We have arrived, ladies and gentlemen. It's been a long and weird and crazy journey, but we did it.

Nothing else to say this time, just enjoy this bizarre conclusion for this freaky tale. Seeya at the end!

And one last time, help filling this story's TvTropes page is greatly appreciated!

Disclaimer: SAO and its characters don't belong to me, but to Kawahara Reki. If they did, I would make 'There is But One Ultimate Way' the official canon epilogue of the series so as to everyone could be happy.

Lusus Naturae (ˈLuːsʊs Næˈtʊəriː)

A freak, mutant, or monster. Also called: Lusus.

[Latin: 'Freak of Nature']

Epilogue: Vox Nihili

December 26th, 2032. Dark Side of the Moon, 18:00 (Japan Time)…

In the void of space, no sound was ever able to penetrate the absolute silence that filled it.

However, if it had been able to, a great fanfare would probably have echoed when a piece of Space was snapped apart like an extended rubber band, a blue glow covering the massive 'portal' as a bio-mechanical warship the size of a stadium materialized from within, quickly followed by a dozen or so smaller military vessels that adopted a protective formation around it.

On the main bridge of the titanic Tryum spaceship, general Algarious from the 7th float of Tryum-Delta's outer edge was frowning, feeling oddly restless. Despite the fact that this was the greatest deployment of Tryum military might in over 600 Ultra-Cycles, he couldn't get rid of this uneasy feeling on the back of his mind.

"Finally…finally, the time of revenge has come. You will be avenged, Grotek…that damn monster and the planet that sheltered him will be destroyed…"

…then again, maybe it was some senseless paranoid induced because of the endless ramblings of High Researcher Ubom, which he had insisted shouldn't have gone in that mission with them. He had appealed to the Council that he was too compromised with everything and, probably, still quite mentally shaken from the events he had experienced on Earth, if even half of what he had reported was true (And given his crew's testimonies, it most certainly was).

He was pretty sure that the scientist had a few screws loose even before he and his crew were trapped traveling through Fragmented Space for almost thrice of what their trip should have taken them, after all.

What he really couldn't deny, though, was that despite his title as 'general', he wasn't really a 'soldier' by the standard of how the word was used in most of the universe. No member of the Tryum military could really be called that, in a way, because while they had all gone through the 'training', they had never really been in 'real combat' thanks to the simple, most known fact of their bizarre race.

The Tryums were the most advanced species in the known universe. Even the couple of other space-faring ones they had sometimes made contact with didn't even come close to their level of technological advancement. That was why, despite being mostly a scientific species, they had managed to easily beat and repel anyone that had ever thought it would be a good idea to try and wipe them out.

Last species which tried that lost their entire fleet without ever even getting close to Tryum-Delta. The one before that ended with their planet blown up to cosmic dust once it became clear they wouldn't stop attacking any Tryum ship they saw and refused to establish communications.

In the end, all of it meant that, while the Tryums were essentially unmatched in the whole universe, almost every other race that had ever taken up arms in their planets and grown through wars was technically better fighters than them. And while that usually wouldn't really matter…this time it might.

After all, while Ubom and his crew had assured them that X-K0940 had lost its Conceptual level soon after reaching it and that High Researcher Grotek had sacrificed himself to leave it so close to death's door it clearly lost connection with its extra-dimensional form, the mere fact that any of their Researchers had managed to create a being of such eldritch level and, through some twisted spin of Fate, let it reach into one of the pillars of Reality itself, was beyond terrifying.

The High Council had already decided to ban forevermore the X-K0 Type experiments in light of these facts. It was all fun and games until someone actually created a creature that had the potential to wipe-out galaxies in mere Cycles, and that no piece of their biotechnology could damage.

For all their technological supremacy, the Tryums hadn't been able to create anything able to tap into Reality itself. They had no way of facing a Conceptual Entity, only to escape from it, at most.

Which was why, now that the entire attack fleet was finally out of the Warp Portal (Moving instantly from the other side of the Universe where their planet was in mere instants), having emerged on the side of Earth's satellite that was currently opposite to the sun, all he wanted to do was getting the mission over with quickly and easily so they could all get back and forget this terrible mess had ever happened.

That's why, the moment they emerged from the Moon's dark side and they saw a bunch of artificial satellites floating between them and the Blue Planet as if they were one massive metallic graveyard or a bizarre asteroid field, the bad feeling Algarious had been feeling since he was assigned to this mission the previous day seemed to reach its peak.

And, of course, that's when all lights inside the ship seemed to 'flicker'. Something that was scientifically impossible, given their constant multipurpose energy sources, reason why every Tryum onboard seemed to freeze for a second before they were all madly scrambling over their screens or keyboards, more than one calling out to the other ships to see if they had experienced the same phenomenon.

"Status report! What the hell was that?!" demanded the general with a hint of nervousness, trying his best to ignore how the ever-rambling High Researcher behind him had suddenly fallen eerily silent.

"W-we don't know, sir! Some unknown wave of something flew over us and caused whatever that interference was, but it doesn't seem to have done anything else, all systems are still on the green!" reported a random technician as he checked his terminal.

"…what kind of wave was it?" suddenly asked Ubom as he walked past Algarious, looking at Earth on the screen with slightly-too-wide-eyes.

"Ehm…it was a…psychic one…?" trailed off the confused technician before checking his screen once again. "Wait, why would it…?"

"General Algarious, something just started transmitting from those artificial satellites around us!" called out another Tryum with a clearly confused look. "It's going on all frequencies, from every single one!"

"What is it? A warning? A message? A threat?" questioned the highest-ranked alien present, ready to face anything Earth's dwellers were trying to…

"N-no, sir, it…it seems to be…a song?"

"…what." flatly stated Algarious while Ubom walked forward, his eyes fixed on the satellites around the ships, even as the aforementioned song started sounding on all speakers.

["…just like Marie Antoinette…"]

"Seems to be in some Earth language…English, if our database is right."

"…huh, it's a catchy song, I will admit…did we perhaps intersect one of their entertainment radio signals or something?"

"I…don't think so, general, none of those satellites were transmitting anything at all when we got here…"

["Caviar and cigarettes, well versed in etiquette…"]

"Okay, I'm seeing the translation on-screen and I gotta say, it sounds a bit too classy for my tastes, but not really bad. If they somehow felt us coming and this was their attempt at intimidation, it's doing a very poor job of it…"

"…wait, this IS ominous, sir. Apparently, the song it's called…"

"…we're surrounded." whispered Ubom with horror in that same moment, just as the song reached its apex.

["She's a Killer Queen, gunpowder, gelatin, dynamite with a laser beam…!"]

Explosions went off at that moment all around them, through the entire satellite field, Tryums starting to scream even as MASSIVE things materialized from seemingly nowhere…or, more exactly, turned their biological camouflage off, lunging forward towards the unsuspecting ships.

Wide-eyed, Algarious watched as two massive black bird-like abominations, half the size of their warship, crashed amongst the military smaller vessels, expanding their titanic wings and letting countless tendrils shoot outwards to surround and trap the ships despite their shields.

There was no time to try and offer them any help, though, because the third, and much bigger, monster was already upon them, the vaguely bird-shaped titan being bigger than the warship they were at, opening its beak and unleashing a terrifying soundwave that, despite not echoing in the void, somehow managed to shake the entire vessel.

"O-OPEN FIRE! ALL WEAPONS, SHOOT THAT THING DOWN!"

High-output lasers, electromagnetic waves and bio-destroying beams (Specially made to tear apart living creatures from the inside out) shot forward from the Tryum battleship, slamming al over the abomination's front with deadly accuracy. Anything resembling or vaguely theorized to be a weak point thanks to the bio-computers onboard.

With seemingly contemptuous ease, the avian creature shrugged it all off, never stopping its advance as its golden-blazing talons violently closed on one side of the warship, tearing through its shields as if they didn't exist.

A violent shudder echoed through the entire vessel, the screams and shouts from the crewmembers being immediately silenced by the blaring of emergency alarms. Which were, in turn, drowned by the deafening impacts of tendrils wider than three 16-wheel trucks put together piercing into the ship and paralyzing it. Which was no surprise, given 2 seemed to have specifically aimed to impale its engines, as if they knew exactly where they would be…

At one of the many impact points, several Tryums with the military equivalent of Proto-Devices were quickly rushing towards the titanic pillars of flesh, aiming their biotechnological weapons at it to try and dislodge it…when it OPENED from within, making more than one freeze.

The fact that two malicious inhuman eyes were suddenly staring right at them with a teeth-filled smile under it may have also helped, though. Especially when there seemed to be dozens of figures writhing in the darkness behind the first one.

"It's Showtime, stupid aliens."

Laughing maniacally at that seemingly random declaration, the creature on the lead shot forward, his right hand turning into a massive butcher knife of black flesh and metallic bone as it rushed towards the closes Tryum. The screaming alien had barely fallen down when a second tall and skeletal form shot forward with its needle-like arm first, spearing one of the scrambling 'soldiers' against a wall, followed by a third one whose sharp knife-like fingers were dripping with clearly poisonous substances.

Nothing but curses, angry screams, and desperate shouts filled the air a few seconds later, everyone on the warship's bridge staring in disbelief/horror at all the Enemy Signals suddenly filling all the screens, even as reports came in from every channel available.

"They're so many! Why…?"

"None of our weapons are touching the…!"

"I hit one and it just stood up aga…FATE, HIS ARMS ARE LIKE HAMMERS!"

"Why does that thing have so many eyes that shoot lasers?!"

"We need reinforcements here! These two females made of some sort of ever-shifting bone are unstoppa…GAH!"

"Shi-shit, this one just screamed something about an Index being the best and then turned his hand into a fucking biological railgun! I-it just pierced the huuuuuull…!"

"She's just screaming and making our eardrums burst! Can't hear anything, regeneration too slow to…!"

"I can't get this damn song out my heat! Guaranteed to blow your mi~!" BOOM!

"W-we just had a big explosion in Sector 34! There are reports of something wielding a giant biological firearm making everything burn!" screamed a terrified technician while Algarious looked at every screen, clearly unsure of what to do. "…oh heavens…Ge-general, there are reports of something big and fast coming straight for u…!"

The reinforced door leading into the bridge was all but torn off its hinges at that same moment, making everyone in the room scream and reach for their bio-weapons, sans an oddly horrified Ubom as he saw familiar black tentacles filled with angry eyes and sharp teeth finish tearing the door apart, a tall humanoid and female form stalking forward in an almost seductive way, seemingly uncaring of all the Tryums aiming their weapons at her.

"…X-K0941." simply declared the High Researcher with a shaky voice.

"…oh, it's you…Ubom." declared Mirai with clear distaste before shrugging uncaringly. "Eh, well, it's not as if I really care about you anymore…but I can't deny it will make this a little bit more satisfactory."

Then, all her tendrils shot forward at speeds the eye couldn't follow, knocking Tryums down left and right and crushing the Military-Grade Proto-Devices they carried without any apparent effort…

Except for a roaring Algarious, who managed to impossibly roll under the tendril that would have ensnared him, deploying the Combat Omni-Device he carried and letting the angry wasp-like bio-machine unfurl, its eyes shining as it released a powerful blast of raw power aimed right at a surprised Mirai's face.

And it ended up being completely useless as a new figure literally flew into the room from behind the former alien experiment, massive crow-like wings closing violently as a curved blade cut upwards, bisecting the bio-destroying beam and letting it crash against two different points of the walls, which quickly started sizzling in a disgusting way.

Shocked, the general barely had time to stare at the black-armored form (Idly seeing one of her legs had a bit more of armor over a certain point of the upper thigh), before another of Mirai's tentacles came back and crushed his weapon, then closed painfully around him.

"…thanks for the save…Suguha." reluctantly admitted the more menacing-looking of the pair while looking away.

"That would have hurt you quite a bit, so it's not a problem…little sis." sniggered the katana-wielding hybrid with clear amusement.

"Wha…?! I have told you a thousand times, I'm over a hundred times older than you!"

"Maybe in alien years, but in human ones I'm older a big margin~ Even Onii-chan agrees with that!"

"Bro-brother is just too biased for you because of circumstances! Just you wait, one day he will be unable to tear his eyes from me even when you're right at his side!"

"Of course Mirai-chan, keep telling yourself that…"

"A-are you mocking me, Suguha?! Because I swear, I will…!"

And it was hearing to that bizarre 'argument' that the leader of the Tryum attack fleet dispatched to Earth lost consciousness, feeling confused and terrified.

When his consciousness returned, Algarious found himself being half-carried/half-dragged by long tentacles through what looked like one massive fleshy tunnel, his ship's crew around him in varying states of consciousness and a disturbed yet fascinated-looking Ubom just at his side.

"This…this isn't a ship…it's an actual Titan-Class organism…that they're somehow using as a space-faring vessel…" mumbled the High Researcher with excited horror, his eyes darting all around as several of the 'creatures' that had invaded their ship kept guard over them. "And those…those are all…hybrids. Humans altered with X-K0940's DNA…"

"Bu-but…there is…hundreds of them!" all but shouted the Tryum general while his eyes darted around. "I thought you said there were less than a dozen!"

"…around 10 human years ago, yeah. I…I thought that would be like the blink of an eye for them too, especially given X-K0940's patterns before we left the planet, but…"

Trailing off, the High Researcher's attention suddenly seemed completely drawn by something. Following his gaze, Algarious barely resisted the urge to scream in horrified shock.

Through a 'window', that seemed more like a massive half-transparent membrane meant only for sightseeing than anything else, the Tryums could see their battleship being…eaten.

Something massive and twisted, hundreds of meters vast, black and filled with eyes, was slowly covering it with almost hungry ease, even as the giant bird-like ship/creature let go of it and slowly started to float away, letting them see the rest of their fleet still carefully neutralized by the two smaller winged titans.

"I-is that what…they're going to do with us?" fearfully mumbled the 'soldier' alien as they seemed to enter into a massive 'hallway' within the creature's insides, probably out of the tentacle-tunnel they had just used to get from their ship to there.

"I doubt it, otherwise they would have just killed us all there instead of moving us inside this gigantic abomination…"

"Her name is Kage-chan, Ubom you annoying idiot." called out a distorted but familiar voice, making Ubom freeze and look at 'something' that seemed to 'grow' out of part of the nearby wall, the size of a small mansion. "You would do well in remembering that…she can get a bit sensitive about people that disrespect her or her children."

Some kind of twisted and sinister-looking tumor…or brain, of a white and red color, seemed to all but stare at them from the fleshy inner walls closest to them, countless shocks of bioelectricity running through it and betraying its true nature as some sort of massive mental-processing organ that worked independently from the titanic organism they were inside of.

That wasn't what had caught the High Researcher's attention, though. It was the fact that he was very familiar with the voice coming out of the bizarre giant organ, better than probably any other Tryum still alive that hadn't betrayed them like that idiot of Pibap had done that night long ago.

"…Waryum? Oh, Fate Above Everything…what did they do you?" asked the scientist with disbelief as he and the rest of the ship's crew stopped being moved, staring at the mass of mutated grey matter in which the traitor researcher had been turned…

"Wait, what?…oh! HAH! No, idiot, I'm not this thing." laughed the familiar voice before, with a squelching sound, the 'brain' opened, leaving the blinking Tryums to see a perfectly normal member of their species walk out of it like it was nothing special. "It's just a bit neural interphase, you moron…hah, can't believe you really thought they turned me into a giant brain!"

"Yeah, Kazuto would never do that to Waryum-san!" happily confirmed an energetic voice, before a female figure whose skin seemed to be made completely of ever-shifting bones happily landed beside the Earth-dwelling Tryum, causing many of the nearby hybrids to stand at attention and/or salute. "Heh, at ease everyone! The fight is over so there is no need to be so stiff!"

"As you command, Platoon Leader Konno!" chorused many of the hybrids, before most of them started dispersing deeper into the ship, changing into more human-like appearances with easy while only a few remaining behind and talking to each other under the shocked gaze of their prisoners.

"Yuu, stop running off like that and making a scene…" sighed a second figure as she landed beside the first one, looking nearly identical to her, before she 'shifted' to reveal a half-naked young human woman with long dark hair, only some pieces of bone covering her modesty. "You're supposed to be a Platoon Leader now! Stop acting like a child!"

"I-it's fine Aiko-nee, I wasn't really doing anything wrong…I was just a bit excited!" protested the second hybrid as her form also reverted into a human one, identical to Aiko's but with shorter hair, a cute pout on her face. "Kazuto said there was no need to take these roles overly seriously if we didn't…ah, Merida, Asuna! Hey, tell Aiko-nee to not be mean to me!"

Turning around at the sudden interruption, the captive Tryums saw several more hybrids coming up from down the 'hallway', the two in the lead apparently scolding 3 very menacing-looking ones, stopping and turning around to look at the twins.

The one on the left had a vaguely insectoid appearance, her powerful legs and scimitar-like arm being her most defining feature, while the one on the right had very 'sharp' features and seemed clearly born more for mobility than anything else, a wicked-looking needle-like blade resting on her hips.

As soon as they noticed who was calling them, though, they sighed and shifted into two beautiful and tired-looking young women, the chestnut-haired one turning to give the meaningful look to the scary trio behind them.

"We will talk more about going overboard and ignoring orders about fighting later, Vassago-san."

"Oh, c'mon, Commander Yuuki, you know that's bullshit!" whined the one with the poisonous dagger-claws as the two girls walked away from them. "It was a fight in space against a bunch of aliens that came to destroy Earth!"

"Leave it be, Johnny, you know you can't win an argument against her." sighed the one with the sinister red eyes and the massive needle-like arm. "The only one who is the Big Boss, and that's because he sle…"

"Xaxa, if you're stupid enough to finish that sentence within earshot of her, I won't step in to prevent her from cutting off your junk. And she will." bluntly declared Vassago without even turning to look at his subordinates, amusement within his inhuman eyes as he heard Xaxa gulp and calmly watched as Yuuki tried to get her two best friends to side with her under the warm gaze of her twin sister. "You know…part of me was expecting today to go horribly wrong or, maybe, to end up being way harder than anyone had predicted. Guess even after all this time I'm not used to 'nice' things going so…smoothly."

"Well, you totally should, PoH-san. We have been planning this for years with the utmost care…and I always like to stay positive on how things can go."

At once, all words ceased and almost every hybrid present turned and stood as tall as they could, trying to seem important or intimidating, awe and/or respect filling their gazes. Funnily, though, the ones who reacted the most, the females present, were also the ones that did it for completely different reasons, their faces blossoming into bright smiles as they turned to look somewhere behind Vassago. Feeling a smile tugging at the eyes of his lips, the deadly hybrid also turned around.

Walking up from the slowly retracting tendril/tunnel, an imposing and inhumanly tall form slumbered forward, its armored humanoid form vaguely evoking the image of a 'dark knight' from a fantasy story brought to reality, especially with the four horns of the helmet and its vague draconic appearance. The six wings also helped; massive things that looked like some unholy cross between a bat's, a crow's and something nobody on Earth could name.

Of course, the six arms were probably the most intimidating factor, with the two 'normal' ones holding the hilts of two beautiful but deadly-looking bone swords resting on his sides, the two lower ones being claws that looked as if they could tear an elephant apart without effort, and the two upper ones being massive and deadly-looking blade-arms that hung menacingly over his shoulders.

Finishing the ensemble, two oddly smooth tendrils with white tips lazily floated behind from where they grew from his lower back, seemingly 'humming' in some unknown frequency.

Flanking his sides, Suguha and Mirai shook their heads slightly, while the last figure walking just behind him, tall and with thin tendrils acting as hair and a strange heavy armor around her throat and mouth, let out a melodic laugh.

"…X-K0940." whispered Ubom with clear fear, even as every other Tryum around that wasn't Waryum shuddered upon staring at the very entity they had come to destroy.

"Heh…look at how terrified of you they all are, Kazuto." chuckled the creature standing behind the imposing alien experiment as she reverted back into human looks together with the other two females at his sides, leaving a smiling young woman with long brown hair and a radiant smile staring adoringly at the Lusus Naturae. "It's actually kind of cute to see…"

"Do-don't laugh at me like that, Yuuna! I'm trying to look intimidating for them!" complained Kazuto while looking back at his oldest friend with a pitiful look.

"Onii-chan, no one who has heard you screaming 'Chou Henshin!' before changing into that form will think you're intimidating for real." pointed out a smiling Suguha while patting the imposing creature on one of his right arms, making him whine as his form started to shrink and change. "Oh, c'mon, don't be like that! Mom is going to make us our favorites for dinner tonight when we go see her and dad, remember?"

"…there is no way I can get gloomy when you remind me of that." chuckled the Lusus Naturae while his body quickly shrunk before the shocked gaze of the Tryums, the imposing and terrifying form being reduced to that of a black-haired young man that hadn't really changed much from when he was a 'teenager'. "I'm just…glad this is over, though."

"…are you going to kill us now, then?" asked Ubom with clear trepidation, earning many sharp looks from everyone around.

"If you're so eager to die, I could…!" started to say Mirai before Kazuto's arm shot up and stopped her, making her sigh. "Brother…I was just jesting. I don't want to waste time and effort with these 6-eyed fools…"

"Well, sorry for wanting to make sure, Mirai…and you too, PoH-san! No killing the captured Tryums!" scolded the black-haired young man once he saw Vassago shifting slightly in place. "We're not trying to kill anyone today."

On cue, one of the smaller ships visible through the closest membrane/window got free from the giant tentacle holding it with a massive explosion of sparks, quickly turning around and starting to accelerate to escape from the moon's vicinity…only for a massive winged feline abomination to leapt from Earth's satellite's darkness, violently tearing into the Tryum vessel and all but splitting it in half.

Silence reigned while everyone deadpanned at the scene, before a voice crackled through the insides of Kage-chan, echoing through the entire 'hallway' they were in.

"Sorry about that, Kazuto!" sheepishly called out a familiar voice, a nearby wall of flesh shifting to create a weird screen-like membrane and letting the figure of a beautiful young woman with braided hair appear on it, giving a nervous salute at the group. "It seems they destroyed their own shields with an internal overload to escape Huginn-san's grasp and Pina reacted as fast as she could! We're going to bring them inside before the void of space kills them, right now!"

"Thanks for that, Keiko-chan, and don't worry, I trust you two to handle that." replied the Lusus Naturae with an amused smile. "However, if you need any backup…"

"Please, don't underestimate us, Mr. Big Bad Super Alien." casually retorted another voice while a tall young woman with glasses appeared on the 'screen' and ruffled the younger one's hair, ignoring her protests as she gave the group a nod. "We will have this all handled before we need to get back into orbit."

"We're counting on you for that, then, Specialist Asada." saluted Kazuto with a face that looked about to break out laughing, most of the females present chuckling while Shino seemingly just took it with pride, giving out a small grin in return.

"Then consider it done. C'mon Keiko, we have stupid aliens to save, we can't let the rest of the squad do all the job!"

"Ha-hai, boss…but stop doing that with my hair! I'm not a kid anymore!" pouted Keiko while the image vanished from the screen, which quickly sunk back into the wall of flesh as if it had never been there in the first place.

"…like I was saying, we're not going to kill you. In fact, we already got everything we wanted from you, so all we're going to do is disable your weapons, put you back in your ships and then send you back on your way to your home." shrugged Kazuto while giving the Tryums a calculating look.

"Wha…?! And we're supposed to just believe that?!" shouted Algarious while struggling against his bindings.

"At the risk of sounding rude, I don't really care if you believe it or not, it's what we're going to do." replied Waryum without missing a beat. "Now that Kazuto assimilated the bio-tech of the Warp Portal inside your battleship, we can all just get the fuck out of here to where none of you can ever find us."

Shocked silence filled the Tryums' ranks at that declaration, though none seemed more stupefied than the commander at the seemingly outrageous words. Ubom, however, was just staring wide-eyed at the 'traitor', as if seeing him in a new light.

"…you're going to move the entire fucking planet through a Warp Portal?"

"Yup. Right away, in fact, we have had the calculations done for years, and we have a nice section of a nearby galaxy picked up already with more or less the same conditions and distance from its star to not damage Earth's weather conditions too much…we're going to be doing atmospheric adjustments and cleanup for years, though." complained the humanity-loving Tryum while shaking his head. "We will also have longer days and shorter years, ironically…"

"Better that than having these idiots coming back to try and blow our planet again." scowled Akane while walking past the group, giving a quick smile to Kazuto before starting to transform again. "Gotta find the rest of my platoon and inform them it's time for the big jump, then! I will see you all tomorrow at the celebration party!"

"Later, Merida!" shouted Yuuki while waving her hands happily, then turning towards the group of still flummoxed Tryums. "Okay, I and Aiko-nee are going to shove you all on the nearest of your ships, so let's get moving!"

"Yuu, at least try to pretend you're the fierce enemy that just beat them…" complained Aiko as they started moving the alien prisoners, followed by the amused/resigned forms of the once-Laughing Coffin trio, tagging along as they didn't have anything better to do now that the fight was over.

Being left alone with the rest, Kazuto allowed himself a moment to take a deep breath, a look of uncertainty appearing for a moment within his eyes before he felt three pairs of hands grasping his shoulders and arms.

Blinking, the most dangerous living creature in the universe stared at Suguha, Asuna and Yuuna as they gave him encouraging and loving smiles, causing him to reach out with his arms and engulf them all within them. Standing slightly on the back, Mirai barely resisted the urge to join them and opted for just staring with a soft smile…before being dragged into the impromptu group-hug with a squeak by a tentacle.

Only warm silence remained within the 'hallway' as Kage-chan rumbled softly, starting to move away…

Almost two hours later, Ubom stared through one of the minor ship's screams as the titan-class creatures that had held them captive flew back to Earth…and how titanic 'spires' of flesh suddenly seemed to raise from many points of the oceans which covered most of the planet's surface.

Familiar bluish energy crackled along all of them, before shooting upwards in impossible angels and connecting somewhere atop its north pole, slowly growing until the most impossibly massive Warp Portal in recorded history manifested atop the planet.

Then, ever so slowly, the Tryums stared in muted awe as Earth started being dragged upwards…before a titanic tendril suddenly shot out from somewhere above the planet, startling them all as similar one emerged from the moon near them, connecting just as the 'top' of the planet touched the swirling energy.

Its entire existence was warped at that moment, Earth itself, then the massive tendril and its satellite seemingly being compressed through space-time as they vanished forever from where they had once stood as the third planet of the Milky Way's solar system.

"…the High Council is going to want our heads for this." mumbled Algarious as he walked up to Ubom, staring at the void before them with a mix of horror, awe, and shame. "An entire planet of those things, intelligent, capable of space travel and now Warp-Movement…loose in the cosmos…"

"…I think…we should be glad they just decided to go where we can't find them." gulped the High Researcher with clear fear in his eyes. "Because, if they so wanted…I'm pretty sure whatever Humanity has become under X-K…no, under the Lusus Naturae, could take over the Universe."

No answer came for the ominous declaration, even as the Tryum ships, utterly defeated for the first time in their recorded history, started the slow trip back to their home planet.

A new age for the cosmos had arrived, after all. One where they knew for sure they were nowhere at the top…

January 1st, 001 of New Earth's Calendar. Japan, somewhere in the countryside. As the sun sets…

"And…done." smiled Shinozaki Rika as she finished setting everything on the massive table they had arranged with food and other things to enjoy a small feast for the night, just one of the many in the area. "Hey, Hiyori-chan, are you quite done with your part?"

"A-almost, Rika-sa…KYA!" sighing, the young woman that had once played as a blacksmith in VR and worked as in a space-themed ramen shop in Akihabara (And didn't that feel like a lifetime ago?), turned to see the fallen form of Kashiwazaka Hiyori lying on the ground…and a picnic basket held in the air at her side by a branch-like tendril growing from her right elbow. "The…the food is okay!"

"Honestly, how can you STILL be so clumsy at your age? When Kazuto introduced you to us it was funny, yes, but one would think that after turning into an alien hybrid you would have gotten over that." chuckled Rika while grabbing the basket, putting it on the table and then helping the sheepish-looking girl of silver-white hair to her feet. "There, better now? Or do you want me to call Kazuto to kiss your face better?"

"Wha-wha-wha…?! Ri-Rika-san, do-don't make those kinds of jokes!" squeaked Hiyori while her face turned tomato red.

"Girl, let's be honest, you're not exactly subtle about how much you like him…hell, the only reason he hasn't asked you out too is because he's unable to get it because of how his brain is hardwired or something, but once he does…" looking on the distance with a smile, the teasing young woman looked slightly jealous but also hopeful. "He loves you like nobody else in the world can…"

"Nyahaha, as if you're one to talk, 'Liz-chan'…since that interrupted confession 3 years ago, you have been unable to gather the courage to try and tell him again!" laughed an energetic voice from behind the pair, making them jump in place and spin around to see the grinning face of Izawa Shiori in a simple sundress with a small, rat-themed hairpin on her now neck-length hair. "Even after Aa-chan, Sugu-chi and Yuuna seemed to swallow their souls to give you the a-okay when you went to ask them if you could~"

"O-oh yeah?! Yo-you're one to talk, Argo! You haven't ever done any actual effort to even utter the 'L' word in his face!"

"Kuh…tha-that's just because I'm waiting for the right moment, nothing else." grumbled the once virtual Info Broker before crossing her arms and looking away. "Doesn't help that sometimes I just feel as if we're already 'family' just by being together, that lovable idiot just makes things too unfair…"

"Tell me about it…can you believe he still thinks he has to apologize for that night 4 years ago?" groaned Rika with a fierce blush, doing her best to not let a goofy smile appear on her face.

"Don't remind me…I swear, I still uphold my promise to not touch even a drop of alcohol since that night, regardless of the…most pleasant outcomes of it." muttered Shiori while blushing herself. "Who was again the genius that wanted to see if there still was a way of getting Kii-bou drunk when he said he had made himself immune to it?"

"Pretty sure it was PoH, but Shino was the one who pushed the issue…girl and her damn 'curiosity' of everything alien-related…even turning into an actual alien hybrid hasn't changed that for her." commented Rika before shivering slightly, her gaze moving towards another part of the festive clearing as she recalled something. "I can't ever look at Yuuki-chan the same way since then…"

"Tell me about it…I mean, I always thought she was joking or that her sister was exaggerating about her weird fetish, but…I gue-guess everyone likes different things…?" weakly tried to excuse the one once called The Rat in VR, though the way she gave a nervous glance in the direction they knew Yuuki was betrayed her real feelings on the matter.

"…I wish I had been at that party." glumly muttered Hiyori while looking down. "Of all the days I had to get sick…"

"He-hey, don't say that girl, this is no day to get depressed! We're all celebrating, you know?" called out Rika while slapping her friend of silver-white hair on the back, making her squeak and almost fall on her face again. "…oops. So-sorry about that!"

"…heh, man, look at us. Anyone would say that with this view, the last thing we would be worried about would be a boy, but…"

Shiori's words caused all three girls to slowly turn their gazes towards the horizon, slightly up at the sky. There, among the almost-fully-set star warming the planet, a couple of immense shapes could be seen in the distance, one much bigger (Closer) than the other, looking like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.

Planets. Freaking planets, a purple giant and a smaller and rocky-looking black one, were easily seen in the darkening skies.

"…if anyone had told me ten years ago that I would have a picnic while watching other planets as part of the night sky, I would have thought they had been watching too much anime. Then again…" looking down at her arm, Rika let it change shape until it was black as the night sky, her fist blunt and powerful-looking, like a hammer of bone, before it easily returned to its normal human form. "…but you're right, Shiori…boy-problems are somehow still at the forefront of my mind. Does that make us petty?"

"…nah, it just makes you human, Rika-chan. And no amount of alien bullshitery will take that away from us." chuckled the golden-brown-haired girl as she slid an arm over the other's shoulder, offering her a comforting smile. "Hey, how about this? Tomorrow is Kii-bou's birthday, right? What do you say if we give him a 'gift' together?"

"Ah, that's…" blinking for a moment, the once-blacksmith fought down a blush and let out a massive grin. "Yeah, why not? Time to put an end to this awkward hesitation!"

"That's the spirit!"

"Oh, what are you going to give him? I bought Kazuto a Kamen Rider-themed bracelet!" cheered Hiyori with a pure smile while crossing her hands, getting twin deadpan stares from the other two girls. "…wha-what?"

"…nothing, Hiyori dear. I'm sure he will love your gift…"

"0 irony with that, he IS gonna love it, and you know it…"

And while that conversation trailed off into more teasing back-and-forth and some not-so-innocent plans…Kirigaya Kazuto stood in a nearby hill, enjoying the soft wind with closed eyes while still seeing both his loved ones behind him and the beautiful sky above.

Then, he opened his eyes, staring down at the pond he had sat beside of.

[Hate] stared back, surrounded by a hellish landscape of flesh and blood, with an ever-red sky, the twisted reflection seeming to forever judge him…

"Kazuto? What are you doing here all by yourself?"

…and it all vanished in less than a blink, the reflection of the sky, of his normal appearance and that of a smiling Shigemura Yuuna standing behind him being all that was left.

Chuckling, the Lusus Naturae turned around, just in time to receive a soft and loving kiss which he eagerly reciprocated, then trapped the girl in a tight hug, making her smile in return.

"Nothing, Yuuna…just a bit tired, I guess. This week has been a nightmare going between the Spires and regulating the expected and the unexpected climate changes caused by the planetary reposition." sighed Kazuto while the young woman nuzzled against his neck. "Even with the Cardinal Hivemind connection established, there were a lot of things I and Waryum-jii had to check out firsthand…thank heavens that Pibap-san could take care of most other minor things…"

"Yeah, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to spend any time together even when traveling with you." laughed Yuuna before softly looking at the sky, suddenly deep in thought. "…I almost can't believe it's finally over, after all this time. It almost seems like a dream…"

"Well, we still gotta ensure for like a year or so that there is no permanent damage in the atmosphere and that the biosphere isn't too strained from the whole thing…but yeah, compared to the last years, our greatest worries are finally over." confirmed the Lusus Naturae while kissing one of the people he loved the most in the world on the top of her head, making her giggle again. "We can finally enjoy peace…"

"A-and…the future with it." mumbled the brown-haired girl with a notorious blush, making Kazuto blink in confusion as she separated from him and, to his utter shock, caressed her belly with a smile. "Kazuto…there is something I have to tell you…"

The following shout of utter joy interrupted Tsuboi Ryoutarou in the middle of telling a story to his friends while Mirai rolled her eyes but confirmed the facts of when he saved her so long ago, causing them and almost everyone in the area to turn around in time to see Kazuto flying up in the air with six wings, holding a screaming but smiling Yuuna in his arms as he happily spun her around.

With a quick sharpening of her senses, the second Lusus Naturae was left open-mouthed at what she heard, blushing furiously as a jealous look appeared on her face before it was replaced with accepting resignation. Then, she casually marched towards where Asuna and Suguha were staring at the scene in confusion, having been conversing with the Sleeping Knights.

Much more chaotic shouting ensued soon.

Later that night, though, as everyone was once again in content silence, simply staring peacefully at the beautiful night sky, Waryum the Tryum excused himself from where he had been lying near Yuuki, Aiko and Akane, walking away to the nearby hill as he grabbed a glass of water and drank slowly, his 6 eyes fixed on the moon.

"A yen for your thoughts, Waryum-jii?"

"That I still can't believe you almost forgot to bring the moon along when we warped the planet." casually replied the alien without turning around, even as Kazuto blushed with embarrassment behind him. "Also, you can't just change how that saying goes because you're Japanese."

"I-I…e-everyone makes mistakes!" was all that the Lusus Naturae could offer as answer while scowling at the now laughing Tryum. "…thanks for not telling anyone about that, by the way."

"Eh, I'm 90% sure most of your girls suspect it already and aren't buying the 'Last second dramatic pull'-excuse, so it's not as if it really matters. Oh, and on that note, let me congratulate you, I must be one of the few that haven't done it personally." turning around, Waryum offered the black-haired boy a warm smile. "You and Yuuna must be very happy."

"…yes, we are. I…do you think I will be a good father, Waryum-jii?" asked Kazuto with a suddenly worried tone, his gaze moving to the place where her parents, Suguha, Yuuna and her dad were sitting and talking calmly.

For a moment, the Humanity-loving Tryum fell silent, his mind traveling back. For an instant, he was once again in his old lab, cowering in fear while running tests on a massive and half-asleep 'monster' within a stasis tank, electrifying the liquid in which it floated out of fear when it seemed to suddenly start watching him.

Then, his mind returned to the present, the alien letting his eyes wander from the worried-looking young man to the many people behind him.

He saw the Sleeping Knights laughing at some joke Akane had just said, while Yuuki tackled Aiko to start a 'tickle fight'. He saw Shino and Keiko sleeping against former's mother while the woman smiled softly and caressed Pina as the cat laid on her lap. He saw Kayaba Akihiko and Koujiro Rinko, a ring on the latter's hand, happily sitting side by side. Near then, Mirai was holding a very advanced mechanical device in her hands, the holographic form of Yui hearing her rambling about her dear brother in resignation, but also a small smile on the AI's face. Not far from that pair, Rika and Shiori looked oddly 'determined' while a blushing Hiyori went all 'Awawawawa' while hearing then 'planning' something for tomorrow.

When his gaze returned to the expecting and curious form of the unique being his race had foolishly called X-K0940, he couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

"I have absolutely no idea…but if you're half as good at it as you are in your efforts to make the people you love happy, you will probably be the best dad in the universe."

"…thanks a lot, Waryum-jii." softly replied Kazuto while hugging the surprised alien. "I feel I really needed to hear that."

"Yeah, yeah, okay, stop it with the hugs, kid, I'm not one of your parents, remember? Go and hug them or one of your girls if you need it."

"I would, but, uhm, Sugu and Asuna had been acting quite weird since me and Yuuna told everyone the news, s-so…"

"…something tells me you're going to be very busy for the following months. Anyway…is there anything else you wanted to tell me?"

"I don't think s…oh yeah! I had the most amazing dream last night and I wanted to tell someone, but I didn't 'cause I feared they would find it stupid!"

"…at the risk of regretting it, what was it about?"

"I was Isekai-ed to a post-apocalyptic world by a talking computer, and had to fight against a bunch of killer robots alongside a wizard, an assassin with gunblades, two weird swordsmen, a mecha pilot, a cosplayer and a spider-powered man!"

"…yep, you were right, it's stupid. And for the love of Fate, stop watching so many fucking Isekai anime in your free time…"

"Bu-but I haven't told you the best part yet! Somehow, everyone was ME! Even the computer!"

"…Mirai, your brother is being stupid again! Can you bring Yui over so she can have a session with him?"

"…she just screamed and shut down the connection."

"Wa-Waryum-jii, I'm not being stupid! Don't be mean!"

And with those shouts and some random laughter, the night slowly came to an end.

A new day would soon come, to a whole new world, filled with a race with a future filled with endless possibilities.

The story of the Lusus Naturae may have reached an end, but, in truth, it was simply the dawn for a new beginning.

And the Multiverse continued spinning…

[Lusus Naturae – THE END]

"Thank you all for reading, let's move forward to our next adventure." – SaintInfernalNeos (Seeya!)

Author's Notes: And so, we have reached the end. It's been a pleasure to go through this freaky tale with all of you, my dear readers.

This epilogue's title was literally translated as "The Voice of the Void", and I thought it fit well for the end of the story for some weirdly poetic reason.

All in all, an extremely bizarre ending, wouldn't you agree? Probably not what many were expecting, maybe what some did, but it's how this story should end, I believe. The future may be unknown, but it's not uncertain for Lusus-kun and his family, which no doubt will be growing soon XP

One last time, I'm happy you all followed me in this insane tale until its end. Next time, my normal update-rotation will be resuming, with 'OverGamer' being retaken and taking this fic's spot on it, so look forward to more OPG:CoF next time!

Until then, though, and for the last time in Lusus Naturae, this is Saint, signing off :3