The fighting had practically ceased. They were all too stunned by the new appearance of Seredy's LBX. Suddenly, red sword bits came out of its back. It then changed into green bit probes and lasers were shot in every direction.

Their world alliance scattered in a panic.

They could all hear each other's screams from outside their pods.

The bit lasers turned back to sword bits, and they flew all over the place, aiming for any and all World Alliance LBXs on sight.

No one could hide.

"At this rate..." Mikhail wasn't given a chance to finish his sentence. His Gunther was next to explode. "Muraku, I'm sorry..."

"Mikhail!"

"Crap, there's so many!" Nikolai growled.

Hannah did her best to keep covering for him as she dodged, but three sword bits was one-too-many and Moskau was stabbed through.

"Niko-kun!"

"That's it for me, huh...?" She could hear his tiny forced laughter. "Hannah... Be... caref..."

"Niko...?"

No response.

"Nikolai?! Nikolai!" Her fingers tightened their grip on the controls. "First, my brother, and now, my best friend... Seredy, you..."

"Hannah, three o'clock!"

She snapped out of her daze just in time to dodge from her right. Magna Orthus came into view below her.

"Stay focused!" Despite his strong front, she can hear his voice shaking ever so slightly. "Wataru can't lose you!"

!!!

"... Sorry." She took a deep breath and dodged skillfully as she scanned the battle field from the sky.

Catherine was thrown into the sky before one pierced her from below. Bunta became a victim when his craft carrier was destroyed as he protected Nozomi and Tadashi. And many, many more of them became LOST in a similar way.

When the attacks finally stopped, she landed near Muraku and Vanessa, looking around. Millions of pieces were scattered all over the ground. What they had experienced just then wasn't a war. It was a massacre.

"Do you finally understand now?" Seredy's voice came from that monster of a machine. "You have no chance at victory."

"Don't screw with me!" Arata yelled. He deflected the sword bits aimed at him before dashing straight for his opponent. But when he was about to hit it, more sword bits intercepted him. He wasn't able to get close enough.

"Give it up. No matter what you do, your attacks won't work on me."

"Like hell they won't!"

His clashes with the sword bits continued. When he was pushed far enough, the bits turned into lasers, all six converging on him. That was when Magna Orthus jumped in. Muraku and Arata used their shields to defend each other's backs, letting them take the minimum amount of damage.

Kicking off the ground with tis boosters, Muraku used Catastrophe Drive to attack Seredy, but three of the bit probes came together to become reflect bits, generating a shield, rendering it useless. The other three probes became swords and pushed him to the ground.

That was when the sirens resounded.

"Time is up. Today's War Time will now end."

"To those who survived," Seredy's voice came again. "Recover your LBXs at once. You may perform maintenance on them, and prepare yourselves for the next War Time."

~~~~~

"People of the world, this is reality. Up until now, if a student's LBX became LOST, it wouldn't have any effect on their life. However, you cannot avoid death in war. Now, when your LBX becomes LOST, you truly die. I want to bring judgement to those who believed that a petty war game like War Time could protect the world. These students are precious sacrifices for that goal."

Jin turned his attention to the Russian woman beside him. "Niara?"

She pursed her lips. "I... I won't believe it. Not until those control pods open and I see him with my own eyes."

He said nothing. He only wished he could do the same.

"People of the world, you might accuse me of being cruel. But I am ready to accept those criticisms. For my only wish is for you to open your eyes to the truth. Please give some thought to these questions. What is war? Why must we have them? The ones being tested with these students' deaths are you people, after all. These are today's victims. Let us take a moment to honor them."

~~~~~

"Rikuya! Rikuya!! ...It won't open..."

"Catherine..."

"Mikhail, answer me! Mikhail!"

The whole control pod area was in disarray. Those who were alive either surrounded the pods that remained closed, or were a sobbing mess on the floor.

Hannah took a deep breath, walking up to the one beside hers. "Nikolai... I'll get revenge for you... is what I want to say, but..." She took another breath, though this time, she couldn't stop herself from shaking. "You wouldn't want me to do it, right? There are more important things at stake..." She placed her hand on the side of the pod. "I'll play my part. So, don't worry... and just rest in peace."

"Students. The pods of the LOST students cannot be opened."

"Ayabe...!"

"Please return to your classrooms."

~~~~~

Eva had stood at the very back of the group since they arrived at the office. She listened to their conversation while never taking her eyes off the screen showing the many, many students that had just died.

"So, the World Savers were in the Second World's management department from the very beginning..." Prime Minister Tougou muttered.

"It's no surprise that Seredy Kreisler managed to get appointed to Kamui Daimon like this." Yagami stated.

"The ERP is a project managed by a group with you at the center." Zaizen continued. "The fact that the enemy has managed to come this far despite all odds means that they hold far more power and influence than we imagined. Prime minister, now that it has come to this, if we don't take action immediately, the world will―"

A pained grunt made her turned around.

"Prime minister?"

The man they were talking to was clutching at his side, his whole body shaking.

"What's the matter?!"

He then tried to stand up, perhaps thinking that the pain would ease if his full body was upright. Instead, he screamed out in pain and collapsed to the floor.

"Prime minister!"

"Prime Minister Tougou!" Zaizen was first to snap out of it. "Call an ambulance!"

"I'm on it!" Yagami ran out to make the call.

"Must be some kind of chronic illness..." Eva muttered, earning Zaizen's attention. She walked closer to the desk and picked up a ripped medicine sachet, showing it to the blue haired man. "I'm not a doctor so I can't tell what it is, but it's clear that the stress and pressure this incident's giving him breached his capacity."

"... Just when we thought this situation couldn't be any worse..."

~~~~~

They were escorted to their classrooms, possibly they'd be made to stay there overnight. Being honest with themselves, they were fine with it. None of them felt like they could walk the whole way to the dorms anyway.

With most of them taking their seats, they could see just how empty their class had become within a few hours. And seeing the empty seats only made the deceased voices echo in their heads.

"...What's going to happen to us?" Someone finally broke the silence, though Hannah was too lost in her sketches to bother making out who.

"I don't know," Someone further up front replied. "But if this keeps up, we might..."

"If the craft carrier gets destroyed, the mechanic dies too..."

"Stop! I don't want to hear that!! I don't want to hear it..."

"... won't get in. I won't get in. I won't get in the pod."

"No way I'm getting in there either. Once you're in that pod, you're done for."

"But I doubt they'll let us do that."

"Then, what do we do?! We'll die if we get LOST!"

"They said that a World Saver won't die if they get LOST."

"They're so underhanded!"

"Our only option would be to find a way off the island, then..."

"Don't. It's too dangerous." Muraku's voice was the only one she recognized. Perhaps it was because he was standing right next to her. "They're armed with guns. Plus..."

She looked up, wondering why he trailed off, only to see him gesturing at the camera watching them.

"Let's end this! We have to put an end to this!" Arata declared. When they all turned to him, his eyes suddenly grew wide, staring at the door. "Someone's coming. Three people..."

Hikaru turned to the door, but no one was there. "What are you saying?"

Arata didn't reply, only waited. Then, in came Harness' first platoon.

"You're right." Yuno muttered, completely bewildered.

"How did you make it over here?" Haruki asked.

That was when Hannah's attention reverted back to her sketches. She wanted to get her mind off of the fight as much as possible.

"We asked them if it was alright to come mourn over the deaths of our friends."

"We were okayed just like that. It's like when you dangle a carrot in front of a donkey. Tricky ones, they are."

"How's Harness doing?"

"We're the same as you."

"The whole class is on edge."

There was the sound of a chair being pushed back. "No more... I don't want this anymore!! No! No! No!!"

"Hanako!"

"I don't want to fight! I don't want to die...!"

"Calm down. It'll be fine. We're all fine..."

"If I knew this would happen, I would've gotten myself LOST and left this island earlier..."

"Damn it!" A loud bang echoed throughout the class.

"Ack―!"

"Arata?"

"What's wrong?"

"What in the world... My ears... My ears really hurt..."

"First the door, and now this... Is there something wrong with your body?"

She heard more voices talking about how he should go get himself checked with the school nurse, and soon, there was the sound of the door opening and closing.

That was when a hand appeared in her view. Vanessa had slapped her table to gain her attention.

"How are you so calm?!"

Hannah moved her gaze up to make eye contact with her. No words came out.

"Your best friend died in front of you! How are you not freaking out?!"

"My grandparents died in front of my eyes."

The whole room's attention was on her now.

"About two years ago, my grandfather collapsed and never woke up. Two weeks later, my grandmother died of heartbreak. Not too long ago, Wataru became LOST and left the island, his dreams of becoming a pro-player shattered. And then, this happened to Nikolai." As she explained, not a hint of sadness was visible in her eyes. Instead, she smiled coldly. "Do you honestly believe that I'm calm right now?"

Vanessa took a step back with a nervous look. No one had ever seen her make that expression before. They became more unsettled.

Muraku placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "That's enough. We're all on edge here. There's no point in taking it out on each other."

"Y-Yeah..." The purple haired girl gave him an apologetic look while the brunette shrugged his hand off.

The silence returned.