'So this is it, huh?' Tomo sat looking down the barrel of the Ravager Cannon which was half the size of her school. The events of the last few days passed before her eyes, leaving an even more shaken girl. The others, gone. Their fault, those alien bastards. Sakaki lay on the ground next to her, Yomi on the other side. None of them had any idea where Yukari and Nyamo could be. The wildcat girl wimpered, knowing that it was the end. She heard a faint ringing and lied back, looking into the massive thing before her, remembering.

CYCLE OF THE STAR

Osaka walked down the hallway to the classroom. She had been thinking about something, but now is not the time to talk of that. "Hey!" she heard someone shout from behind her. Turning, she saw one of her friends charging towards her. "Hiya, Tomo", she said as the other girl got to her. Tomo got to her and asked ,"Have you seen Kagura today?"

"No, but Ah heard from Yomi that she was down at the pool" replied Osaka. "Okay, thanks!" exclaimed Tomo as she turned back down the hall. Shrugging, Osaka returned to her former duties.

Tomo ran, faster than usual, to the pool. Kagura, who was in fact at the pool, saw her charging through the gate. She waved and walked over to her. "Hey, Tomo", said the athlete as her friend got to her. "Kagura I saw it, it does exist!" said Tomo in between her short breathing. The day before, Kagura swore she saw something fly low over the park, but make not a single noise. Tomo said that if she stayed at the park and watched the sky the entire night, she'd not see a single out-of-the-ordinary thing. So she went to the park, and, as mentioned before, she saw it.

"I told you", said Kagura ,"Did it do anything different?"

"No, it flew right over the park, and didn't make a sound."

"I wonder what it might be..."

It was about this time the bell began to ring, and Tomo and Kagura made their way to Yukari's classroom.

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When it was nearly 3, Tomo began to doze off. Yomi looked over and sighed. She'd probably be stuck waking her up today. Waking Tomo up was never a joyful experience. Last time Yomi woke her up, she ended up with a broken nose. Tomo could be very violent on the trip back to reality sometimes...

Sakaki had her usual spot by the window looking into the clouds above. Chiyo was talking with Naoko about the last test. Osaka was long gone in the land of dreams. Kagura was flipping through a bike magazine she had brought. Yukari had already left, so the class was officially over. Soon after the bell had rung, there was an angry scream and a yelp of pain. All the remaining heads turned. Yomi was on the ground infront of Tomo's desk. Said girl was standing with her fist in front of her, looking very angry.

Tomo looked down at her and became fully awake. She bounced around her desk to help Yomi up. "You know that this happens when you wake me up", she said to the taller girl. "Well it wasn't like I had much of a choice", replied Yomi.

The wildcat girl smiled and yawned. "Looks like I'm still a bit tired."

"You need to get more sleep," sighed the other girl rubbing her forehead.

Yomi led the sleepy wildcat outside and began the long walk to her house. When she arrived at Tomo's house, she led the wildcat inside. "Mom, Dad, I'm home!" yelled Tomo. Her mother came out of the kitchen carrying a small book. "Hello Mrs. Takino," said Yomi, bowing.

"Ah, hello Yomi," welcomed Mrs. Takino. Tomo went into the main room to put away her school items. "How was school, Tomo," said Mrs. Takino coming into the room aswell. "The same as any day," replied the teen. She looked more tame when she was at her house, but anywhere else, she was the wildest of wildcats.

Yomi waved goodbye to the two Takinos ,"Bye, Tomo, see you at school." Tomo and her mother said their goodbyes to Yomi as she began to leave. Once out of the house, Yomi sighed. She began the walk home.

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Tomo stared at the celing of her bedroom. Turning her head, she saw that the time was 12:50 AM. Groaning, the wildcat turned off her light and went to her bed and went to sleep.

She was awoken a few hours later by a noise coming from her window. Alarmed, Tomo slowly slid out of bed to investigate. As she approched the window, she heard someone speaking in a language she didn't understand. Through the window she could see two figures. One of them turned to look through the glass. It spoke in Japanese.

"He comes, and the Byrten have little to stop him. We, as Drykal, must aid these people. Prepare the Klarl Lyras, we will begin preperations immediately." The other person made a slight bow and turned to leave. The one that spoke looked in for a while longer, then left also. Tomo shook her head thinking it was an illusion and went back to bed.

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Lord Prince Eylmey was in thought on the flight back to the hidden base on Earth. 'I hope that Byrtel heard me' thought the young prince. His people, the Lraycl, had created a powerful empire that spanned four solar systems. They had destroyed more than seven alien races, and destroyed two planets. Eylmey's brother, the Emperor Prince Kanyl, was undefeated in battle. He alone had conquered a system. Their father, Gyremperor Tynuren, was proud of his son's accomplishments. Eylmey, however, had witnessed Kanyl order the slaughter of thousands of citizens for having regretful thoughts at killing other sentient peoples. Eylmey created the Dryka Mirkat in order to spare others the death. Kanyl learned of the Dryka Mirkat, but said nothing. He used his brother's foregoings to find his targets. Eylmey saw the base as they landed. Muryl stood to escort his Lord Prince to his quarters.

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Tomo walked along side Yomi, who was looking depressed. As they approached the school, Chihiro and Naoko walked up to them. "Hey guys!" greeted Chihiro happily. "Good morning," said Naoko in a tired voice.

"Yo," yawned Tomo, stretching. Yomi smiled slightly to the other two girls as a greeting. The four of them walked to their homeroom class.

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Tomo sighed happily, she finally had time to think. Everyone in the school thought she was a knucklehead, but in truth, she knew much. Only Chiyo, the little genius, could best Tomo at almost every turn, and sometimes it was frustrating.

As she sat on the bench on the roof, she thought about what she had seen the night before. She was still sitting when the bell rang. The wildcat sighed as she stood up to return to her class. When she arrived, Yukari wasn't there. Tomo, seeking and awnser to a question, walked to Yomi's desk. The girl looked up to see her friend standing before her.

"What do you want, Tomo?" she asked. Tomo sat in the free desk in front of Yomi's and answered ,"I wanted to ask you something."

Yomi sighed and asked ,"About what?"

"You know I have limited knowledge of words, right?"

"Yes."

"I want to know what Byrten are."

Yomi looked at Tomo strangely ,"That doesn't sound like a word that exists." "I was just wondering 'cause last night, I heard two men talking outside my window. At first, I couldn't understand what they were saying. Then one of them starts talking in Japanese," Tomo stopped to remember what the man had said ," He said 'The Byrten have little to stop him', so I wondered what Byrten are."

All Yomi said was ,"Oh."

Tomo sat down at her desk as Yukari walked back into the classroom.

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Eylmey's color drained from his face as he saw the radar. "He's here," said the Lord Prince ,"Nirya, prepare the shields, now!"

"Yes, Lord Prince," said the young woman as she sat down at the control panel. Eylmey began talking again. "Everyone, the time is here. We can no longer stall. Kanyl comes for the Byrten. It is our duty as Dryka Mirkat to protect them". "Jyral selvan kemerei!" was shouted by everyone in the room.

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Sakaki was gazing out the window once more. She could see little cats playing in the yard infront of the school. When they left, her gaze drifted upwards, and she gasped at what she saw. There was a layer of glow covering the sky. Sakaki could hear as other people saw it. Then there was a loud explosion that shook the enitre school. Once it had stopped, a massive hole appeared in the glow, and small silver dots were coming through it.

Osaka pointed out the window and asked,"What are those?" and drew everyones attention to the dots. As one of them swooped down low, its sleek, silver curves and small symbols covering it could be seen. Suddenly, another, smaller crash rattled through the school.

Yukari went to the door and stood there. From the hallway came a scream and a buthd noise. The class jumped, and Yukari opened the door slightly, and looked out. On the floor on the far end of the hallway was a dead girl, with a clean burn through her chest. Standing over her was a near 2 meter tall man dressed in a black suit that covered his entire body. A small knife hung at his side, and in his hands was a small metallic item. He pressed a button on the side of it and raised it in the air. A loud voice filled the school, first in an unkown language, then English, and finally Japanese. It called, "LESSER PEOPLE! YOU ARE A DISGRACE IN THE EYES OF THE DESTINED! WE HAVE COME TO CLEANSE THE GALAXY OF YOUR EXISTANCE! ANY RESISTANCE IS USELESS!"

Everyone took a few seconds to register what had been said, and then began screaming in fear and anger. Osaka looked upwards helplessly," So we're gonna die..."

Chiyo was crying while Sakaki tried to comfort her, but to no avail. Tomo was trying to rally everyone, and failing. They were all too afraid to calm down. Kagura was pissed. Yomi was trying her best to stay calm, but was obviously shaking. Chihiro had fainted. Naoko seemed to be the only one unfazed.

Everyone stopped as the door shook. Yukari had locked after she had seen the man in the hallway. Yukari moved quietly across the room to the back. She bent down, and pressed down on a tile with all her might. The class stared as it popped in two. She stood up as the door shook again, and motioned for everyone to move as quietly as possible through the hole. The hole was large enough for two people to go through at a time, so there was no problem getting through. Finally the last four people were getting ready to pass through the hole, but the door gave in at last, and two pale skinned human-like men ran into the room.

Yukari had gone in before the men busted in and closed the hole. As the rest of the class closed their eyes, the screams of the dying could be heard above them. Yukari locked the secret door and told the class to move forward.

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The hole they had crawled through led to the cafeteria. A random boy looked in and called back up,"All clear," and one by one, the class dropped down into the cafeteria. Chiyo had stopped crying, and had a strange expression on her face.

"We need to make sure that they can't get us in here," said Yukari as she went into a small closet at the side of the room. After she had gone in, Tomo turned to Yomi. "The first language, the guys from last night spoke it," the wildcat said.

Yomi looked at her friend and replied,"Yeah, they were, I could hear the word Byrten." At that time, Yukari came back out of the closet holding boards, nails, and hammers. "We have to hurry," she said to the class as she handed out the supplies.

After she had handed everything out, Yukari began gathering chairs in front of the doors. Soon the entire room was fortified. Outside the room, more shots could be heard, and screams for help and of death.

The remainders of Class 3 were huddled together talking about what was going on. Naoko and Osaka were the only ones who did not join in the conversations. Ouyama had found the key to the kitchen, so they had food and water. Osaka was looking at the ceiling. She had a dark feeling in her heart.

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Kaorin slid under the desk as quickly as she could. Three men walked into the room, each armed. Kaorin waited until they walked past her desk, and snuck behind them out the door. She began to run as soon as she got out. The men in the room heard her and took off after her, but she was already down the stairs. She had to see if her Sakaki-san was alright.

She ran down the hallway to the other set of stairs, and went up them. When she reached the floor she wanted, she went to Class 3's room. The door was busted in, and there were four dead students on the floor. Kaorin put the hand over her mouth as she saw them. The boy was completely mutilated, his body broken into twelve pieces. One of the girls had no head, another missing her legs and arm with a torn hole where her heart once was, and the last one had her head broken through the window, blood gathering in a pool around her knees.

Kaorin walked in horror to see who the girl at the window was. She stepped towards the body and pulled it out of the window, and nearly screamed when she saw Chihiro's face. She took a few steps back before turning and running from the scene. Before she could make it out, she ran strait into someone. Almost as soon as she hit the floor, she was back up on her feet and moving backwards. The man she had run into was covered in black. He extended his hand to her as he walked forward. Kaorin screamed and scrambled farther away from him.

Her back ran into the wall and she screamed again. The man had reached her by then. Before she had a chance to act, the black clad man had grabbed her face. Kaorin's eyes widened as the mouth of the man's suit disappeared and he lowered his lips to hers.

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It had been hours since Class 3 had escaped through the hole. The sounds of dying had long since faded away. Chiyo was sleeping on a makeshift bed the students had thrown together for everyone out of tarps in the closet. Everyone was worried about what might have become of their friends in other parts of the school. Sakaki was sitting in the corner by herself, chanting something silently. Kagura had worn herself out and was sitting on the ground, defeated.

Tomo suddenly stood from her place next to Yomi, and walked over to the window to look out the cracks in between the boards. The outside looked terrible too. Trash cans were dumped over, and parts of the ground had been burnt. The most horrific sight that she saw, was a body torn in half hanging from the tree. 'So close to escape' Tomo thought as she turned back inside.

For a while everything was quiet, until a bang came from the other side of the door. All of the people in the cafeteria had their breath catch in their throat. It came again, and someone began to cry quietly. Once again it came before they heard voices come from the other side of the door, fading away. The people let their breathing continue.

Before they could begin their activities again, the door exploded inward. The students scattered trying to dodge the splintered door. Lasers began tearing their way through the smoke. Five students fell before they even knew what was going on. The rest ran towards the kitchen. There was another door in here that they started to take down the barricade. Another laser came through the door and caught Ohyama in the back. He was dead before his body hit the ground.

The remaining students broke through the door into the schools hallway. They then scattered in every direction to get away from the killers. The girls ran left down the hallway. Some lights were flickering on and off. A tearful Chiyo was being carried by Sakaki. They turned another corner towards the exit to the pool.

They had almost reached it when that door shattered as more lasers came through it. Sakaki rolled under them still holding the now screaming Chiyo. Yomi just managed to dodge them. Tomo hit the floor as soon as the door had shattered. Osaka saw the lasers come at her, but was to slow to respond. One cut through her shoulder, and another through the side of her leg. She fell backwards screaming in pain. Kagura grabbed Osaka and fell to the ground.

Two more alien people broke through the remains of the door, and held their guns down at the girls. The woman laughed," Fools, all of you 'Byrten' are". The laughing was cut short as a foot connected with the back of her head. Raising his weapon, the man turned to face the threat. Before he could start shooting, Kurosawa Minamo grabbed the end of his gun and twisted it out of his hands. Minamo brought her knee up into the man's stomach. The man fell over trying hard to breath.

Kagura stood,"Sensei..." she said. Minamo wiped a drop of sweat from her brow and asked,"Where's everyone else?"

Yomi responded,"We scattered when we got out of the cafeteria," as she got up. Osaka had stopped screaming. Minamo bent down to see what she could do for Osaka.

After looking over her injuries, Minamo pulled a small first aid kit from her pocket. She grabbed some disinfectant, and sprayed the burns.

Osaka jumped when the cold spray hit the burns, but withstood it. After she finished, Minamo put the disinfectant back into the kit and looked up to the others. “We need to get moving,” she said as she stood back up with Osaka. Once they were ready, the girls ran through the door and out to the city.

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Lord Prince Eylmey ducked behind the stack of boxes as the ground behind him exploded. His brother had finally taken action against the Dryka Mirkat. Four Pyrs-Ureyl teams had been dispatched to eliminate every last Dryka.

Eylmey fired a shot over the top of the boxes, and was rewarded with a scream of agony from one of the dark wearing Pyrsi. As he ducked back down, he saw Nirya going against one of the Pyrsi in close quarters, and losing. Eylmey raised his weapon to shoot the Pyrsi, but the slayer saw Eylmey and threw Nirya in front of him.

Nirya swung another blow at the Pyrsi, but her enemy caught her hand and squeezed. Pyrsi have the strength of twenty normal people, so her hand snapped in a few seconds. Nirya stepped back holding her hand.

The Pyrsi saw his chance, and brought his knife up across her entire body. Eylmey could only watch as Niyra screamed and fell to the ground, with blood pooling around her.

Eylmey felt rage overcome him. He dropped his weapon and pulled his sword from its sheath tied to his back. Charging at the killer of Nirya, Eylmey thrust his sword in front of him. The Pyrsi barely managed to dodge the blade. Eylmey growled and swung sideways to cut through the Pyrsi.

His sword connected with the black-clad slayer. Blood leaked out from beneath his visor as the Pyrsi fell dead. Eylmey pulled his sword free of the corpse and cleaned the blood off of it. ‘I have claimed vengeance for you, my love’ thought Eylmey as he picked up his fallen fiancé. He began to fall back, firing shots from his gun as he retreated to the Chamber of the Lost.

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The girls moved a quickly as they could through the destroyed city. Osaka had healed enough to limp beside them. They were heading to someplace safer than the school they had left behind.

Sakaki and Kagura had gone ahead to scout out their path for alien patrols. Chiyo was trying to think about what was happening, but couldn’t think clearly through her fear. Out here, the dieing was worse than at the school, but was spread out more.

They had the two alien rifles that Minamo had ‘relieved’ their owners of. After a few minutes, Sakaki and Kagura returned to the group, who were resting in an alleyway.

“There’s an office building up ahead, and no aliens were anywhere in sight of it,” Kagura reported as they arrived. Minamo looked around to see the group looking to her. “What?” she asked them.

“We need your say, sensei,” Chiyo explained. “Well, it sounds alright, so I think we should go,” Minamo said. The rest of the group agreed, so they began to move towards it.

Once they reached the street, Sakaki looked out from between the buildings. She turned back to the rest of the group and reported,”Nothing sighted.” The girls moved across the street as quickly as they could, and entered the building.

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Kaorin lay against the wall of Class 3, shaking with pain. After the man had kissed her, he had pulled his knife from his belt and stabbed her hand to the wall.

The wound had stopped bleeding some time ago, but the pain stayed. Her eyes ran dry, for she had cried all of the tears she had, in hate, in fear, in pain, and in sorrow. Chihiro, her best friend, lay dead only a few meters from her.

Kaorin looked to the ceiling. She had given up trying to pull the knife out. Every time she pulled on it, it sank in deeper into the wall.

She was exhausted from yanking on the knife. She closed her eyes and let sleep claim her.

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Kanyl sat in the command room of the Herin Sylanti. He was looking at the progress report of the elimination of the Hur’Byrten. A smile rested on his face at the report.

His brother, Eylmey, would soon be dead as well. His personal Pyrs-Ureyl had never failed him before, and they would not fail him this time either. Eylmey was weak with is pity of lesser peoples. That was why Kanyl was to be the Emperor after his father died.

Eylmey could never bring the Lraycl to their destiny of absolute rule of this galaxy. Kanyl turned away from the screen and went to the Communications Room to contact his father with news of how ‘Eylmey had foolishly fought against the barbaric Hur’Byrten without him and died along with the rest of his force’.

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Yukari and Naoko hid in a small closet. Naoko hadn’t spoke a word since they escaped from the aliens that stormed the Cafeteria a few hours before.

Every now and then, Yukari would open the door a crack and look to see if there were any alien soldiers in the hallway. Usually, there were one or two aliens walking down it, still searching for survivors.

Yukari looked out into the hallway to see if there were still aliens out there. This time there were none, and she was glad. She was starting to get uncomfortable in there.

Naoko was out of the closet before Yukari could even tell her that it was safe. They snuck through the hallway, and made it outside.

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Yomi walked as silently as she could up the stairs of the office building. The power was out, so she had trouble finding her way up them. Tomo followed right behind her.

Downstairs, Minamo was having a closer look at Osaka’s burns. The one on her leg was small specks of blue around it that you couldn’t see unless you paid attention to them. Her shoulder was charred. Minamo looked at the alien weapons. They looked exactly the same.

Minamo held one like she was going to shoot something. As soon as she got into position, five small buttons grew out of the side of the gun. She dropped the gun in surprise, and the buttons disappeared again.

She picked the gun back up and examined it further. Across the side of the rifle, five almost invisible, lines were traced. Minamo held the weapon from the side with her hand where it should be the shoot. Watching carefully, she could see liquid leak out of the lines and solidify into the buttons.

Back upstairs, Yomi and Tomo had finally reached the top. They began to search for anything that they could use to call for help. Tomo went a separate direction from Yomi.

She walked quietly down the hallway, and began opening up rooms. She didn’t find what she was looking for, but she found a key. Deciding it could be useful, she kept it.

Tomo wandered around for twenty minutes before she came to the last door on this floor. She slid the door open and looked inside. It was completely dark in this room, not a single window. As soon as she took a step inside the room, a disgusting smell bombarded her senses. Tomo covered her nose and stepped back out.

From inside the room she could hear a deep growling. She panicked and began to run back down the hallway and back downstairs. Yomi ran into the hallway from the room she was checking when she saw Tomo run down the hallway screaming. She turned to look down the hallway that Tomo had come from. Turning the corner was a scaled dog-like animal that was twice as large as any dog she had ever seen. Yomi turned and joined Tomo in the screaming.

Kagura sped up the stairs to see what was going on. Tomo and Yomi sped past her, and she almost fell back down the stairs. She looked back up just in time to see the beast standing at the top of the stairs growling at her. ”Damn…” was the last word Kagura said before the creature leapt down the stairs at her.

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Chiyo jumped when the screaming started. Kagura started up the stairs to see what was happening. Osaka had been asleep for 15 minutes, and she didn’t wake up now. Minamo went over to look up the stairs. Sakaki was chanting quietly in the corner again.

Suddenly, Tomo and Yomi came running into the lobby, screaming. Minamo recovered from surprise quickly and looked back up the stairs. She screamed when Kagura flew down to the small platform. There were large claw mark cutting threw her shirt with blood trailing out of it.

As soon as she hit the floor, the massive beast landed on top of her. Kagura began to scream as it tore at her chest with it claws. Minamo’s body acted on its own as she charged up the stairs at the beast.

She grabbed a small bar that was lying on the ground and smacked the creature’s head with it. The dogzard growled while it knocked Minamo back down the stairs. It turned back to Kagura and opened its large mouth.

There was one last scream as the beast tore Kagura in two. Minamo jumped back to her feet just as the beast killed Kagura. She stood there stunned for a short time until her mind could register what had just happened. Once it did, she charged back up the stairs with the bar in her hand.

The dogzard turned from its new meal to look at Minamo charging back up the stairs. It tensed its legs and leapt down towards her. From behind Minamo came a small, concentrated laser. It burned strait through the dogzard’s head. It flew a bit farther before hitting the floor of the lobby.

Everyone in the room was stunned. Minamo turned to see who had fired the laser. Standing at the foot of the stairs was Chiyo, holding one of the alien rifles.

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Kaorin awoke from the sleep that she needed. She felt that something was missing. Looking around, she saw that she was no longer in Class 3, she was in the Gym.

She stood up and got a feel for walking again. When she had finished, something grabbed her from behind. Kaorin jumped and turned around. Standing there was the black armored man. Kaorin screamed and began to run towards the exit.

Suddenly, the man was standing in front of the exit. He pressed a small button on the side of his mask, and began to talk. “You cannot run from me, little girl. I can catch you no matter how fast you run. Your friends, they have escaped, but they will not live long. I have sent my strongest Render Hounds after them. They haven’t had that much food in a long time.” Kaorin could hear the laugh in his voice with that last sentence.

She began to back away from the man. The man caught her before she could get anywhere and began to laugh. “This time, I won’t leave my job unfinished.” Kaorin screamed again as he pulled her towards him.

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Chiyo began to shake after the dead body hit the ground. She couldn’t believe she had just killed something.

Chiyo dropped the gun and began to cry. The remains of Kagura’s body still lay at the top of the stairs. Sakaki stood up and went over to Chiyo to tell her that everything was okay.

Osaka had woken and was staring at the stairs with her eyes glazed over. Tomo had started to cry also. Minamo picked the gun up, and ran upstairs to check to see if there were any more. Yomi was just standing there not doing anything.

Soon, Chiyo and Tomo had finished crying. Minamo came back downstairs and reported that there were no more. Sakaki stood up and walked up the stairs to the top floor.

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Eylmey brought is sword through another Pyrsi. He had rejoined the battle as soon as he had put Nirya into her tomb. Another Pyrsi came for him with his knife in front of him.

Eylmey sidestepped the knife and knocked the Pyrsi’s arm away from him. He quickly brought his sword up as another Pyrsi came at him. The Pyrsi was caught unaware and his knife was jerked out of his hands.

The first Pyrsi came again, and Eylmey spun around him, slashing the Pyrsi across his side. He stumbled forward before he turned again to jab at Eylmey with his knife. Eylmey dodged the weakened Pyrsi’s attacks easily and thrusted his sword through the Pyrsi’s heart.

Eylmey pulled his sword back from the Pyrsi and turned in time to block a punch from the other Pyrsi. Eylmey ducked under his opponent’s arm and jabbed his sword into the Pyrsi.

Eylmey pushed the dead body from his blade. His brother had sent another team of Pyrs-Ureyl while he was giving Nirya her funeral. ‘Nirya…..I will never forgive you for her death, Kanyl, no matter what happens,’ was what Eylmey thought as he left the contested parts of the ship.

He made his way to the airlocks. He found an empty escape pod, and entered it.

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Kaorin lay on the floor of the Gym, shaking. That man… the injuries were worse than the wall. When the man had pulled her to him, he had pulled a knife smaller than the one he used to pin her to the wall with out. He bound her with a dark brown rope. Kaorin whimpered in pain as he used the knife to make small cuts across her arm.

Unsatisfied with her response, the dark armored man pulled a small flask out of his suit. Dumping some of the liquid that was inside it, he began to cut further up both her arms and legs. The liquid on the knife made the pain ten times worse, and Kaorin couldn’t take it any longer. She began to scream (A/N: Gee, Keshi-sama says that a lot, doesn’t he?) from the burning of the liquid that began to flow through her veins.

The man smiled, and cut open the bottom of her shirt. He then took out a small figure, and pressed against his palm. The bottom of the figure turned red with heat. He held Kaorin still as he lowered the hot part of the figure to her stomach. Kaorin screamed as the figure burnt the shape on the bottom on it onto her. The man held it there for another five minutes before getting off of her.

He cut the rope and gathered it up. “You have been marked. There is no escape for you. I go now to finish you friends’ lives in this world,” he said as he disappeared into the darkness of the room. It started to rain shortly after.

Kaorin lay on the floor of the Gym, shaking in pain. Gathering her remaining energy, she looked to see what was burnt on her middle. The burn was a letter in runic script, and seemed that the figure used to burn her had been used many times before. She let her head fall back as she used the last of her energy.

She lay there, staring at the ceiling, willing herself to sleep to dull the pain, but it did not come for her.

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Rain pattered against the roof of the building. Sakaki had reached one of the middle floors of the building. Quietly, she walked down the hall, she was trying to be sure that the beast was the only threat in the building. She checked room after room, and found nothing.

She searched every room in the building, ending with the top floor. Safe in belief that there was nothing else, she began to head back downstairs. As she arrived at the top of the staircase, a snapping noise came from behind her. She turned quickly to see what made the noise.

The exit to the ventilation shaft had snapped open. An arm completely covered in black armor appeared through the hole. Sakaki held her breath as a fully black clothed man followed the arm to the floor.

The dark armored man stood up to face Sakaki. He pressed the button on the side of his helmet again and said, “You are one of her friends, the small girl.”

Sakaki stood staring at him. The man fell into a fighting stance. “I will end your life here,” he said. Sakaki fell into her own fighting stance, “No, you shall harm no more.” The man laughed shortly. “This will be interesting,” he said through his visor.

They stood there for a few second studying each other. Suddenly, the dark armored man lunged forward at Sakaki. She barely had the time to block his attack. Her foot came up and caught the man’s side.

He stepped back and laughed again, “You’re good, but not good enough.” He jumped forward again. Sakaki prepared to block him again, but he disappeared as soon as he got within her reach. She looked around, trying to find out where he might have gone. Whompf! Sakaki stumbled back a few steps as she was hit out of nowhere.

The man’s laugh was all around her. “Poor, poor, Hur’Byrtel. Doesn’t even know the basics of cloaking technology,” his voice said as he continued to hit Sakaki.

She tried to predict where his next strikes were going to be, but she never could stop him. She concentrated, and cleared her mind of all thoughts. The man stopped, confused that she showed no more signs of pain. He stepped closer, still cloaked, to get a closer look.

Sakaki’s arm shot out and grabbed the man by the throat. He laughed as he reached up to pull her arm away. Sakaki let go of the man’s throat, grabbed his moving arm, and pulled him closer to her. While he came to her she prepared her other arm for a punch. The man couldn’t stop her from pulling him forward.

Sakaki let her fist go with full power into the man’s jaw. He yelled through his visor as he flew back.

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Iyrael could feel his jaw snap as the Hur’Bytel hit his jaw as hard as she could. ‘She-she hit me. Hit ME!’ he thought quickly as he flew quite a distance down the hallway. She was the most dangerous opponent he had ever faced. Not only was she strong, she was fast and could find out where he was even when he was cloaked.

This would be interesting. Iyrael stood back up. “I believe that it is time to get serious about this,” he said with a smile.

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The man had gotten back on his feet. He reactivated his cloaking, and began to move towards Sakaki. She still had her mind completely clear of all thoughts. Her body had taken control, and it was faster than she was.

The dark armored man sent blows from all directions, but Sakaki could feel his presence and could block every one. She threw a punch at the man’s side, but he dodged it. The man tried to kick her upper body, but Sakaki grabbed his leg.

She pressed her other elbow against the man’s leg, and pushed down while she brought her knee up to meet. Sakaki could feel the man’s leg snap into many pieces as they connected. Falling to the ground, he cried in pain. He looked up at Sakaki and laughed painfully, “Too bad for you Hur’Byrtel. The mark has already been given. Your world is doomed!” The man gave another laugh. “You will not kill me, I will not give you the chance!” he said as he brought his knife through his own heart.

Sakaki looked at him in silence as he gave his last breath. She turned and walked to the stairs. As soon as she reached them, she had control of her mind again. She shook in silent horror at what had just happened.

‘That man just died!’ she exclaimed in her own mind. Moving clumsily, she started down the stairs. As she passed the window, she saw that the rain had turned black.

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Kaorin crawled across the floor of the Gym. If she could just get to the Teacher’s Room, she could get something to patch herself up with. Still crawling, she made there. She found some bandage wraps and disinfectant. Kaorin first sprayed the disinfectant on the cuts and burn.

She didn’t care about the pain from the spray on the cuts due to the events of the past eight hours, but on the burn, it hurt almost as badly as when it was applied to her body. She held in a scream as she tried to finish covering the burn.

As soon as the pain had died down, Kaorin tried her hand at walking. Upon seeing that she could do it with little trouble, she began to walk to the exit.

The ground outside had no grass left on it, it had all been burned away. A newspaper flew past Kaorin as she began to limp slowly into what was left of the school. She came through the door that led to the first floor’s main hallway.

Most of the lights were out, so she had trouble seeing as she limped towards the Teachers’ Offices. A large hole was blown in the wall next to the door into the offices.

Kaorin looked through the hole to see if one of the aliens was in there. She went to open the door when she saw that the room was empty. Once inside the room, Kaorin tried to go to the desk farthest away from the hole in the wall.

She found the desk that she had been looking for, and shuddered when she saw it. The desk that was farthest away from the hole belonged to Mr. Kimura. Torn and burnt pictures of her were scattered all over it. Only one picture wasn’t hers, the one that he had of his wife. Kaorin gulped and went to sit down at the desk.

She could barely stand the fact that Mr. Kimura had sat here before. Her disgust and dislike of her current position could almost be seen gathering in a cloud around her. Kaorin shakily began to search the desk for a phone of any kind.

After ten minutes had passed she gave up. She couldn’t find the phone, but she found another stash of pictures, a few pencils and pens, a crumpled piece of paper, and a pair of her socks. Her disgust increased as she saw her socks in one of Mr. Kimura’s drawers. Kaorin put the socks back, not wanting to think about that discovery.

Suddenly, the sound of barking came from the hallway. Kaorin looked just long enough to see two dogzards jump onto the rubble of the hole. One of them raised its head and sniffed the air in the room. As it began to growl Kaorin had ducked underneath the desk. ‘Those have to be the Render Hounds that the man told me about’ she thought as she crawled to another desk.

As soon as she got under this desk, one of the Hounds landed on top of it, knocking most of the items on it to the floor. Kaorin sat as still as she could, trying not to make a single noise. She sat like that for a few seconds before the Hound leapt to a different desk.

Kaorin let her breathing resume as she began to turn. She turned around fully and found herself staring into the eyes of the other Hound. She screamed and jumped back from under the desk. The Hound barked and jumped at her. She ducked as it flew over her and crashed into the wall.

She began to run as soon as it had passed over her. The other Hound leapt from across the room landing a meter from her. Kaorin ran over the pile of rubble that was lying on the lower part of the broken wall.

When she was completely out of the room, she began to run as fast as possible away from the Hounds, ignoring the pain shooting up her body. Legs pounding against the tiles, Kaorin burst strait through the door to another hallway with stairs in it.

She ran to go up them, but stopped right before she fell in a hole in the stairs that spanned twelve steps. It would be incredibly difficult to make the jump, especially in her condition.

Deciding that she couldn’t take the risk, she turned and ran further down the hall. Once she reached the end of the hallway, she turned and went through the door closest to her. The room she came into was Class 9’s room.

Kaorin ran to the cabinet and grabbed a meter stick from it. She inspected her new metallic friend. The pain in her legs was now unbearable. She nearly collapsed, but with the force of will alone, she limped to the door to lock it. From further down the hallway she could hear the Hounds howling for her blood.

She limped to the teacher’s desk and pushed it with all her might. Even with her injuries, she still managed to get it in front of the door. Still limping, Kaorin walked to the seat to rest.

It wasn’t long before she could hear the howling coming from outside the door. She stood up on wobbly legs and prepared to defend herself.
Kaorin watched the door as the Hounds scratched at it, attempting to brake through. It sounded as though more had come to join in the attempts to break into the room.

Pretty soon, she could hear twelve Hounds bashing their hulks against the barricaded door. She could see the hinges begin to give way to the continued assault by the stinking beasts.

Raising the meter stick, Kaorin’s body tensed as she prepared to launch her strike against the Hounds. Snapping, the door gave and busted under the Hounds’ weight. Kaorin ran at them as fast as she could with the pain of her legs.

The Hound that led the pack jumped towards the meter stick wielding girl. Kaorin swung the stick strait at the to-be position of the leader’s head. The beast yelped and flew a short distance.

Kaorin turned as the rest of the pack came through the door. Growling, they came for her. She screamed as the lead Hound knocked her to the floor. Small drops of its saliva fell onto her face. The Hound pulled its head up and opened its mouth. Kaorin shook as it prepared to devour her…

Bang! The gunshot tore through the mind, the very soul of Kaorin. The owner of the weapon would be her savior. Three more shots rang out and four Hounds lay dead, including the one on top of Kaorin.

The remaining beasts ran in fear of the wielder of the deadly weapon. Kaorin sat up to get a look at her savior. “Thank yo-,” she stopped in mid-sentence as she saw who had saved her. “K-Kimura?!”

Kimura stood before Kaorin wielding a handgun. His mouth hang open, but he had a serious look on his face. “Kaorin, we have to hurry,” he said still with a serious look.

“Hurry? T-to where?” Kaorin stuttered out. “Not to where, but to what,” Kimura responded his serious look beginning to fade.

“W-what?” Kaorin was beginning to become a bit nervous. Kimura dropped the gun and raised his hands above his head. “Hurry, Kaorin! We might be the last humans left!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.

She knew what he wanted as screamed back at him, “No way we’re the last humans, and there’s no way in hell that I’d do that for you!” Kimura began to cry, “WAAAAAAHHHHHH, Kaorin hates me, WWWWAAAAHHHH!”

Kaorin stared at the crying Kimura. Sighing, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Kimura instantly stopped crying and exclaimed loudly, “YAAHHHOOOOO!” and started grabbing for Kaorin. The short girl had a hard time getting away from the teacher.

She grabbed the handgun that Kimura used to kill the Hounds as she ran out the door. She ran and ran until she had escaped the school and her pursuer. Panting, Kaorin looked to the school one last time before she limped away.

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Yukari and Naoko moved slowly through the small piles of rubble. It had been hours since they left the school, and they needed to rest. To make matters worse, the rain had caught up again.

Yukari sighed as they pushed their way through another pile of wreckage. Suddenly, Naoko stopped moving. “Get down,” she said as she sank into a pile of rubble. Yukari trusted the girl and hid underneath a pile also.

After a few minutes, a shadow stretched out across their hiding spots. Yukari held her breath, waiting for the shadow to leave. It left after a few seconds, and Yukari could breathe again. She and Naoko stood up out of their piles.

They began to move again as the rain cleaned the dust from their skin.

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Eylmey shook wildly as his life pod slammed into the solid ground of Earth. He popped the door open and stepped out.

He felt his anger with his brother grow as he saw the ruined landscape that lay in front of him. Kanyl had taken to burning the natural environment of this world. Eylmey began to move towards the city that he saw was not far away from his current position.

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Sakaki stumbled down the last step to the Lobby of the office building. She had trouble seeing since her fight with the dark armored man. Her left eye had stopped working, as had one of her lungs. Minamo rushed over to her when she saw the shape she was in.

Osaka had gone back to sleep, and Tomo had joined her. Yomi was standing to help with Sakaki’s injuries. Chiyo was curled up in a chair with small drying spots under her face.

“What happened to you?” questioned Minamo, concerned. “There was another one upstairs….. Gone now,” Sakaki said with a small line of blood tracing its way down her chin as Minamo led her to the so dubbed ‘Healing Spot’.

Minamo checked over the damage and told Yomi what she needed. The teenager went to get it from the pile of supplies. When Yomi returned with everything, Minamo turned and began to patch Sakaki up.

Osaka woke a few minutes after and stood. She walked into one of the rooms on the ground floor. After a short time, she walked back out holding a cell phone.

All of the still awake people stared at the one thing that could save them. “O-Osaka, where did you find that?” asked a staring Minamo.

“Ah found it in a box in a closet,” Osaka replied sleepily. She walked over to hand it to Minamo. Right before Osaka could hand off the cell phone, a small laser shot through it, rendering it useless.

Minamo looked at the sparking cell phone. “Tell me that didn’t just happen.”

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Kimura ran out of the school, trying to find his Kaorin. He ran around the school calling her name. Once he found out that she was no longer at the school, Kimura took off towards the city calling for her.

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Minamo turned to see who or what had just blasted their last hope. As she saw who had done it, her fear grew. A small team of aliens were holding a restrained Tomo and a sleeping Chiyo.

One of them spat on the ground and said in a deep voice, “Get up.” The group assumed that he was the leader. Two other patrollers came up behind the girls and pushed them out the door with the tips of their rifles.

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The sun was starting to rise. Yukari raised her head above the bottom of the window to see if there was anybody outside. She regretted having done so when a passing patrolman saw her.

Yukari scrambled towards the back of the building with Naoko. She heard the front door slam open and the alien rush into the building. Naoko stood and went to the front room. Yukari stared as the teenager willingly went into a room with one of these aliens.

Soon screams could be heard, and Yukari closed her eyes in remembrance. The door began to open, and in stepped Naoko, blood splattered against her body. Yukari looked out the door behind Naoko. The alien was laying in the middle of the floor, torn to pieces, his blood covering the walls.

“What the hell?” Yukari asked the air in surprise.

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Eylmey passed under a gate made by one building broken in two and leaning on another. The city was in ruins. Nothing that Eylmey saw was left untouched by Kanyl.

He pulled out a small scanner device and activated it. It showed eleven small dots moving slowly across the screen. Two of them were double-stacked with other dots. Seven of them, including the two double-stacked, had symbols of the Lyracl Army traced on them. The other four had no markings.

Eylmey figured that the four unmarked dots were Byrten being taken as captives. He stuffed the scanner back into his pack and ran the direction that it had shown him.

In bounding leaps, Eylmey crossed over bodies of the dead, both Byrten and Lyracl, though Lyracl being less common. Small piles of wreckage and garbage were scattered across the ruined cities streets.

Eylmey jumped on the hood of a car, and ran straight over it. He passed by a patrol of Lyracl soldiers, hoping that they didn’t recognize him. Unfortunately for him, they saw the Royal Family’s symbol on the back of his cloak, and began firing at him.

Eylmey ducked behind a pile of bricks that had fallen from a building while scooping up a multi-laser rifle. He held the weapon in a firing position, waited for the buttons to solidify, pressed the fourth one, and began to fire back at the patrolmen.

His aim was incredible as he took one down with every shot. They screamed in pain as they fell. Eylmey shot them each one more time to discourage them from following him, and took back off in the direction of the Byrten captives.