"What's wrong, Sierra?" Terra innocently asked, "Aren't you happy for me? I've reached my life-long desire. I've finally proven that I've overcome the sins of my past. Why do you seem so horrified?"

Sierra's expression was a mixture of terror and sorrow. She stared at Terra for a moment longer. Behind her, Kleo also looked on with shock.

"Gods. . .so it's true. . ." Kleo stated in awe.

"What?" Terra asked confused. Then she looked down at her body. Even though it was the first time she had ever seen her body, she knew that it was not right.

"Welcome back, Lord Ruby-Eye," Xellos greeted Terra as he respectfully bowed down to her.

Terra's expression mimicked Sierra's. She held her hands up in front of her face; a silent scream seemed to be sealed in her face. The flesh of her hands was now clear and looked as though it were made of finely smoothed glass. Out of her fingers extremely long metal talons were in the place of fingernails.

But that wasn't the worst of it. Terra's face also seemed now to be made of smooth glass. Her black hair looked to be made of polished onyx. And finally, a blood-red ruby was positioned in the middle of her forehead.

"Xellos. . .what's the meaning of this?" Terra gasped.

"You got your desire," Xellos simply replied, "You can see now."

"But I don't ever recall wanting to be so deformed,"

"Oh, don't worry about it. You won't have to live with it long. In fact, you don't have long to live," Xellos burst out with cruel laughter at his last statement.

"But. . .but. . .how. . .you. . .you promised that you wouldn't betray me. The Mazoku cannot lie!"

Xellos mockingly waved his index finger back and forth in front of Terra's face. "I never lied to you. I was, however, misleading. I'm not going to do a single thing to you. But. . .with the summoning of Lord Ruby-Eye, who was sealed in you eyes, you're now going to die,"

Terra suddenly seemed infuriated. She swept her right hand at Xellos and the talons dug a deep gash in his chest. However, if the attack did any serious damage, the Mazoku priest didn't show it. He chuckled to himself as the flesh and clothes mauled by Terra's talons regrew.

"You bastard! If I'm really going to die I'll take you down with me!"

"You'll pay for convincing Terra to do this!" Sierra screamed at Xellos as she swept her scythe at him. Xellos, who wasn't quite expecting the attack, was unable to defend against it and thus had his right arm and a fair deal of his upper torso removed.

Kleo shot her gun repeatedly and created multiple holes in Xellos's body. And during this Terra continued to slash at Xellos causing a considerable amount of damage. As it was it seemed that the three infuriated opponents all attacking at once were doing too much damage for him to regenerate.

"I-I could really use your help right about now, Lord Ruby-Eye. . ." Xellos managed to gasp as he tried to defend himself against the assault.

Suddenly Terra's body snapped to a fully erect standing position. Her arms hung limply at her sides. She turned her head to stare at Sierra who had stopped her assault on Xellos to try and see what Terra was doing.

Terra smiled meekly. "Sierra, I'm so glad the last thing I got to see was my beloved sister. . .goodbye. . ."

"What? Terra! NO! TERRA!"

Terra suddenly screamed in pain. Her brown eyes, which before hand seemed to be the only organic part of her body remaining, suddenly seemed to dissolve leaving only empty eye sockets. Terra's body suddenly dropped to the floor and let out sounds of pain and agony as she curled up into a fetal position. Suddenly she stopped.

"Terra? Terra!" Sierra called to her.

The pitiful form of Terra slowly stood up and laughed cruelly.

"My apologies for not coming earlier, but I just couldn't bear to tear this poor woman's sister away from her," Terra said; however, her voice seemed different now. It seemed dark and evil.

"Your apologies are gratefully accepted, Lord Ruby-Eye," Xellos replied to Terra as he again bowed respectfully.

The blood ruby in Terra's forehead moved as though it were an eye scanning the room. It finally laid its sight upon Sierra who merely stood staring back at the eye.

"It must be very painful for you to have lost your adopted sister," Terra commented to Sierra, "Allow me to end that pain for you."

Terra lifted her taloned hand and thrust it straight for Sierra's chest. Suddenly a blur appeared between the two and the silver-haired Toshi appeared. Terra's talons no longer could reach Sierra; however, they did travel all the way through Toshi and out his back.

"I won't let you kill her, hell spawn!" Toshi forcefully informed Terra as he spread his hands out to his sides and began chanting.

From Toshi's hands appeared a translucent white barrier that threw Terra and Xellos back a few paces. The barrier spread to create a sphere around Toshi, Sierra, and Kleo.

"Toshi? How. . .?" Sierra wondered how he could still be standing after being impaled by the metallic talons, much less be casting a protective barrier.

The Mazoku inhabiting Terra's body and Xellos both summoned their dark powers and pressed them against Toshi's barrier.

"You can't win in a fight of pure strength," the demon in Terra announced to Toshi, "Give up and embrace your death just as the rest of this world soon shall."

"Never! I'll never give in to you damned Mazoku! Even if it completely erases me, I'll never stoop so low as to accept your dominance!"

Xellos, who had completely regenerated by now, chuckled, "Why do you protect that woman so zealously?"

Toshi gave Xellos a stare of pure hatred, "Because of a century old promise I made. Why do you wish to kill her so much?"

"Because of a century old vow I swore," Xellos responded while eying Sierra with his snake-like slits, "It would seem there can be no compromise on this issue."

"Surrender to your fate, worthless servant of the Gods!" Terra commanded as Toshi's magical barrier began to crack.

"What can we do?" Kleo frantically asked Toshi.

"Sit tight," Toshi coldly responded. He suddenly dropped his support of the white magical barrier and stooped to his knees with his hands upon the floor. He began rapidly chanting and a white circle surrounded Sierra, Kleo, and himself.

The cracked barrier that Toshi had left standing suddenly completely shattered under the strain of the two Mazoku's black energies. The streams of shadows that crawled across the distance between them hungrily attacked Toshi. The shadows grabbed onto Toshi's arm and seemed to hungrily consume the material of his limb. He shouted in pain, but kept at the task at hand.

"This'll have to do," he commented dryly. He muttered another few words and suddenly he and the two women disappeared.

The three of them materialized outside of the tower about a mile away, but still close enough that they could witness the upper floors of the Tower of Rezo explode in shadows.

"We're safe. . .for now. . ." Toshi instructed the two awestruck women as he suddenly fell to the ground unconscious.

"Toshi! Toshi!" Kleo pleaded with his limp form.

Sierra looked away from the crumbling tower to stare at Toshi with hatred clear in her expressions.