The young boy turned his head to look at Black Heart over her shoulder.

"Hey there." He said calmly before breaking the struggle and pushing back Arfoire as turned around to look at them. "Sorry for the wait"

Lastation's CPU looked at him with widened eyes for a moment before sighing with relief and smiling.

"You sure took your time getting here..."

"What, never heard about being fashionably late?" He asked with a smirk.

"Big Sister!"

After hearing Black Sister's voice, the CPUs turned their heads and saw the CPU Candidates flying towards them and landing next to Alex.

"Don't worry, we'll get you out of there right now!" Said Nepgear while trying to cut the cables.

"Do you think we'll let you!?"

Everyone turned their heads and saw Magic, Trick, and Judge heading towards them.

"Ahhh, my precious little girls have come for me!" Said Trick with glee.

"Ewww...That guy is still as gross as before." Commented White Sister Ram while sweat dropping.

"You girls help your sisters, I'll deal with them."

"Eh?" Said the four CPU Candidates while looking at Alex.

"Wa-Wait a minute, Alex. Even if you trained a lot, there's no way you can-"

Before Nepgear could even finish her phrase, Alex dashed forward at an incredible speed.

First he headed towards Judge who was hyped about the idea of getting his payback against him.

"Yes! That's right! This is how it should be! A rivalry that makes us want to kill each other!" He said while raising his weapon as high as he could before lowering it with all of his might.

Alex then dashed forward even faster, avoiding the axe and attacking Judge directly. This caused him to stagger before the young boy sliced at his arm, causing the warrior to lose grip of his axe as it flew away into the sky, which Alex jumped up and grabbed in mid-air after dismissing his sword and slashed downwards like a guillotine, shattering it against him.

"Urgh! What the hell!?"

Although this didn't kill him, it did work to damage his armor, but this didn't stop there as the young boy quickly ran over and grabbed his sword and used a Firaga to hit Judge in the chest, destroying the already damaged armor and creating a large hole in his chest.

The bulky warrior was too slow to react against this fast and powerful barrage of attacks, and neither was he able to stop the young boy from picking up the spike remaining from his shattered axe and stabbing Judge through the hole in his armor with it. Needless to say, this was a lethal hit.

"Argh…Noooooo! Not like thiiiiis!" Yelled the bulky warrior as he felt his lifeforce leaving him once again. "There's still things I want to destroyyyyyy!"

After Judge exploded into oblivion once more, Alex dashed towards Trick.

"Wha-!?" Said the felon with shock.

He wasn't even able to react before the young boy emitted a flame above the sword's tip as he stabbed him in the stomach.

He then released the suppressed flames within the sword inside Trick's body, burning him to a crisp from the inside out.

The felon simply opened his mouth widely to let the flames raging within him come out through it as if it were a dragon's breath before it became a smoke column as he fell on his back and exploded into oblivion, just like Judge.

Despite seeing two of her fellow felons fall so easily in battle, Magic dashed towards Alex and attacked him with the idea that she could catch him off-guard, but the young boy quickly turned around to face her and blocked all of her attacks before parrying the last one and sending her scythe flying into the air.

Magic watched as her weapon flew in the air and landed far away from her.

"Hey..."

Hearing the young boy's voice, the leader of ASIC looked at him again just in time to see him approach her, his sword now coated entirely in flames instead of the flame being above it.

"...You're in my way" He said bluntly while looking at Magic straight in the eye.

In just a split second he slashed past Magic, landing a critical blow as the leader of the ASIC had been taken down unconscious.

"He took all three of them out, with one hit each?" Said Green Heart with widened eyes as she finally got free from her bindings.

"Hey, hey...You're kidding me, right? That's just beyond getting a bit stronger…" Added White Heart with equal shock.

"Just what on did he do during the last four days!?" Asked Black Heart to her younger sister.

"Actually, we don't know either…" Replied Purple Sister. "He disappeared shortly after you got captured, and when he finally returned, he told us he'd been training."

Black Heart then turned her head and looked at Alex. She couldn't stop wondering what kind of crazy training regime could make someone so strong in such a short amount of time but before anyone had any more time to think, Arfoire dashed towards Alex and attacked him by the back as he reacted quickly by turning around and blocking the red blade.

"Alex!" Said Purple Sister as she went to aid him.

"You girls! Get your sisters out of here!"

"Eh!?"

"There's no way they can fight right now the way they are!"

"Are you trying to be funny here!? There's no way we would-"

Black Heart tried to argue against Alex's request, but before she could finish her phrase, Lastation's CPU felt her body growing weaker as she reverted back to human form and fell on her knees.

"Wha-What!?"

"Big Sister!? Are you okay!?" Said Black Sister as she hurried to aid Noire.

Within seconds, the same thing happened to Vert and Blanc.

"Damn it...what's going on now!?" Said Blanc while falling to her knees.

"It seems...our bodies are finally feeling the effects of all that time spent in HDD..." Explained Vert while sitting on the floor.

Due to being bound and forced to remain in HDD form for four days straight, the CPUs were able to avoid starvation through using their shares as sustenance, but now they had no strength left to fight.

"Are you kidding me!? Right when we needed HDD the most!?" Said Noire with a forced tone.

While the CPUs tried getting back up on their feet, they saw Alex being pushed back a few feet by Arfoire's attack after a momentary struggle.

"It's no use…you cannot defeat me..."

"True. Even if I go all out, there's still no realistic shot that I win. Either way, I must fight. I was my fault that I let things get to this point. It my responsibility to set things right, and the only way to do so, is to take you down." Said the young boy while getting up on his feet

The Deity of Sin didn't answer as she simply kept looking at him.

Alex then took a stance as he put his left hand behind his back and extending his right hand out with his palm facing forward as he closed his eyes.

While everyone stared at him in silence in wait to see what was about to happen, Alex's mind played back to the memory of when Yae had taken him to go confront the truth.

There the two were, standing in front of the burnt remains of Alex's old home.

It was the first time Alex had been here since he had burnt the house down three years ago.

As he kneeled in front of where the front door use to be, eyes closed and hands put together, Yae stood next to him, staying silent and allowing the boy to fully soak in the magnitude of this moment.

"Do the memories still hurt? Do you still regret what happened?" Asked Yae.

Alex kept silent for a bit before standing up and opening his eyes.

"No. Not anymore. I ran away from the memories and opted to hide a significant part of my past out of fear. Now, though that night still hurts, I cherish all the memories before then. I accept the truth as a part of my past and move forward, not out of fear and ignorance, but out of acceptance." He said.

Yae then turned around and faced the other way before speaking again.

"Answer truthfully. Why did you agree to train with me?

"Because I want to defeat the Deity of Sin, no, I HAVE to defeat the Deity of Sin." He said.

"And why do you wish to defeat her?"

"Ain't it obvious?"

Back to the present time, Alex recalled all the time he spent on Gamindustri with the CPUs and all the things he went through so far.

'It wasn't for long, but in these last few months I've been more alive than in the last six years...' He thought to himself before recalling the moment when Neptune got nearly killed by Magic and she was in bed, all covered in bandages. 'My mom died in my arms. I was unable to save her. Neptune nearly died in my arms. No more. I never want to see something like that happen ever again! I will never let it happen ever again!'

As his determination grew stronger by the second with every thought, he felt that same jolt of energy he had felt when he first acquired the sigil except this time, it wasn't for a split second.

The energy remained as, suddenly a white, blinding light enveloped around Alex.

'This might sound corny as all hell, but I don't give a damn!' Thought Alex before opening his eyes and yelling out his true resolve with all of his might and fierceness. "I will protect the CPUs!"

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Chapter 46: Complete