knew him simply as Myo. Myo was heavily criticised by his people for being a leader obsessed with finding Shooting Star and ignoring their needs. Even though Stardust Knight was regarded as the strongest clan after the Great War, it didn't take long for them to fall from grace and lose connections to major clans like the Royal Paladin and Kagero.

This was due to the fact that Stardust Knight was a primarily military clan, and with no war to fight, the people had nothing to do or use their skills on. Many lacked basic common sense or social knowledge, as they've been trained for war their entire life. To solve this, Myo created the "Regular Act", which repurposed all of the military bases and war related sectors into educational facilities and homes for units.

This sparked a new generation of peace loving units. One of which was a small half-human, half-bird demon, Ubume. Despite her earnest attempts to fit into society, she could never find a place at school or home she could distinctively call hers.

At school, Ubume was isolated and ignored by the others as she was a demon, the rarest species in Stardust Knight, compared to her human, elf, and dragon classmates. This eventually led to bullying, where people blamed her for evil deeds they did because she was a demon, and it was taught that demons were naturally evil. As such, teachers believed those kids that pushed blame onto Ubume, and punished her repeatedly for things that weren't her fault. Ubume became the go-to scapegoat whenever someone did something that would get them in trouble.

To try and go against that stigma, Ubume devoted herself to study, and found out that the original leader of Stardust Knight, Shooting Star Dragon, had a demon second in command (now the current leader), Myo-kurenai. She instantly became infatuated with the two of them and revered them as heroes for the deeds they had done for her clan, as well as painting demons in a positive light. Reinforced with Myo-kurenai's inspirational story, Ubume worked harder than anyone else to get the best scores in her school.

However, her classmates hated the fact that Ubume, the evil demon, was now being praised and rewarded for her test scores. Accusations of cheating began to spread. Then it became calling her a nerd, geek, and teacher's pet. Finally, it escalated to the point where they blamed Ubume's parents on committing a crime that they never did. Law enforcement arrested them, put the couple on trial, and found them guilty.

On that rainy day, Ubume lost both of her parents behind the corrupted bars of "justice".

However, light started to pour through the cracks, as she was handed over to Myo, who was to decide what he would do with her. Even though her parent's unjust arrest angered and upset her greatly, being given the chance to meet one of her favourite heroes calmed her down, and even excited her.

For the first time, Myo and Ubume met face to face.

"You're the coolest person I've ever met! Can I have your autograph?!"

Myo was taken back by Ubume's eager smile and openness.

"Hey, this isn't some sort of meet and greet, young girl... your parents were just arrested. Don't you feel sad?"

"Not anymore... because I got to meet you, Myo-kurenai! You're the person I look up to the most!"

Ubume pushed her scrappy handkerchief to Myo.

"Please sign it..."

"You're the first person to ever think I'm a good man, y'know..."

Myo sighed, taking out his pen and writing a terrible looking signature on Ubume's handkerchief.

"Why wouldn't you be a good man?! You lead the Stardust Knight and you helped win all those battles! Even though you're a demon, you worked super hard and got a really good position!"

"That's in the past. As I am right now... I'm plenty useless."

"No! You're not useless, because...!"

Ubume's cheeks flushed bright pink.

"Because... Myo-kurenai is my hope!"

Myo's stiff expression turned into surprise.

"Your... hope?"

"W-we're the same! I'm a demon too... but because of that, everyone at school hates me..."

Myo remembered the first time he joined the Stardust Knights. He received similar harassment due to his temperament and species, but Shooting Star was able to silence them.

When faced with this young girl who was going through the same things he did, Myo felt guilty and useless.

"One day... I wanna be like you. A respected demon."

After a moment of contemplating silence, Myo sighed and spoke up with a tinge of regret.

"I can do that."

"E-eh?"

"I can make you a respected demon."

"You can?! Really?!"

"Yeah. There's one surefire way to do it. You're a smart girl, aren't you?"

"Yes...? Or at least, I'd like to think I am..."

"Hmph. Then I won't need to explain this in-depth. If you want to be a respected demon... join the Star Demon Series project."

"Um... Star Demon Series... project?"

"That's right. I'm offering you a position on the government's top secret project. Now that I've told you about it though, there's only two options you can take now. Pick wisely."

"W-wait, this is going by so fast, I..."

"Two. Options. If you want to join, I'll give you the most important position. If you don't want to join, I'll have to erase you."

"E-eh? Erase... me...?"

"We can't have anyone leaking this information. If you refuse, it's death."

Ubume dropped to her knees, eyes widened as her hero threatened her menacingly.

"I thought I could trust you..."

"They say never meet your heroes, don't they?"

"I..."

"If you can't come to a decision right here and now, I have no other choice but to execute you on the spot. What will it be?"

"The most important position..."

"That's right. Without someone in that position, the project can never start. However, you're perfect for this. I need you, Ubume."

Ubume felt the world sink around her. If she said no, she'd die.

"Well... I don't really have a choice, do I...?"

"Your life right now isn't any better, is it? Once we reveal this project to the public, you'll be revered as a hero."

"Me...? A hero...?"

"That's right. Those kids at school will stop bullying you when they find out you've been working for me personally. You'll become so powerful, you could even squash them under your feet. How does that sound?"

"But I... don't want to hurt them... I just want them to stop... hurting me..."

"Unfortunately, the world doesn't work that way. To stop someone else from hurting you... you need to strike back even harder. This project will do just that. I'll make you strong enough to stomp out anything in your way with brute force."

Ubume was hyperventilating as Myo's overbearing aura consumed the atmosphere of the room.

"Make. Your. Choice."

"I..."

Myo summoned his Eagle Staff of Vega, a powerful and legendary weapon that burned a luminous blue at the tip.

Pushing it up against Ubume's throat, he repeated his statement clearly.

"F-fine... I will... I'll participate in the project..."

Ubume, choking out an answer to save her life, wheezed for air as Myo relieved the pressure he put on the room.

"Good. Let me take you in then... 156."

Ubume, labelled as product number 156, entered her first examination in the medical room for the project. Dressed in a white gown and with a tattoo of her serial number forced upon her right ankle, Myo and Shooting Star's former subordinates, Speed Dust Dragon and Eric, began to perform a "medical check-up" on her.

...

72 hours.

It took 72 hours.

No anaesthetic was given.

With hands stained in innocent blood, Myo smiled.

Ubume was dissected, injected, reconstructed, sampled, and experimented on.

A rush of pleasure filled his chest seeing her writhe and struggle.

Her desperate screams to stop were ignored.

She was on the brink.

They continued to pry apart her body for the sake of "science".

They extracted samples of blood, brain, organs, saliva, and bone marrow.

They poked around her reproductive systems and the skeletal structure of her body.

They ripped off limbs and chopped them to pieces to understand muscles.

They injected drug after drug to see how her body would react.

They prodded and cut her brain to cause bodily reactions and sounds against her will.

The only place they refused to cut apart were her beautiful wings, now stained in thick crimson blood.

After putting her together into a twitching mess, Ubume was given intensive care to make sure she was alive.

They couldn't lose such an important piece of the project so early on.

If Ubume died, they'd return to square zero.

Myo-kurenai had sacrificed everything, including his humanity, to pull off this project.

When whispers of Shooting Star Dragon's other former subordinates, Starblade Shooter, Bashful Starstriker, and Julia, trying to start a protest against the experiments, Myo unleashed his Stride form on them and sealed them off into another dimension.

The other two, Speed Dust Dragon and Eric, remained loyal to Myo. Speed Dust was a stickler for tradition, and firmly believed that, if Shooting Star wished for Myo to be the next leader, that was correct, and there was no room to challenge it. He would stay loyal to the leader, regardless of the circumstance.

Meanwhile, Eric was notorious for being an ass-kissing, shallow, cowardly knight. Despite this, he was a genius that was extremely manipulative of the situation. He prioritised his own survival above anything else, and even though his sister Julia was banished by Myo, he continued to follow him so he wouldn't befall the same fate.

Ubume had suffered so much trauma on her first experiment, she lost her basic motor functions and ability to speak. She was reduced to something akin to a helpless baby.

However, the experiments wouldn't stop there.

The second one took 89 hours.

The third one took 100 hours.

The fourth one took 158 hours.

The fifth one took 176 hours.

It was a constant time escalation with each atrocity being committed behind closed doors.

The experiments started to stray from it's original intended purpose.

Myo started to dissect and experiment with Ubume just for fun.

There was no end goal.

He just wanted to hear her scream and see her bleed pools of red.

After all, he was aware of the demon's inherent regeneration and healing powers.

He could do as much as he wanted, as Ubume would recover each and every time.

With each experiment, Ubume lost more and more of herself to Myo and his scientific horrors.

It was no different from torture.

Things came to a head on the 72nd experiment.

Myo has finally cracked the code necessary behind the Star Demon Series.

All it required was demon DNA.

Ubume's beautiful wings were inexplicably spared by Myo each and every time.

She clung onto her wings desperately, seeing it as a sign she didn't lose herself just yet to the madness and infections she carried.

Whether it was guilt or pity driving him to do this, it longer mattered.

Because on the 72nd experiment, Myo was going to rip away the one thing that gave Ubume hope in this cruel world.

Her wings.

In a painstaking 404 hours, Myo had stripped Ubume of the 156 feathers that made up her beautiful wings.

As a "reward" for her hard work, Ubume was given extra time to recover.

However, she never grew any feathers back.

The force Myo used to pluck her feathers destroyed the root hair cells that lined her arms.

No matter what was applied, her wings would never grow back.

At that point, Ubume broke.

"It's... all... your... fault... Myo..."

With her feathers in his possession, Myo set out to find more volunteers for the project. Using propaganda, he framed the project in a way that implied he was going to return the Stardust Knights back to their glory days, while hiding the fact that this entire project was for one selfish desire he had.

To find Shooting Star Dragon.

Myo no longer cared what had to be done. After centuries of dead ends and false clues, all moral options had been exhausted. He needed to create a more violent, brutal, and ruthless way to find the truth about Shooting Star's disappearance, or even better, find Shooting Star himself.

Ubume was the key to all that.

Myo was obsessed with legends as a child, and learnt about legendary yokai and mythological beings from a land on the planet Earth called Japan. He wanted to create an army with those like minded demons.

The way he'd do that is by using Ubume's feathers on volunteers and transforming them into the Star Demon he desired.

His first success was Janjanbi, a fire spirit. Perfecting the formula, he soon created the first wave of Star Demons and taught them the old scripture of the Stardust Knight to return the clan back to it's old roots.

However, many of the yokai did not last very long, breaking down or going insane within a week. To counter that, Myo started to sow the deteriorating yokai together, to enhance and strengthen the bonds between demon flesh and the other specie's flesh.

That seemed to temporarily remedy the problem, so he decided to test them out by pitting them against one another in a gladiator style ring.

Ubume, bound to a wheelchair, was called in to see the fruits of her labour.

Myo cruelly showed the weak hearted girl the death-cage matches that were taking place with yokai formed from her DNA.

"These are all of your children, Ubume... isn't it great? Look at how strong they are. You'll surely be praised as a hero once everyone sees this."

"N-no... please... stop... stop making them... fight... they look... they feel... sad..."

"Just like a good mother, you want to protect them. I like your instincts. However, it's too late. We need to weed out the weak and see which are the strong. The only way to do that is to observe them fight."

"Their lives... are being wasted..."

"No. It wasn't a waste. They've ascended to a better place now... Hell. Land of the demons."

Ubume shivered as Myo stroked her fragile hair.

"Neither of us can escape the feral instincts to kill and hurt others... we're demons. That's in our nature. We just do things more rough than anyone else. Once you accept that, you'll stop crying."

Eric then took Ubume out of the observation room and returned her to her jail cell.

When volunteers stopped pouring in for Myo's project, he resorted to creating yokai without a living base to compensate. After many trials, he managed to create a method to turn Ubume's feathers into embryos, and use them as the base for Star Demons.

This resulted in far more stable and loyal yokai that didn't become berserk or die immediately. Going forward, this method was used and became the elites of Myo's personal army.

At the same time, Myo explored his traditional demonic roots and learned how to use forbidden magic in order to summon even greater yokai from Hell. Using Ubume's feathers as a sacrifice, he got his first success with the white tiger, Byakko.

However, these legends were even more unstable than the first wave of yokai. Instead of dying, they'd attack Myo immediately, and Myo had no other choice but to fight in order to prove himself to them.

He managed to win some skirmishes, but against yokai vastly more powerful than him, he had no choice but to seal them away. However, by prisoning them, he still had access to them, and could summon them to Cray. That was more than enough for him.

After forbidden summon after forbidden summon, Myo finally hit a brick wall when the azure dragon, Seiryuu, would refuse to appear. Realising that Ubume's feather wouldn't suffice, he started to deliberate on what he could do.

It had been six months since Ubume was subjected to an experiment. During this time, she was locked away in a cell with the other "failed" Star Demons. However, she couldn't bring herself to talk to them.

Too much guilt had wracked her heart, knowing she was the one who caused their mindless suffering. She felt fully responsible for indirectly giving birth to these creatures, and couldn't bear to look them in the eyes out of fear.

Myo had considered killing Ubume for awhile now, but he was still holding onto the hope that she'd regrow her feathers so he could amass more Star Demons. However, keeping her alive indirectly gave him the perfect chance to try something new.

Taking Ubume out of her chamber, Myo explained that in order to regrow her wings, she must merge with the azure dragon Seiryuu and adopt the form of a dragon-woman. That way, he could use her scales to create more Star Demons, and she would regain her ability to fly.

Even though Ubume was against it, she also realised that Seiryuu was an extremely powerful dragon in Chinese folklore. By merging with him, she might gain enough power to fight against Myo and escape with her brethren.

Myo had no intentions of ever letting her doing that though. If successful, he'd immediately restrain Ubume and pluck every scale off her. After that, he'd use alchemy to forcibly separate them from each other, and seal away Seiryuu. That way, he'd get everything he wanted without losing anything.

Offering herself as a sacrifice and medium for Seiryuu, Ubume stood in the middle of the forbidden circle and watched bleakly as Myo casted his wicked incantation.

When Myo spoke, Ubume realised just how far she had lost contact with the real world. Despite Myo speaking in common demonic dialect, she couldn't understand a word.

Not only did she lose her sanity, but she also lost her communication skills too.

She was alone in the world.

No one would come save her.

She was a prisoner of Myo.

No one would come kill her.

She was already trapped in Hell.

As the darkness consumed her, a faint blue light flickered in her chest.

Like it was taking pity on her, the azure dragon gently wrapped itself around Ubume, embracing her.

Whispering into her ears, Seiryuu tapped into her past.

He witnessed every moment of the horrors she was subjected too.

"Do you have any wishes?"

"I want... to save everyone else."

Even in her own mental purgatory, she knew that if she ran away now, she'd never forgive herself.

She was still responsible for all the other Star Demons that were created. She had to live to save them.

That's what Shooting Star Dragon would do.

In a burst of azure blue, Ubume emerged from the forbidden circle reinvigorated by Seiryuu's blessing.

A tender spring breeze blew around her magnificently.

The scars and irreparable damage she was inflicted had been washed away.

Her thin, slender body had a swan white glow to it.

Her face was small but fierce, gaining the marks of a dragon.

Her precious wings had grown back as a pair of ferocious blue dragon wings, with scales glimmering like the ocean.

"Seiryuu... finally, I have summoned Seiryuu!"

Myo, eager by the success, immediately summoned forth the power of Stride and turned into Myo-kurenai "Ignite".

Taking out his Eagle Staff of Vega, he pointed it at Ubume "Seiryuu" and started chanting an incantation.

However, before she could be affected by the restriction curse, Ubume "Seiryuu" freely attacked Myo, instantly taking him out in one hit.

Hearing the alarm for a breach, Speed Dust, Eric, and Myo's army rushed to his aid, only to find the strangely calm Ubume "Seiryuu" hover over Myo's body with an indifferent expression.

Reaching her talons towards Myo's throat, Ubume laughed at herself derisively.

Tears flowed from her diamond blue eyes.

"Please wait... for me to save you."

Ubume rushed past the defences and broke open the barriers, rallying the imprisoned Star Demons behind her and making an escape route for them.

However, with the large amount of back up pouring in to stop them, Ubume realised that she alone wouldn't be enough.

So, she took the biggest gamble yet.

In secret, Myo was funding a second project related to the Star Demon Series.

The Fusillade Project.

He wanted to create an artificial Stride that had power equal to, or greater than, the legendary demons that were taboo to summon.

However, Fusillade was deemed completely unstable due to coming from a future that never existed, and was subsequently shelved. There was one main problem though: disposal of the Stride.

Due to it's nuclear future core, Myo couldn't simply seal it away. If he did, it'd explode when time elapsed with where it came from the future, and end up killing Myo in the process. So, he engineered an underground bunker which stored Fusillade inside, deactivating it to the best of his ability, along with it's support components.

Using Seiryuu's power, Ubume called for Fusillade's aid from deep underground, blessing it with the Breath of Life.

Suddenly, emerging from the ground was the destructive and mindless Fusillade, along with it's support, absolutely eradicating everything around them and giving Ubume and her militia enough time to escape.

As she used the remnants of Seiryuu's power to form a portal to refuge, Fusillade followed Ubume, believing her to be it's creator.

Recognising Fusillade was also a victim of Myo, she gladly welcomed it aboard, and the group set sail to Earth, where Yozora was beginning to awaken.

However, due to the extensive power she borrowed from Seiryuu, she had drained all of his blessing, and split apart with him on her way to Earth.

Promising to meet each other again, Seiryuu and Ubume parted. The militia landed on Earth and became Yozora's deck.

Due to being a split personality, Yozora also possessed the latent Neo PSYQualia Yza had. It's side effect allowed him to communicate with a unit in his head, like they were another personality or voice.

Ubume subconsciously entered that space, and confessed everything to Yozora, who was also lost and afraid at the time.

Their mutual darkness was the reason why Yozora and Ubume became extremely close.

That was, until—

"Do it. It's the only way you'll win against him."

"I... I stride... Nova Light Star Demon Series... Sky-Templar... F-Fusillade..."

—Yozora nearly died from the stress of using Fusillade.

Ubume's grave mistake lied in her intrinsic personality as a demon.

In a world where no one held her down, she began having thoughts of domination and sadism.

She wanted to inflict pain upon others, just like Myo did.

Even though she bitterly wanted to fight against it, it kept cropping up with no signs of stopping.

Until one day, her feral demonic instincts took over, and forced Yozora to use a card that would guarantee death for him (literally) and his opponent (within the cardfight).

Kristy secretly intervened, and sealed away Ubume for Yozora's safety.

However, her voice remained in his head, haunting him like a ghost, begging him for forgiveness as she tried to reignite their close relationship.

She felt that he was the only one that truly understood her.

He felt that he was betrayed by the only one who understood him.

At the same time, back on Cray, Myo was on a manhunt for Ubume and her Star Demons.

If she escaped and word of the project got out, it would be the end of Myo's career and everyone's faith in the Stardust Knight clan.

Getting a mysterious tip from an anonymous source - which turned out to be Ayaza - he travelled to Earth with his forces, and ended up becoming Yozora's new partner.

However, the bond between him and Yozora was shallow. Since Ubume never explicitly said it was Myo who tortured her, Yozora had no clue that the person he put his trust in now was the same person who abused her long ago.

Being restricted to card form, Myo couldn't search Earth for Ubume, and this angered him gravely. However, as he spent more time travelling around Earth, his perspective started changing as well.

With each battle he faced with Yozora, he gradually felt that something was wrong.

And he realised what was wrong during the battle against Gyze.

Against the God of destruction, Myo was completely powerless.

For the first time in his life, Myo couldn't do anything to stop it.

And for the first time in his life, Myo felt a shred of empathy for the girl he experimented on repeatedly.

Ubume.

A revelation fell upon him.

He was evil.

Even more evil than Gyze itself.

He was a devil pretending to be a hero, just like Yozora.

They shared that single thing in common.

And as if he was waiting for his second in command to recognise his mistake—

Shooting Star Dragon descended.

"Shooting... Star?!"

Myo began weeping as his leader stood before him.

"Myo-kurenai. Look at me."

"I couldn't... I can't...! I've done so many horrible things... how could I ever face you...?!"

"If you don't look at me, then I can't pardon your sins."

Myo reluctantly raised his head.

Shooting Star placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm the worst, Shooting Star... I really am the worst...!"

"Are you going to sit there and just wail like that?"

"H-huh...?"

"I've pardoned you for your sins, but everyone else hasn't. You can cry all you want, but sitting here and beating yourself up about it won't help anyone or save anybody. If you truly want to make up for your past, then you need to fix those mistakes."

"Fix...? B-but, this isn't something you can just... fix! This issue... it's years and years worth of mistakes! How can I even fix that?! How can I even save anyone?! I need your help! I need you, Shooting Star! You would know... you would know just what to do! I'm nothing more but a failure! A massive failure of a leader who—"

"Before you can save anyone else, you need to win this fight against Gyze first. If the world is destroyed, there's no point or meaning in making up what you did to them. They'd all be dead."

"...but Gyze's too strong... I can't win against it..."

"Then I'll lend you a drop of power."

"R-really?! You will?!"

"In exchange, I want you to save Ubume."

"...I'll do anything!"

Myo offered himself to Shooting Star, becoming a ball of stardust coloured light.

Shooting Star Dragon grew pitch black demonic armour and lent a hand to Yozora.

Transcending, Myo dissipated into the clouds and patiently waited for when the day to save Ubume would come.

As Ryuusei summoned Ubume, Myo-kurenai's slumbering soul was awakened.

Falling down like a raindrop, Myo-kurenai splashed into Yza's mind and soul.

"I swear I'll save you... Ubume!"