Go for Them, for Me, and Reclaim the Right to Trailblaze!

Firefly looked at the companion who had once fought by her side, now twisted into something so hideous and grotesque.

She slowly lifted her head and gazed at the sky, torn to pieces by the Swarm, and the ruined city below.

A faint note of wonder colored her voice.

"My world always ends up burned to the ground."

"Then let it burn."

"As long as I can keep burning, wherever I am will be a sea of flames, not ashes."

A cold, mechanical voice rang from Dark Sam's mech.

"Directive: tear it apart."

Firefly looked at her old comrade, who now stood ready to turn its blade against her. A trace of longing rose in her eyes.

She spoke softly.

"I used to envy you."

"Even though you were a calamity, you never had to suffer for it."

Her lips curved into a proud smile.

"But now, you should envy me."

"I don't want to face death. I don't want to keep fighting. But when faced with fate..."

Firefly strode toward Dark Sam.

Her gaze was unwavering as she said, each word deliberate, "I will never run away."

Flames abruptly roared to life around Firefly.

They seemed to possess the power to devour everything, scorching the air.

She pressed a hand tightly to her chest, scalding tears pouring from her eyes.

Clenching her fists, her teeth gritted, she spoke through tears, her voice utterly resolute.

"My dream is a wasteland, where not even a single new bud has ever bloomed."

"But I will keep burning. I'll burn on and on!"

Firefly's tears fell to the ground and instantly evaporated into white wisps of smoke.

She suddenly stepped forward. Flames erupted beneath her feet, quickly spreading across her body.

The blazing inferno engulfed her completely.

Then a silver-white mech tore through the flames. Like a phoenix reborn from fire, it slowly emerged from the blaze.

The voice of the mech changed, too—from the girl's soft, feminine voice to a powerful, resonant masculine one.

"Until the ashes, reborn in flames!"

Firefly unleashed the full power of the Sam mech.

Brilliant, shimmering green light instantly flared across its silver-white armor.

A pair of enormous, shimmering green wings unfurled from its back, carrying her straight into the sky.

Two shimmering green longswords appeared in the mech's hands, their blades gleaming coldly—sleek and powerful.

She pointed her swords at Dark Sam and spoke with finality.

"If you are the Dream Master's answer, then stand in his place and hear my answer..."

"People hold on to hope not because they've never faced their inevitable death."

"It's precisely because we're destined to lose everything that we hold on to the hope of changing things!"

The battle began in an instant.

The Sam mech's blue-green swordlight clashed violently with Dark Sam's gray-purple energy.

Every clash unleashed unimaginable destructive force, making the whole space tremble.

The dense Swarm, blanketing the sky, kept surging toward Firefly, causing her no small amount of trouble.

But Firefly gritted her teeth and held on, controlling the flames blazing around her mech to burn each wave of attackers to blackened husks.

With the sharp swords in her hands, she hacked again and again into Dark Sam's twisted, deformed body.

The brutal battle reduced the entire dreamscape to ruin, leaving shattered buildings and lingering waves of energy everywhere.

At last, driven by Firefly's seething rage and her fierce desire to live...

She plunged her sword into Dark Sam's chest, pinning the monstrous mech firmly to the ground.

When Firefly had finally defeated Dark Sam, a golden orb slowly appeared above the mech's wreckage.

It was a Stellaron.

As long as it existed, the Swarm would keep appearing in vast numbers throughout the dream.

That Swarm, blotting out the sky and devouring everything, would bring endless terror and destruction to the entire dreamscape.

Firefly reached out and seized the Stellaron.

She looked up at the gray-purple sky and the Swarm still circling overhead.

She knew all too well that the battle wasn't over yet.

She also knew that, at that very moment, she was about to face her second death.

"If embracing fate is also a form of resistance, then this time..."

Without the slightest hesitation, Firefly slammed the Stellaron against her chest.

Once, twice...

Her body instinctively fought back against the overwhelming power, and the Stellaron simply wouldn't take hold.

At last, she gripped it with both hands and, with all her strength, forced it into her chest.

Dazzling golden light burst from the Stellaron, and its radiant energy instantly suffused everything around her.

The forced fusion brought Firefly unbearable agony. It was as if every bone in her body were wailing.

But she gritted her teeth and endured, letting out a deafening roar.

"I will embrace death!"

As the Stellaron fused perfectly with the mech's core, the shimmering green energy around the Sam mech transformed into the gray-purple energy of the Swarm.

Flames surged skyward from beneath the Sam mech, swallowing it whole.

The next moment, a new form of Sam, glowing gray-purple from head to toe, burst out of the flames.

It shot into the sky, and the dense Swarm around it obeyed her call, surging upward with it.

One insect after another became gray-purple streaks of light, shooting into the heights before exploding with a thunderous roar.

The whole sky cracked apart layer by layer, like a mirror being shattered.

At last, the dream's cage-like barrier broke completely, revealing Stelle on the other side.

Stelle slowly descended from the sky, her body still unsteady.

Just then, Firefly, having completed her transformation, piloted the mech and flew rapidly toward Stelle.

She seized Stelle by the wrist, and the gray-purple Sam mech carried her into a circling flight across the sky.

Stelle looked up at the Sam mech before her, both strange and familiar.

Worry and fear showed on her face.

A gentle smile touched Firefly's face.

Her voice came from inside the Sam mech, faint yet impossibly soft. She gently comforted Stelle.

"Don't be afraid..."

"Even if all of this is destined to fade at dawn..."

"I'm no longer afraid of waking from a dream."

Then Firefly piloted the mech and held Stelle tightly.

Boundless gray-purple power burst from the mech once more.

Its enormous wings spread wide, carrying them both toward the heights above.

They flew all the way to the highest point, where the dream had shattered. As they touched the dazzling golden light in the sky, bright as the sun, Firefly's strength was finally spent.

With the last of her strength, she lightly tapped Stelle's chest with a finger, then gave her a forceful shove upward.

Stelle soared higher into the sky, like a kite with its string cut.

A few scorching tears welled in Firefly's eyes.

Her voice was soft, yet carried a resolve and defiance unlike anything before.

"Go for them, for me, and reclaim the right to Trailblaze!"

As the words fell, the Sam mech lost all power and began to sink slowly toward the ground.

As it fell, its body gradually dissolved like foam, then became a golden glow and vanished completely from the sky.

Stelle watched Firefly disappear before her. Her heart felt as if it had been torn apart, the pain so sharp it seemed ready to shatter.

But as she heard Firefly's final plea and remembered the mission she carried, she slowly closed her eyes.

The moment she opened them again, she had fully awakened from that beautiful dream.

Together with the members of the Astral Express Crew, she stood shoulder to shoulder before Sunday.

They were ready to face their God War of Trailblaze!