Battles rage all over the world as members of team Star, the Phoenix Crew, Hellsing, as well as the Gremory and Sitri peerages work together all fighting to stall the Arachnophobia. Each led by their own teams. Daniel leads operations from Japan, Rias leads operations in the Middle East alongside Sona, and Europe is covered by squad leader Cohen, Africa by squad leader Issei, and then the America's, North is held by the Flint's and south by Aiden's team. Kid and Ian both wander the city streets both trying to find information. Ian sighs as he sits on a bench.

"I need to get stronger, if Brew taught me anything its that I need to master my Sword Sage techniques." Ian comments.

"We have more pressing matters, I believe." Kid says.

Ian stands, Kid follows him. "I know where to start." Minutes later the pair watch as Stein sits in his home the madness eating away at him. "We have questions. What exactly does Brew do? Please, tell us."

"You already know that Brew is one of Eibon's magic tools... he was a prominent inventor and created many impressive devices in his time. But Brew is the most powerful of them all. The to its name it's a device that has the strength and danger of a brewing thunderstorm or hurricane. The results of its use can vary greatly depending on the person who wields it."

"We want to know what the tool actually does. We want specifics, Franken." Ian says. "If you can't tell us that, then what does Lord death plan to do with Brew? What will be the results be if he's the one who uses it? If you aren't sure, you can speculate. You should have a guess, considering you're a professor."

"What will you do with the information? I can see that you both are impatient for answers, but nothing I tell you will be of any use on the long run. I can promise you that much. Besides which, how could you fully accept whatever I might say while I'm in this condition? Would that be a good idea?"

Kid frowns. "Well, I don't know..."

"I'm sure you're willing to listen to my answers... that's the easy part. But then, what comes after that? What do you intend to do after you know all I have to tell?"

"Use it to make a decision on how I'll handle both the Clarissa as well as Medusa situations. I can sense that witch inside you, but I don't have the skills to get her out. The only way for us to stop her would be to kill her."

Ian sighs as inside the city Rats is back, and he sits above Crona as below, she speaks with a frog, a moment later the frog goes to hop away, but is stopped caught by a glyph forming under it, trapping it. Before it can try anything it's placed inside a small box made out of the glyph landing in his hand. "Well, if it isn't my little froggie. I see you still wish to use my sibling, don't worry, I have a special place for you and Medusa to fit into to." Rats smirks as he draws a small knife and using his glyph as a defense and trap uses the knife to cut out her eye. He smiles before teleporting her away her eye still stuck to the knife before gently removing it and crushing it in his hand. A moment later he makes a small symbol on his palm out of the blood. "May the call of the Living forever bring you pain, and the sails of the dead find you soon, the curse of Kidik the immortal, and I embed within your soul the call of those who are gone, the call of Night, Tsukuyomi."

He sighs and looks off into the distance out of the school, meanwhile Ian remains next to Kid the pair still standing before Stein.

"Right now, it doesn't matter what I want. I can't ignore something just because I don't want to see it." Kid says.

"You can't turn a blind eye? Not even for your own father?" Stein asks.

"I can't make exceptions. Anyone who strays from the  right path must be stopped."

"Hump... but who decides which path is the right one? And how do you recognize when someone has strayed from it?"

"It's simple..." Kid begins to speak only for Ian to interrupt him.

"No it's not. It's naive to think that everything's black and white. The cloud of grey in the middle, that's where problems lie. And that's why I'm here. To try to dispel that cloud, and draw that solid line between my good and my evil. There is no such thing as true good, true evil, that'd be silly."

"What do you mean, Star?"

"You know the myths about devils right? Horned creatures covered in red skin, bone like wings, with horns and fangs and claws?"

"Yeah?"

"I used to work with actual devils, and they're nowhere near as scary as the things I've seen since I stopped. They looked like us, humans, with summonable bat wings, no horns, no claws, no fangs, just stupid last names. Funnily enough the devil team I worked with were more humane than the angels and fallen angels I fought while working with them. Right and wrong are decided by the big guys at the top. My goal here is to determine who's actually right and wrong from my outsiders perspective."

"Say you're both right, wouldn't that make the academy the voice that determines what's right or wrong?"

"Is that truly how you think it works? On that point I fear I must once again disagree with you completely. Things at the academy aren't  always as black and white as you'd like to believe they are." Stein says.

"No... they never are." Ian smiles sadly. Ian sighs as he steps away and opens the door outside coming face to face with Marie... or rather face to chest. He stops before colliding with her and backs off stepping to the side to let her enter, once she does he excuses himself leaving the building still with many questions. The following day Death the Kid and Ian both sit under the school as a member of the DWMA's Oceania's Engineering Department walks past them.

"What's a consultant from the tech division doing at the academy?" Kid asks.

"News travels fast around here, doesn't it? I only just got in and already the questions have started."

"Please, I noticed your soul miles away, I've known you were here since yesterday." Ian says.

"So who's that make you two? The welcome wagons?" Joe asks.

"An adviser from the council of relics."

"Death the Kid actually... I was named after my father."

"I see... So your Lord Death's little son, and you're the boy sent by Dr. Mankoi?"

"What brings you to the academy? You've come a long way. What part do you have to play in my dad's plans?" Kid asks.

"Construction. The plumbing here at the academy is old. It's in pretty bad shape. That's why I'm here."

"You're lying, for one. And not even a good one. Try again." Ian says.

"Of course that isn't the only reason. The boiler-."

"Again." Ian orders.

"The academy doesn't even have a boiler anymore. In the past few months the academy's bent all its efforts on collecting Magic Tools. And then, out of nowhere, a technology expert just happens to show up."

"I smell something there. So you'll have to excuse us if we think there's something a bit more pressing than plumbing, and a non-existent boiler."

"If these magic tools are as rusty as my poker face, I'm gonna have a lot more work than I bargained or." Joe says walking away.

"Come back. I'm not done talking." Kid orders.

"Here's some free advice. Let it go. I'm here to do some work. That's all you need to know."

"For my report back to the good doctor, that's not "all I need to know." If that's all I'm getting from ya, then I'll be back, sooner rather than later." Ian walks away still annoyed at the amount of questions now piling up, higher and higher. He exits the school as he does he comes across Kid in a fight with Black Star. Meanwhile Rats watches silently as Medusa questions Eruka, who now has to live with only one eye.

"Poor Crona, I don't think he'll be of use to me much longer." Medusa says.

"That's good, cause, you're not of much use either, Medusa Gorgan." Rats says hidden in the shadows before jumping and landing in a knee. Both of them look to the side and standing there before them, Rats, he smiles down to them Eruka taking a step back utterly terrified as a glyph forms around her and inside her empty eye socket. "Getting your blood was the only way to track you, I was only gonna cut above your eye, but you moved and so you lost it. It's fine though, I can give you a replacement, but I'm keeping the tracking glyph on you." Rats tells Eruka.

"Are you the original?" Medusa asks.

"No, I'm still Rats." He says smiling under the mask.

Ian watches the fight and remains silent the entire time despite Sid's waxing of philosophy, and Black Star's loss, he remains silent. When he starts walking down the stairs he comes face to face with Ryuko.

"You wanna tell me why you've been avoiding us all since the fight?"

Ian shrugs. "Not really."

"You're gonna tell me why, you know that right?" Ryuko says.

Ian nudges his head and speaks while continuing down the stairs. "No, I don't think I will." Ian continues to walk down, that is until his shirt's collar is grabbed and he's launched back to in front of the others, a moment later he draws Excalibur, and uses it to block an attack from Ryuko's scissor blade. The pair stand across from each other both ready to fight as Sid and Naigus watch.

""I get you're having a crisis, but you need to cool your jets before you do something stupid""

"Using my own words against me, Matoi? Come now, I didn't think you could remember that far back."

Ryuko rushes in again the pair clash a few times neither bending to the other, their wills pushing them on, neither willing to go on the defense, and as such they continue to attack, that is until a blast shoots between them a ball of fire, which is just enough to get Ian's attention off of Ryuko, and before he can turn back she's already closed the gap and swings at him. Ian has been knocked unconscious by Ryuko.

Ryuko sighs staring at him. "How The fuck did he help save me back then?"

Ian sighs as he awakens himself seated in bed. He stares into the ceiling himself stewing over the recent events. Meanwhile in silence several dozen arachnophobia facilities are overwhelmed and wiped off the face of the earth, the attackers, unknown, at least to most, but to those watching them, they know all to well how dangerous they are. Clarissa stands alone herself watching as her army prepares to march on the Yukon fortress known as the Star residence. Inside, several members of the team have sensed the oncoming threat. Chisaki stands atop the house with several magic infused mini-guns, all armed by members of the team, as they along with the ground team of Issei, Xenovia, Crystia, Faith, Skylar, Ame, Rias, Akeno, Koneko, and some of Asagi's Squad stand ready to defend. Over in Japan Daniel and Tsubasa walk around Tokyo together in a camp near the city the three Flints stay together telling stories to each other. At Death City Ian gets out of bed opens a window and sits on the edge of the window looking out to the desert. Ian notices something, a force of madness from the Tibetan mountains.

"So... she found him first." He mutters. Ian leaps from the building and then jumps out and leaps from building to building before he's stopped by a scissor blade landing before him imbedding itself into the roof. "Property damage is a real thing, and I can't afford to rebuild every roof you break." He says.

"Then maybe, don't jump from your bed after you've been asleep for a week!"

"Gotta get exercise in somehow."

Ryuko sighs. "I'm gonna kill you."

"Hm, probably. Can we wait for the divorce before I die again?"

Ryuko falters. "Divorce?"

"Oh, I said that one out loud, didn't I?"

Ryuko stares at him blankly. "You really are stupid."

"I'm also trying to track the Kishin, a massive wave of madness just erupted out in Tibet. Oh and I'm tracking the engineer."

"Engineer?" Ryuko asks.

"The Buttataki guy that just showed up. Yeah him."

"What?"

"Don't worry your badass and your cute face over it, I'm getting to the bottom of things. even if Tomoe's on another mission without us I assume."

"No she's having lunch with Maka." Ryuko answers. Ian hums in response. "The biggest problem-!"

"Why can't I sense Crona in the city?" Ian asks

"Is that. They up and vanished."

"Oh, wonderful. Something happened. I fear it has something to do with Stein & Medusa."

"Stein & Medusa?" The pair by this point have gone down to street level and are walking relatively next to each other.

"Oh please, I'm sure you sense the madness radiating from him. And the sudden surge while we were hunting Brew. Medusa did something, and now that Crona's run away, I'm willing to bet he was involved, especially since I found froggy nearby recently."

"Maka's currently searching for him right now."

"In a ditch in the desert. Still alive." Ian says finally being able to sense Crona again.

Ryuko turns to Ian confused. "Huh?"

"God I hate being confined here. I want to go after them, but until we're given orders I can't do anything." Ian complains.

"You're still here because you keep doing stupid shit." Ryuko bluntly points out.

"I'm working in shadows. Believe me, this kinda work has 3 sides to it. Those who work in the light get all the glory, those who work on the dark die very quickly, and then there's us in the dusk, we do the most dangerous job, we protect those in both the light and the dark. I need to speak with Lord Death, Medusa's probably alive, but Arachnophobia found the Kishin first." Ian hurries over and joins Death, Spirit, Maka, Soul and Crona in determining Crona's fate.

Death hums. "I understand your loyalty to your friend... but Crona did sign the academy agreement. Students who break the rules are expelled. That's the way it works. Making an exception for him would undermine the stability of the entire academy. It can't be done."

"Crona knows he was wrong. He already apologized for what he did. He feels awful about all of it." Maka shouts.

"Not to mention that I found Eruka Frog lurking near his whereabouts. Likely it was done under duress. However, this isn't something that can just be solved with "I'm sorry." What Crona did was serious. Very serious." Ian says talking both sides of the argument.

Maka turns to Ian spiteful. "You're a fine one to talk about loyalty."

"I'm loyal to the council of Relics, and my family. However, this is something I can't defend Crona on.  Do you understand the gravity of this? Because of what happened, Stein has been completely removed from our side of the board, and I've been sidelined without his orders." Ian complains.

"Lord Death!" Sid shouts barging into the room. "An urgent Police report. Someone's been sighted in the city. Mr. and Mrs. Willis are already on the scene ready to capture them."

"That bitch." Ian mutters.

"The Snake woman has come back."

Crona recoils in fear, Ian draws his one remaining axe, Ryuko her scissor blade, as Maka and Soul's eyes widen. The pair remain in the room as later that day Medusa will be brought to Lord Death, and if Ian's getting to the bottom of things, so is Ryuko. Ian however does visit the witch with Lucy and Gale with him.

"Medusa, are you there?" Ian asks.

"Oh, there's a little boy at the door."

"Try a boy with an old soul. It's me Ian."

"Ian?" She asks.

"I wanted to let you know, Crona will do far better without you in his life. After all, parents really should let their children's wings spread out, of course, when the parent is obviously not qualified to take care of the child then the child should be taken from the parent. Now here's my question, why did you kidnap Daniel's and Lucy's father, force him to have your kid, and then kill him?" Ian asks.

"Oh, so you've gotten close to Crona?" Medusa asks.

"It's because of you that Crona can't stand on his own two feet, that he doubts himself, that he hates himself." Ian says frustrated.

"Tell me, how's he doing?"

"How do you think? Used by his mother, abandoned by her, and then forced to do her dirty deeds when she fails."

"Oh, I've been very worried about him. He's always been such a fragile child."

"I'm aware of this. Whatever bitch, I'll see you later I guess." Ian walks away with Lucy and Gale behind him the three not looking back until Ian stops and speaks to her. "Oh, one last thing, make sure you keep a last rites nearby preferably not on Stein."

The trio return to Lord Death as he speaks with Spirit and Ryuko, or rather speaks to them, leaving Stein alone outside Medusa's Cell.

"Why did you come here?" Stein asks.

"To see you, of course."

"Did you think they'd let you walk out of here whenever you want?"

Medusa smiles from behind her door. "The World has begun to move, Stein... You feel it... I know you do. Besides you know I'd never bet on something I wasn't guaranteed to win."

"We'll see, won't we."

"Are you feeling alright, Stein? Your voice is trembling a little bit. I can hardly bare this. Watching as the madness slowly consumes you."

"Don't you have other things to worry about right now?" Stein asks.

"How could I not be worried? I need you. Are you ready to join me?"

"You aren't telling the whole truth... You must have had another motive besides talking to me."

"You have to learn to free yourself from the rules. Otherwise, you'll never be saved. Come over to my side... Together, we'll make things happen. We'll see the dawn of a new world. It's time, Stein. You know that, don't you?"

Spirit and Ian walk up next to Stein as he trembles messing with his glasses.

"Terribly sorry, am I interrupting something?" Spirit asks.

"Go home, Stein. You know you shouldn't leave your lab right now. As for our friend..." The pair of Ian and Spirit stand at the door as it opens. "You're coming with us."

Spirit, Gale and another member of the DWMA walk Medusa holding her chains while Ian walks in front of them.

"Now where are you taking me? Let me guess; to an interrogation room? Well am I right?" She asks in her normal voice, before switching to a cute childlike voice. "Please mister, why am I-?"

A glyph forms over her mouth shutting her up as Ian glances back to her with a glare. "I don't think to highly of body snatchers. Ask Los Alamos what happened when they did it. Even then, the cutesy act won't work either, I know your magical presence well enough not to confuse this child's body as your own. You're gonna speak to Lord Death. I've been watching you, and I already have a team recovering Brew as we speak. That's your bargaining chip. And it's what I used to get this meeting arranged."

The group guides her to Lord Death and once she arrives she stands there in her child form as everyone watches their weapons at the ready. Spirit holding the chains, Lord Death staring down at her, Ian with Caliburn, Ryuko with her scissor blade, Lucy with a glyph ready and Gale with a bone-sword.

"Soooo...?" Lord Death starts.

Medusa frowns. "Grim Reaper."

"Ya ya. You're enjoying yourself immensely, aren't you? Because of you, The World is now on the brink of total disaster."

"That may be true, but I'd still like to show you my gratitude for speaking with me. Let's get to the point. First there's the matter of these restraints. Perhaps you could remove them? They are quite uncomfortable and surely with you standing right here, they aren't really necessary."

"Don't play with me. If you wanted those restraints off you could've removed them yourself a long time ago." Death states.

"Actually no, I tried."

"That'd be my doing. Magic does the world wonders." Ian rolls his eyes and snaps his fingers the restraints falling off Medusa. With a sigh she stretches before being hit with a massive reaper chop. Ian stands to the side watching as both Death and Spirit treat her like she isn't the woman who poisoned Stein, r*ped Daniel & Lucy's father, and caused the Kishin to be released.

"I have 1 thing I want. I want Clarissa Star killed."

"Clarissa?" Ian asks confused by her request.

"She's the biggest pain in the ass of all the witches."

"Clarissa Star?" Death asks.

"I want to be set free and have my safety guaranteed by the DWMA in exchange, I'll give you the Kishin's location, and all the known intel on Clarissa Star, including her current moves and actions."

Ian turns his head to the side. "Shit."

Spirit turns to Ian. "What, Star?"

"My whole reason for being at this school, was to hunt Clarissa.

"I also think I've discovered a way to kill the Kishin."

"You have?" Death asks.

"I can tell you, but agree to my conditions first." The group turn suddenly as the mirror lights up showing dozens of devices activating globally. "Looks like it's begun." She says.

"What's begun?" Death asks.

"Arachne has allied herself with Asura. She's harnessed his madness. And she hopes to spread it throughout the world."

"Well looks like the bargains off for you Medusa." Spirit says.

"No. those are relay devices. We'd have to search one at a time, unless we get lucky."

"We'll be too late." Lucy says frustrated.

Ian nods. "Yeah."

"Mrs and Mr. Willis please take Medusa back to her cell, Mrs. Matoi please join them." The three nod taking Medusa away as Ian stays with Spirit and Death.

"It's clear what Medusa is trying to do. She wants to instigate a battle between her three rivals."

"It's a battle I can't avoid. She knows if that happens she'll be able to pick off the survivors." Ian points out.

"Whatever the case, if we let things stand the way they are now, it would mean disaster."

Spirit pockets his hands. "So what are we supposed to do?"

"I say we take the deal." Ian suggests. "Clarissa is not someone we can afford to let slip through our grasp. And if she truly knows a way to kill the Kishin, then we have no other choice."

Death nods. "I agree."

With that it's decided. Medusa will be free. She'll leave behind all the information she has in regards to her promises, in exchange Ian will be the one to see her out of the city. Everyone gathers watching from above. Ian walking in front of Medusa, Caliburn and Excalibur sheathed at his waist.

"I got you out of there, now, where is Juken, and where is Clarissa?" He asks as they reach the edge of the city.

Chapter End.