"Byakuya?!" Kokuyo's eyes filled with tears - his brother was alive?!

"Can't be..." Nick gasped in shock.

Gustav instead snarled - just how many times should he kill this guy?!

"You again?"

"You won't get away with attacking the order we belong to!" Byakuya strictly declared. He let go of Tamie, who jumped out of the Dragon's core and yelled her incantation:

"Libra Style, Writer Art, Demigoddess Mode; Tiger Spirit, Ring Seven - White Air Tiger!" 

She unleashed her White Tiger spirit. However, the friends got astonished at another thing:

"Demigoddess?!" Nick couldn't believe his ears - Tamie had already reached the final, eighth rank of Writer Class?

"Amazing! To achieve such heights in such a short time..." a proud beam covered Nina's face, "That's my girl!"

Gustav sneered and charged at them:

"I'll obliterate you!"

"Tamie!" Byakuya cried, "Remember our strategy? Stick to it!"

"Yes!" 

Tamie's Tiger spirit sprang forward, accompanied by Byakuya's Red Dragon. A fierce battle began - Purple Snake of Gustav was spitting poison rays and showers, while Byakuya's Red Dragon threw fire out of his mouth and Tamie's Tiger created tornadoes and typhoons. Then, Tamie even called out her dragon character to assist her in battle:

"Libra Style, Writer Art, Demigoddess Mode - Summoning: Ronna!"

The gruesome green dragon emerged, roared, and burst into flames.

"Ugh, no third party creatures shall interfere in our battle!" Gustav sneered and called out on his part: "Scorpio Style, Sneaker Art, Ninja Mode - Demon Scorpion Summoning!"

A giant purple scorpion monster emerged from Gustav's Purple Zen - Gustav's sign guardian - and grappled with Ronna.

Tamie gasped - the sign guardian? But... she couldn't summon hers! Gustav laughed triumphantly:

"You miserly Libras have no sign guardian to summon. Your dragon is a goner!"

"You're not the only one who has sign guardians here. Leo Style, Sworder Art, Emperor Mode - Fire Lion Summoning!" a red, winged fire lion emerged from Byakuya's Red Zen, attacked the scorpion, and assisted Ronna in battle.

"You brat!" 

Gustav's Purple Snake attacked the Dragon again. Tamie rejoiced:

"Thanks, Byakuya!"

"Stick to the plan, Tamie!" Byakuya strictly scolded her instead, while spitting fire from the Dragon's mouth at the Snake spirit, "Do not summon third parties!"

"Got it!"

The friends charged at the enemy once more.

"White Zen, Typhoon!" Tamie's Tiger threw an immense typhoon at Gustav.

"Red Zen, Firestorm!" a large amount of fire was blown at the Snake on Byakuya's part.

They heard Gustav's vile laugh:

"Have you forgotten? I can absorb your attacks!" 

He reopened his Black Orbs and consumed the blasts they had directed against him. Nick, Kokuyo, and Nina got distressed - how could they have forgotten that fact?! Now they had given even more strength to Gustav! However, Byakuya and Tamie, as if nothing, continued casting incantations:

"Tornado!"

"Lava storm!"

"Gale shot!"

"Sunray!"

They gave more and more blows to Gustav and he too consumed them infinitely.

"You both are stupider than I thought," he laughed, "You keep amplifying my powers!"

"Tamie, stop!" Nina got worked up - they would definitely lose like that.

Gustav grinned and locked his eyes on Tamie:

"You are rather energetic. Why don't we change that?"

"No!" Nina yelled.

"Ah!" Tamie's energy began depleting, but she shouted while she still had the strength left: "Libra Style, Writer Art, Demigoddess Mode - Triple Tornado!"

Three tornadoes emerged all at once, directed towards Gustav, to swallow him in their depths. However, Gustav consumed the tornadoes as he did with all the previous blasts.

"You still don't get it, do you? You are far beneath me!" he raised his hand and shot the amplified blasts Tamie and Byakuya had both given him before. Byakuya covered already-weakened Tamie. Gustav added the dreadful incantation they didn't really expect: "Blast of Pluto!"

Nick, Kokuyo, and Nina gasped - he had a second shot of Pluto ready?! But to think of it, he had already absorbed a lot of energy from the two. Before Tamie and Byakuya could even react, they got hit, and their spirits disappeared.

"Tamie!" Nick and Nina yelled in dread.

"Byakuya!" Kokuyo too got worried about his brother.

Byakuya and Tamie collapsed to the ground. Gustav's vile chuckle sounded throughout the room:

"You all are weaklings against my Sneaker Art. Begone!" he wanted to deal the final blow of Silver Mars which would turn out fatal for the already-weakened opponents (much to Edmund's terror), but there, they heard Tamie's cough and saw how the girl had stood up, along with Byakuya. Gustav frowned: "Huh? You can still stand?!"

"We... shall never lose to the likes of you!" Tamie wiped the blood off her mouth, and whispered to Byakuya: "Is it enough?"

"Yes". 

Byakuya put his hands on her shoulders from the behind. Gustav eyed them with annoyance:

"What are you mumbling there among yourselves?! Begone!" he began casting an incantation: "Scorpio Style, Sneaker Art, Ninja Mode_" 

He got interrupted by the strict voice of Tamie who had closed eyes and begun casting her incantation, which turned out quite stupefying and gruesome:

"Libra Style, Zodiac Art..."

"No!" Gustav reactivated his Black Orbs with the intention to deplete her energy, but to his complete stupor, he could not. "Huh? What's happening? Who cares if you're a Bearer? Black Orbs should work on you nevertheless!"

He noticed how Byakuya had glowed in Red Zen. Tamie, on her part, had glowed in Pink Zen - the combination of White and Red energies - as Byakuya had placed his hands on her shoulders. Everyone was left stupefied - they had fused?!

"Bearer..." Tamie continued.

"She's a Bearer?!" the friends gasped - when had Tamie achieved such heights?

"Bearer... of the Soul..."

Gustav was worried at another thing now - how come Black Orbs didn't work on her? Even if she infused her powers with Byakuya's ones, Black Orbs should still have worked, for Byakuya wasn't invulnerable to them either! Or... 

Once Tamie cried 'Divine Scales Summoning' and summoned giant golden Scales every Bearer had access to, Byakuya cast a certain pretty strange spell:

"Mezamete, Ketsuryuu no Tamashii..." 

(TRANSLATION: Awaken, Blood Dragon Soul... (Japanese))

Byakuya's Red Dragon spirit morphed, filled with Red Zen energy, and formed into a silhouette of a vile-eyed long-red-bushy-ponytailed muscled ghost-like man, who had been engulfed in the Red Zen energy of Byakuya and appeared to be standing behind him and Tamie, as the main power source.

"Ketsuryuu no Tamashii..?" Kokuyo gasped, "He doesn't mean... Lord Ketsuryuu?!"

"Who's that?" Nick asked.

"One of the twin dragon kings - Sun Dragon Ketsuryuu. Or rather, they mostly call him... the Blood Dragon".

So that technique was where Byakuya's alias had originated from?!

"No wonder Black Orbs don't work on him then," Nina uttered in amazement, "He has such... extraordinary powers". 

She frowned - Ketsuryuu?! As far as she knew from the Dragon tales of her husband, the name 'Ketsuryuu' didn't portend anything good. 

Gustav had already frozen on the place since Tamie had nearly finished her incantation and her aim was already locked on him. Once the Bearer made a lock-on, the prey could move no more.

"No!" he yelled.

"Judgment," Tamie reopened her eyes and blasted Gustav with a large golden-to-pink ray (pink as Byakuya's powers had fused in with hers, sending her that strange and mysterious Ketsuryuu no Tamashii energy).

Gustav shrilled in terror, not able to shield himself even with the greatest powers of his Purple Snake or Black Orbs, as Ketsuryuu's power merged with the Bearer blast was too much for him to handle. He got hit. The redhead man-like silhouette behind Byakuya let out a horrendous roar.

It was over.