"They did not just end it like that!"

"They did. They fucking did!"

The overall story was sad, but Matatagi and Mizukawa were both rolling on the ground at Katora's ending words. So much so that they didn't even seem bothered by the fact that they had all somehow returned to the front of the large door on the top-most island.

"Imagine being slandered by the princess you died protecting!"

"I don't know who the fuck they are, but damn, I take back what I said earlier. I want more of this."

"I know who the fuck one of them is, and if you met her face-to-face, I doubt you'd expect that from her."

"That just makes it even funnier!"

"I know!"

The rest of the team had sweatdrops or wry smiles as they watched the two bond over what should've been seen as a tragedy. Shindou had a look that said he wanted to scold them, but decided to save his breath instead, knowing full-well that they wouldn't listen.

"Where did Pixie go?" Just as Aoi asked, the purple pixie appeared in front of them.

Kimiko's first instinct is to reach for her gun, but then remembered that she used it to destroy the satellite. Her next option was to summon an energy ball, only to recall that it didn't work the last time she threw it at him. So she was stuck with just being able to fume and nothing more.

Tsurugi, who was the only one to see her entire reaction, placed a hand on her shoulder before addressing the creature. "Are you here to show us a story like the other Pixie did?"

"Piku!" Just like the other one, it floated towards the first disc.

"Do we really have to go through all of that again?" Sakura asked.

"I'm down if it means more comedy." Mizukawa piped in with a rather unsettling grin.

"And action!" Matatagi and her high-fived as they raced down the steps.

Reluctantly, the rest followed. The creature was waiting patiently for them all to gather.

"So what do you have for us?" Not even two seconds had passed after the navy haired boy asked, and there was already a bright light surrounding them.

~~~~~

A familiar purple throne room appeared, a man with blue-gray hair sitting on top of it. Nobles, aides, and soldiers alike were bowing before him.

"King Ireid. Congratulations on your journey to seizing control of the planet." A noblewoman said, smiling almost cruelly. "The reason Faram remains number one in the galaxy is because of the most powerful king of all time. Only because of you, King Ireid."

"Mm. You all have worked hard as well. In the next battle too, show me your loyalty."

"Of course, your highness."

As the noblewoman stepped down, a boy took her place, kneeling before the king.

"Father! For the next battle, please allow me to fight alongside you!"

"Acrous..." The king considered his son's words carefully before nodding. "Very well. You are already 15, a legislative adult. As Faram Orbius' next king in line, do not dare embarrass yourself in battle."

"Yes!"

The scene fades from the throne room to deep space, where dozens of fleets were attacking one another. It closed in on the largest one, where three people stood on its observation deck. The king, the prince, and an aide.

"... This is... the battlefield..." Prince Acrous looked on in awe.

"Our first fleet continues to engage with the enemy's main fleet led by General Gazerad. Gazerad's fleet is also returning fire with all of its strength. The first fleet has lost half of its ships." The aide reported.

"I see. So far, everything is going as planned."

"Going as planned?" The young prince was shocked to hear his father's comment. "Even though we've lost half the fleet?"

"The fleet will now commence a simultaneous bombardment of Largant's main fleet! If we can contain Gazerad's forces, our victory is imminent. They will be defeated in this battle, no matter what it takes!"

"Father?! Do you intend to shoot our fleet?!"

While the boy was distraught over such a decision, the king only nodded. "That's right. From the start, the first fleet's objective was to serve as a decoy to the enemy. The plan is going smoothly."

"Decoy?! But they're fighting while believing in you, father!"

"Do you not understand?! To get what you want, you have to offer something in exchange for it. It's like buying a loaf of bread with a copper coin."

"Do you mean to say that the soldiers acting as bait and going off to die is the compensation...?"

"Son! This is war!"

"Father..." The young Acrous' expression hardened as his father walked away. "Father has become possessed by war. A demon that has lost his heart..."

~~~~~

"Not all that much humor, huh?"

"It wasn't that bad. Just wish we could've seen the ships explode from up close."

As Matatagi and Mizukawa continued to review the vision like some sort of movie, the rest have decided to ignore them and question more important things.

"So... That first part was definitely Faram Orbius' throne room, right?" Sakura asked.

"So that king and prince must be Queen Lalaya's ancestor, huh?" Shinsuke pointed his gaze at the navy haired boy, who held his chin in thought.

"A younger version of King Acrous and Minel, huh..."

"There was Donolzen too." Kimiko pointed out, her mood only getting more sour by the second.

"Who are they exactly?" Tenma asked.

"King Acrous is Lalaya's father, but he passed long before this whole Grand Celesta Galaxy thing started." The striker hesitated slightly before opening his mouth again. "And now, he's turned into the Pixie we're following."

"... What."

"Pixie is..."

"A dead alien?"

"Oh, right..." Tenma nodded slowly, as if recalling something. "The Pixie that was with us throughout our journey turned into Sarjes in front of me one time. But if the story that we saw of him earlier is true, then..."

"Yeah. He's a ghost too."

"Wait, when did that happen?" Kusaka asked the brunette captain. "I don't remember you ever mentioning anything about Pixie shape shifting..."

"Oh, uh..." He looked sheepish as he answered. "Honestly, I couldn't believe my own eyes when it happened too, but I just remembered him when we were going through the visions."

"And even if you did tell us, there was only a small chance that we would believe you." Minaho pointed out bluntly. "I think you did the right thing by keeping quiet."

"Ahaha... Thanks...?"

"That didn't answer his question though." Ibuki pointed out. "When did that happen?"

"Oh! The night before the finals. Sarjes came to tell me what Katora told us all in the meeting room. Fight with everything we've got, and all that... Though, he did it in a really confusing way that made me think I was just dreaming."

"This whole journey's been a fever dream to be fair." Matatagi piped in suddenly. No one knew when he and Mizukawa had finished their ratings, and no one bothered to ask.

"Yeah..."

"What about you, Tsurugi?" Tetsukado asked. "When did you meet the King Pixie?"

"Around that same time, I guess. Except, unlike Sarjes and Katora, he told me everything about the cannon, and Ozrock's plan to raid the city that morning. Kimiko was also there to catch me up to speed with everything you guys had to deal with, so that helped put a ton of pieces together."

"Wha―?!"

"B-But... Didn't you say...?"

"That the castle security was too tight and that I wasn't able to see him? Yeah, so I figured out that there's this really cool thing that you can do to prevent people from finding out secrets. It's called lying."

As much as the whole team would love to ask why, they already knew the answer to that.

"Anyway," The girl pointed at the glowing disk. "I think we shouldn't keep his dead-ness waiting."

"Just for that, I'll give you a high-five." Mizukawa smirked as she held her hand out. "I like a kid that disrespects authority."

"Side effect of being part of my relative's political shenanigans, I guess."

"Haha! Good one! ... Oh, wait, fuck, seriously? Damn."

"Yeah, Japan had two emperors for a while. One for the country and one for soccer."

"You're shitting me."

"Unfortunately not." Shindou frowned. "I never thought too much about it, but... Yeah, that's going to be a weird part of history people in the future might end up finding in their textbooks."

"Want me to ask Fei to check―"

"As nice as this conversation is..." Ichikawa politely interjected. "I don't think we should keep his highness waiting much longer."

Eyeing where he was looking, they all found the creature with a bit of a displeased look as it flew around the empty space, trying to get their attention.

"Yeah, we should go." And just like that, Tsurugi took the lead on to the next platform.

~~~~~

"The moment Gazerad fell, our victory was assured. It is only a matter of time before we gain total control over Planet Largant." The noblewoman was once again the first to speak in the vision.

"As expected of King Ireid!"

While the other nobles cheered, young Prince Acrous looked on in silence. That was when a servant rushed in.

"Your Majesty! There's trouble! The spaceship that the queen is on has been attacked by Largant's forces!"

"What?!" Without letting the servant finish his report, Acrous rushed out of the throne room.

The scene changed to the outside, where a gondola was waiting for the prince. But before he could hop on, he was called back by his own father.

"Where are you going, Acrous?"

The king-to-be hesitated before replying. "I will move with the southern army and save mother!"

"I will not allow it. If you move the southern army now, the diversion that we have created would've been all for nothing."

The king continued on and on about his plans and how it was for the victory of the planet, but the young Prince Acrous refused to accept such an outcome. He wanted to save the queen, his mother, regardless of his father's views. The conversation quickly escalated to a sword fight. It was one-sided for a while, with Acrous refusing to fight his father, but with him charging straight at him, he had no choice but to pull out his own sword. They clashed briefly, and the prince was able to push past him. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), that meant accidentally sending the king off the balcony.

"FATHER!!!"

For a moment, it was as if time stood still. Acrous, his sword sheathed, took a deep, shaky breath.

"F-Father... Please forgive me... I... I... I want to become a king who is different from you."

"Prince Acrous!" Young Minel called out to him, running towards him. He told him that he has finished preparing for his departure.

The now-king lamented over what he had done to his own kin, and yet the aide, who seemed to have been loyal to him at the start, had ended up showing support towards the young royal. He stated how only the prince could've stopped the king's tyranny, relieving just a tiny piece of the burden he must now carry. And like that, the two left to save the queen.

~~~~~

"King Acrous appeared again..." Tsurugi muttered. "I suppose that would make this a real part of Faram Orbius' history..."

"That would make all the stuff we saw before Kiel's actual history too, right?" Minaho summarized.

"Yeah..."

"Hey... Doesn't um... that King Acrous look similar to Tsurugi?" Tenma suddenly asked.

Kimiko let out a couple of coughs from behind him.

Shinsuke nodded while laughing slightly. "Yeah, yeah! Something about their aura is similar."

"... Maybe. I can't tell."

A blatant lie that none of them choose to call him out for.

"So we're just gonna casually gloss over the fact he killed his dad?" Matatagi pointed out the part they all wished to ignore.

Well, all but him and Mizukawa apparently as the girl responded with, "Fight scene was way too short. But the king having a blue lightsaber was kinda funny."

"Funny how?"

"I don't know if aliens have the same kind of morals like we do on Earth, but if that guy was supposed to be the villain, then shouldn't it be red? The 'dark side of the force' or whatever?"

"That's a thing? I thought they could customize the colors."

"I'm not deep into the lore, so all I know is good guys have blue and green, bad guys have red... Oh, and that one guy has purple."

"Like the kid prince then? ... You know I don't actually know what all the colors mean. I've literally never seen a Star Wars movie in my life."

"Nah, the purple one isn't important. The only reason that guy had it was because the actor asked for it."

"Seriously? Way to break the immersion."

"Yeah, but the idea that the tyrant king is a good guy and the kid prince kind of breaking the fourth wall of reality just based off of their lightsabers is funny though."

"When you put it that way―"

"If you two don't hurry up, we'll leave you behind, I swear to god." A voice called out rather loudly.

Looking up from their conversation, they both found only Shindou was left standing by the teleportation device. The rest had all gone ahead to their next stop, and even he was about to step on it and disappear from their sight.

Still, both menaces stayed completely unbothered, smirking as they casually strutted after them all.

"By the way, you've seriously never seen a Star Wars movie?"

"No, but I've seen Star Trek."

"Oh, you did not just―"

~~~~~

After 4 months!!! I'm back!!!!! Kind of, ahaha...

I finally finished writing the Supernova chapters, and also the part that comes afterwards, so yeah!

Also, I want to tell everyone beforehand, there will be significantly less soccer in these chapters because the focus will be shifted to the relationships between the characters. I've got about 10 chapters lined up from here, and there's only one completely laid out soccer battle thus far (lasting about two chapters, but still). Any other matches have been glossed over. There's stil several chapters afterwards to go, but this is the final stretch!

Thank you so much to everyone who has been patient with me these past few months! I am not at all done with my thesis, but I'm not as busy as I was before, so wish me luck at finishing the rest of this with no breaks between weekly updates!

See you next Monday! Love you all!