Chapter 38: Adam End

The girls awaken to find themselves on a field, but what's more surprising is that the girls who were evacuated earlier are also there. As they slowly stare at each other, they notice Hibiki, Chris, and Tsubasa running toward something. The girls follow them and discover Mei and Morgan sleeping in the center of a crater.

Even more surprising to them is Mei's hair, which is now black, just like in the mental space. Furthermore, her gear has lost its yellow color, now only displaying cyan blue and white. Though they wonder why they are still in their Symphogear form despite having fainted, the girls decide to carry both Mei and Morgan back to base.

The moment they arrive at the submarine base, they are surprised to see Fine hurriedly walk over as the doors open. Fine takes Mei from Kanade's back and runs off. At first, the girls are surprised, but then they remember the scene they witnessed in the mental world and nod in understanding. Even though Mei isn't truly her child, the bond is still there. They then follow Fine, carrying Morgan.

Inside the medical room, Morgan and Mei lay in bed. They had untransformed, but surprisingly, Mei was still in her girl form. The only differences were her hair and eye color, though her eyes were currently closed as she hadn't regained consciousness yet.

The girls then went to the briefing room and took their seats. Genjuro stared at them as they explained that America had planned to send in nukes but canceled the strike the moment all the girls suddenly lost consciousness, which made the girls let out a sigh of relief.

Genjuro slowly looked at each of them before

speaking. "As for Saint-Germain and the other two, Cagliostro and Prelati, they managed to corner Adam. But before they could deal a finishing blow, he managed to escape."

As Genjuro said that, he slowly turned on the monitor, showing Saint-Germain, Cagliostro, and Prelati in the medical bay, hooked up to many machines, which made Hibiki stand up.

"SAINT-GERMAIN!"

"Calm down, Hibiki. Genjuro, they should be okay, right?"

"Well, apparently, t—"

Before Genjuro could speak further, an explosion suddenly occurred in the medical bay where Morgan and Mei were. This sent the girls into a bit of a panic as they moved as fast as they could, only to see both Morgan and Mei, still in their hospital gowns, facing Adam. But then...

"Heilen Dominari Holy Grail Tron."

"Custodire Welt Aegis Zizl."

Then a song started to play, but Mei suddenly looked surprised as she gazed at Morgan. Morgan simply looked back at her and nodded, which made Mei smile. She slowly dashed forward before she began to sing; the girls could even see that both Mei and Morgan were smiling.

Dare no tame ni ikiru
Dare no tame no chikara

Mei throws her giant sakura shield at Adam, but he shoots it down before it can reach him. Morgan uses the distraction to hit Adam with an attack from Chris's bow, then moves away and begins singing.

Dare no tame ni tatakau
Kono te de ima wo mamorinuku yo

Adam begins to teleport behind Morgan, but as the girl tries to warn him, they notice the bow in Morgan's hand has already transformed into Gungnir, the weapon Kanade and Maria often use. Morgan stabs Adam, forcing him to dodge, but then Mei appears beside him and rams him with her surfing shield.

Koware kaketa machi de
Kowasarenai omoi

Mei created a giant sakura shield and threw it at Adam. As Adam teleported away, the girls noticed that the gear in Morgan's hand transformed into the yo-yo Shirabe often used. It attached to Mei's sakura shield, changed form, curved, and struck Adam, who had reappeared far away from them.

Dakishimeru yo negai wo
Kokoro wa dare mo ubaenai

The girls were surprised for a second by the quality of their teamwork, but then they remembered that Mei, Morgan, and Hibiki once formed a three-member team within this mental space. This kind of seamless, non-verbal coordination was normal for them. Tsubasa, however, watched them with complicated emotions that didn't escape Kanade's gaze.

Moeagaru kono omoi no hate
Mieru sekai torimodose

Adam, still struggling to stand, transformed into a giant monster in a fit of rage, surprising the girl for a second. Morgan and Mei, however, were already making their next move. Morgan threw Gungnir toward Adam, and Mei combined it with two of her surfing shields, making it move even faster.

Makenai jōnetsu ga Honō ni naru negai to
Me wo samasu kono yami no naka ni

Adam managed to catch Gungnir, but he was slowly pushed back. They saw Morgan proceed to take out a green scythe as Mei stood on top of it. She slowly spawned a huge Sakura shield on both sides of the scythe before Morgan threw the top of the scythe toward Adam, with Mei riding on top of it.

Yowasa sutete tachimukau
Hageshiku hi wo hanate

The girl grew curious about Mei's intentions, but Mei instead began spinning, following the gear below her. This created a mini-tornado that pulled Adam away. Suddenly, they saw a large number of daggers, regularly used by Serena and Maria, chaining together and pinning Adam. The tornado then began to rip apart his giant body.

Omoi wa todoku ima
Burning My Soul

The tornado suddenly stopped. Mei was already airborne, and Morgan threw Gungnir again, embedding it in the monster's forehead. The girls anticipated what was coming next as Mei descended with a kick, using a surfing shield on her back to accelerate her fall. They then saw various gears—Tsubasa's blades and Chris's rockets—propelling her even faster.

Mei's kick landed perfectly on Gungnir's handle, driving it deeper before culminating in a blinding explosion. The girls covered their eyes, and when the light subsided, they saw Adam's body slowly crumbling and dissipating into light.

Morgan then slowly walked beside Mei, who gazed at the sky, seemingly lost in thought. Chris, meanwhile, surveyed the tattered medical bay, which now looked like a dilapidated room.

Fortunately, Saint-Germain and the other two were in another medical bay, their conditions still unstable from the overuse of their Faust Robes. This, however, allowed them to avoid the combat. Shinji sighed, realizing the extensive repairs that lay ahead.

Inside a meeting room, Maria, Tsubasa, Kanade, Fine, and Genjuro faced Morgan, who sat calmly opposite them. She slowly looked at each of them before closing her eyes for a second and then opening them again.

"So, what do you want to ask?"

"First of all, Morgan, why did you lie to us?"

"By 'lying,' you mean that Fine created my Holy Grail and Mei—or rather, Hibiki Aegis—didn't? It wasn't really a lie; it's just that what you saw wasn't the complete picture, Tsubasa."

Genjuro slowly stood, fixing Morgan with a death stare, but she remained unaffected, calmly taking a sip of her tea.

"Darjeeling tea, huh? Takes me back. But Tsubasa, what you saw was only a portion of it. Have you ever heard of a parallel world?"

"Are you talking about another world that is the same as this one?"

"Well, as expected from Fine. Yes, and the one you saw in the mental world is one of them. But you see, there are basically an infinite number of parallel worlds—so many that even if you spent your entire lifetime, Fine, it wouldn't be enough to count them."

Everyone fell silent at the revelation, but Kanade slowly turned to Morgan before speaking.

"What kind of world has Mei, or rather Mamoru, gone to?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised. Was it around 20? And that's not even counting the times he never managed to awaken me."

"What do you mean?"

"Precisely what I said. At the end of each journey, she often erases her own memories, leaving only a specific detail I cannot tell you about. All information about that world is essentially erased from his mind—or so he thinks. But all of them were saved in the Holy Grail, which is why I remember them, for example."

Morgan slowly pointed at Maria, then at the others, one by one, with a smile.

"A world where your sister Serena was the older one and you the younger one exists. There's also a world where Kanade never died, but instead, Tsubasa died at that concert. A world where Genjuro never existed and Yatsuhiro was your real father, Tsubasa, instead of that old geezer. A world where Enki managed to defeat Shem-Ha."

The girls grew quiet, processing the information. Maria, however, was the most shocked. Imagining a world where Serena was her older sister instead of her slowly overloaded her brain, leaving her sitting there in shock.

"Well, I think you should be able to go to the parallel world by now," she thought.

That word pulled the others back to reality, and they stood up in surprise.

"Gjallarhorn is the relic that connects all parallel worlds. So, in theory, after Carol activated it, it should be active. I recommend you seal that relic for now because you're not ready to face other parallel worlds yet."

"Can you tell us why?"

"Because the Curse of Balal and Shem-ha are still here. After you solve those two giant problems, I'll have no problem with you all going to the parallel world. That would mean there's no giant threat to this world besides normal Noise, of course, not counting those from outside this world."

Morgan slowly sipped her tea again as she watched their reaction, but Fine slowly stared at her and spoke.

"From what I heard from the girls watching the past, it shows that Mei managed to get the same sickness as Hibiki, but how? Since she was born from me and Enki."

Morgan was silent for a moment and slowly stared at her.

"The reason is because that relic was specially created by you on my planet, the same relic that the Holy Grail was created from. But you managed to run away, failing to bring the Holy Grail and only managing to get Aegis before running to another world, which led to Hibiki discovering the relic, and the rest is as you know."

Maria stared at Morgan as she slowly stood up.

"How can we be sure that's the truth? You said you already forgot your memories as a price for something."

"That's because Mei used divine power to revive me, so some of my memories returned. In fact, I feel like I should take Mei and run away from this planet if I want to honor her will."

A confused Genjuro slowly met her gaze before questioning her.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Because both of our relics have a tracker in them. In fact, you should have noticed it, right, Fine?"

Genjuro and the girls slowly turned to Fine, who nodded.

"That's the part I don't understand about your relics. When I tried to remove it, the relic stopped working. I thought it was the core of the relic from a parallel world, but to think it was doubling as a tracker."

"Well, to be fair, it was a relic uniquely made with divine power, so of course it has a safety feature. But luckily for us, the Curse of Balal jammed the signal. So, when you all end the curse, if I decide you're still not strong enough, I will take Mei off this planet."

Hearing that, Kanade became angry and was about to attack Morgan, but Tsubasa, knowing Kanade's temper, held her back.

"You should have known the power of Karma-Noise, but funnily enough, our force at that time was only a scout unit."

Hearing that, Fine and Genjuro exchanged uneasy glances before slowly nodding. Genjuro then turned to Morgan and asked,

"How much power does their main unit possess?"

"Custodians Samael and Susanoo lead them. Each of them is stronger than Enki, given the right circumstances. As for the Karma-Noise under their control, I've lost count, but it must be in the billions. Regarding the relic users under them, while half were forced into service, there are more than 50."

Hearing the numbers, Genjuro's face turned grim, as he knew that Earth stood no chance against such a force. But then, Morgan slowly let out a sigh.

"Which is why I will give you a handicap. If you manage to defeat Shem-ha without using Swan Song or X-drive form, I will reconsider, as achieving that would mean you at least have a chance to compete."

Morgan slowly stood up, but before leaving the room, she peaked back inside, having forgotten to tell them something.

"Oh, yeah, no cheating by making Shem-Ha fail to revive, okay? This is essentially my trial for all of you."

All of them fell silent, slowly beginning to think of countermeasures against this trial, which would be difficult for them to overcome.