Gotho, Vanilla, and Coconna are ecstatic about their new found riches. They have enough jijirium to live in luxury the rest of their lives. But Chirico shows no joy; he has other plans for their treasure. Elsewhere, Borough proposes to Iskui that the time has come to play their trump card against Chirico. Rochina, meanwhile, dispatches his operatives into Uoodo city to start observing Chirico directly.

Coconna reports to Gotho and Vanilla that the police are active throughout the city, looking for the stolen jijirium. Gotho realizes they will probably never get out with their treasure and suggests they instead use it to buy their freedom. Vanilla is incredulous, but Chrico agrees with Gotho's plan; it will also serve his purposes.

Shortly after Albert Killy gives Borough and Iskui permission to use the Prototype against Chrico, Gotho is brought into police headquarters. They strike a deal for the jijirium and let him go, seeing this as the perfect opportunity to nab Chrico. Gotho travels to a ruined coliseum where he is to meet Iskui. Coconna drives the jijirium truck up a policeman elsewhere in the city and runs off. The policeman reports to Iskui that the treasure has been recovered, and Iskui breaks the deal, refusing to pay Gotho anything for his trouble. Gotho slinks off and Chirico roars into action, bearing down on Iskui in a Scopedog. No the final trap is sprung. Another AT (a Brutishdog) appears and grapples with Chirico. For the first time, he is evenly matched...and for the first time, he is beaten! Police surround him as he gazes into the face of his mystery opponent - The phantom Lady!

"Who are you? Near-perfect reflexes, almost supernatural intuition. Who are you...?"

Proto-One tells Chirico what she knows, but is unable to answer most of his questions about the conspiracy they are both caught up in. When their discussion is interrupted by attacking police, she vows that this time she will fight with him, not against him. Together, they charge into battle.

Iskui is desperate to end this debacle, and Borough gives him the idean to fight fire with fire; they will send in Battling pilots to attack Chirico. While they arrange for this, Chirico makes contact with Gotho, Vanilla, and Coconna. He suggests a rendezvous point and moves out with Proto-One. Seeing the forces arrayed against them, Vanilla tries to back out, but Coconna holds him up with his own pistol. This does the trick.

Inside the tower, Chirico and Proto-One are attacked by the Battling pilots and quickly outnumbered. Proto-One is knocked out of her AT, and Chirico rushes to her rescue, calling a name out of the blue: "Fyana!" He scoops her up and rushes her to safety. She is puzzled by the name, but is glad to accept it as her own. They attempt to escape the tower, but are finally overpowered and separated. Chirico falls to safety just in time to meet up with Gotho and the others, but Fyana is take away by police.

The skies above Uoodo rumble with the sound of approaching airplanes. Scopedog platoons parachute down toward the city. The Melkian army has arrived. But Chirico is concerned only with the woman he has been parted from.

"Fyana...but why did I call her by that name?"

"I had managed to escape the police...but hadn't been able to take the Prototype with me. I didn't even notice the airborne AT units drifting down like snow."

Iskui and Borough watch helplessly as the police tower is surrounded by Melkian Scopedogs. Rochina leads the assaul force, demanding that they give themselves up. Instead, they call Albert Killy, who orders Iskui to wait for the backup he is sending. Borough is to escape to the heliport with Proto-One.

Rochina barks the orders to move in, and all hell breaks loose. Chirico and his companions discover this, and Chirico explains to them what he has learned, namely that all these events have centered around the Prototype, who is an experimental Perfect Soldier created by the Melkian army. Chrico was just a pawn in the Lido raid, and it has made him a fugitive.

Iskui is killed as Rochina's men enter the police tower, but the Prototype is nowhere to be found. Overhearing their radio transmissions, Chirico deduces that she has gone to the heliport and he intends to follow her there via the abandoned subway. He locates her, and asks her to escape with him. She cannot, claiming that if she tries to leave her captors, she will die.

Finally, time runs out. Rochina's army attacks the heliport and are met by a new enemy: Tortoise-type ATs sent by the Secret Society to cover the escape of Borough and the Prototype. The entire base, like Uoodo itself, collapses in flames. Chirico walks through the inferno alone, cut off from everyone he now holds dear.

"The city of Uoodo was disappearing. Vanilla...Gotho...Coconna...Fyana...please don't leave me to be alone. Where are you? Where have you all gone?"

No longer able to travel the river route to Kanjelman's palace, Kan Yu's task force is airlifted to nearby Crescent Moon lake, from which they will travel by land. A Veela spy watches the airlift and reports to Kanjelman. The news quickly passes to Borough, who informs Ypsilon that Chirico is on his way...and he plans to take advantage of their next battle in a way that will end the confusion in Proto-One's mind.

The airlift of Kan Yu's task force is interrupted by Veela artillery. Vanilla plays the unwilling bait in his helicopter while the ATs drop into the jungle and eliminate their attackers. Word of this also reaches Kanjelman's palace, confirming the whereabouts of the task force. Borough and Ypsilon contact Albert Killy to propose their plan: Proto-One will be made to watch as Ypsilon kills Chirico in an ambush, thus ending her distraction.

Some time later, Kan Yu's men cross Crescent Moon lake with a gunboat escort. Abruptly, one of the gunboats is struck from beneath; Ypsilon and a platoon f Turtles launches an ambush from their hiding place under the water! Chirico and the others engage the Turtles in their own ATs, and Ypsilon singles out Chirico immediately. As they face off, a helicopter flies overhead. Inside is Borough, who forces Fyana to watch the scene below.

She tries in vain to avert her eyes as Chirico's Marshydog takes heavy damage...and when it is finally too much for her, she lunges for the helicopter's flight stick, spinning it out of control! The careening helicopter knocks Ypsilon aside and crashes headlong into the shoreline. Chirico watches the crash from his slowly sinking AT.

"In Ypsilon, I had seen an almost bottomless hatred for me. And yet, I saw something else, she'd risked her life for me. Fyana. An indescribable warmth filled my body..."

Chirico and Fyana travel the jungle together in his Marshydog, and when the two are ambushed by Veela ATs, three unexpected allies come to the rescue: Kiderra, Potaria, and Shako. Afterward, Chirico tells them what happened to Kan Yu and introduces Fyana, the PS they have been tracking all this time. Potaria and Kiderra agree to accompany them on their mission to assault Kanjelman's palace, but Shako dissents; he is bound by his contract with EX-10 and cannot bring himself to violate orders.

A short while later, an EX-10 helicopter passes overhead and spots the rogue mercenaries. Gon Nu relays the news to Rochina, who orders him to keep Chirico under observation. His actions could give them the opportunity they need to launch an all-out attack on the palace.

with Fyana's help, Chirico and the others destroy another platoon of Turtles and make their way closer to their objective. At the palace, Albert Killy informs Borough and Ypsilon that he is sending a new AT for Ypsilon to fight in now that his Snapping Turtle is gone.

Chirico's group reaches one of Kanjelman's arsenals. Fyana makes her way up to it alone and finds herself a Brutishdog. The others make short work of the installation. Fyana informs them of something she has overheard on the radio; that Kanjelman has ordered all Veela Guerrilla units back to the palace. Potaria is confused by this news, unable to figure out why the prince is abandoning his tactics after all this time.

Heading back into the jungle, Chrico and the others are spotted by another helicopter from EX-10, which is piloted by Vanilla. He reports that he has found Chirico, but is ordered to return to base. Chirico watches him leave and realizes that many eyes are now on him. His next move must be a decisive one.

"Go Nu wasn't going to let me go. As the enemy closed in from both sides, my excitement built. But in the palace beneath the gathering storm clouds, a deep whirlpool of suspicions was also building..."

High above planet Melkia, Albert Killy listens to Arron and Gurran, two scientists studying the PS, speculating on what must be happening in the civil war below.

Holding Borough at gunpoint, Chirico questions him. Ypsilon arrives, but cannot intervene. Borough explains that the Secret Society brought the PSs here to try and perfect them; their emotions have proven too erratic, and have constantly interfered with their efficiency as killing machines. What's more, they can never be remade into normal human beings. Kiderra attempts to attack Ypsilon from behind, but fails at the cost of his own life. His move disrupts the scene, giving Ypsilon the chance to attack Chirico. Fyana can only watch from her AT as the two grapple and fall from level to level down into the bottomless mineshaft.

Outside the palace, Gon Nu gives the order to move in. Behind them, a third party prepares to enter the fray: the Melkian army. Lead by Rochina, their orders are to overwhelm the palace and destroy everyone in their way. Only the PS Prototype is need alive. Unaware of this new development, Vanilla finds Potaria, who passes along the key given to him by Kanjelman.

Chirico and Ypsilon land at the bottom of the mineshaft, which is full of oil and priceless jijirium. Both their ATs have been damaged, so Ypsilon leaps out and challenges Chirico to a hand-to-hand fight. Fyana appears in her Brutishdog, and when Ypsilon refuses to stop, she fires on him. He is furious at her final betrayal, but the scene is broken by the laughter of Gon Nu. Peering down from above, he proclaims victory. Now that Chirico is of no further use. Gon Nu will destroy him along with everything else.

Rochina, however, has already begun bombing the palace from outside. Suddenly, Gon Nu himself has become expendable! Chirico and Fyana escape as the palace begins to crumble, and Ypsilon is left standing alone as Borough dies in the fire.

Chirico and Fyana find Vanilla, who gives them Potaria's key. It will activate an escape shuttle, and Vanilla wants them to flee in it. At the last moment, however, the insufferable Kan Yu appears and prepares to finish Chirico off once and for all. Shako intervenes, having finally decided his commanding officer isn't worth following any more.

Their enemies now dealt with, Chirico and Fyana launch in the shuttle, just in time to evade Melkian Scopedogs. They burst out of the palace and into the open air, their future opening up before them.

"My journey through Kummen was at an end. For my own sake, I had chosen to enter hell. For Fyana's sake, I was now leaving it behind. Love? could it be even I was capable of fighting for love?"

Zanjeny and his crew debate the continuing situation. Space Battleship X cannot be identified as a Gilgamesh ship, but the Balarant still cannot risk starting an incident in the nonaggression zone. All they can do is wait for their opponent to make the first move. On the ship, Fyana has come to a decision - she will surrender herself to the Balarant in exchange for medical treatment for Chirico. Her attempt to do so is observed by Futtor's men, and just as Fyana seems to have won, the Balarant ship is destroyed by the Teltain.

She makes it back safely to Battleship X, and as the unknown planet looms closer, the Teltain launches another attack. Fyana attempts to radio Ypsilon, begging him to stop the assault, but communication is knocked out before anything can come of it. The ship begins to descent into the atmosphere of the planet, and a platoon of MKII Tortoises is launched against Fyana. Ypsilon joins the attack in his Strikedog, but when he faces off against her directly, his emotions begin to cloud his judgment.

Despite this, he manages to capture her, and as his men haul her away, Teltain launches another barrage of missiles at the descending battleship. Horrified, Fyana tears herself away and plummets to Chirico's aid once again. She dives inside, followed by more Tortoises, but everyone is thrown into chaos when the giant ship finally smashes into the surface of the planet and comes to rest. Just as Fyana is finally cornered, Chirico rushes to her aid in a Scopedog of his own, and fights his way out to the surface of the smoking ship...where Ypsilon awaits. The sun of the unknown planet rises as they level their weapons at each other.

"My strength had returned to me. But, as strong as Ypsilon's murderous rage was, the smell of blood from this planet's past was even stronger."

Chirico Cuvie wakes up in the Sandrunner of a curious little man named Gecko, who scolds him for trying to cross the Quent desert alone on foot. Chirico looks out the window of the vehicle in the desert traders' caravan; they are approaching the Tower of Gomor.

In orbit around Quent, Albert Killy cautions Arron and Gurran, who are about to embark on an expedition. Chrico is not the only threat to them; the planet itself can take lives.

Chirico parts with Gecko in Gomer and heads for the mercenary center, where he demands to speak with a Quentman. The workers in the center react with suspicion, and a chase erupts when Chirico becomes the target of security guards. He finds his way into a room that houses the emissary to the Quentmen. Chirico asks questions about Quent and the PS, but the emissary cannot provide answers, saying instead that he will get Chirico some help.

Chirico flees the mercenary center into the hands of Hazegar, a thug-for-hire who insists that Chirico come to meet his master. Gecko intervenes, telling Chirico to surrender for moment. He resists being picked up, but is shot with a tranquilizer and taken to the spaceport where Arron and Gurran await to take custody. At the last moment, fate intervenes in the form of the Mayor of Gomor, who claims Chirico is the guest of a Quentman, whose authority must be obeyed. The Quentman turns out to be Ru Shako, recently returned from Kummen!

Amazed, Chirico prepares to embark on his quent into the desert with his unexpected ally.

"Our reunion on Quent could only be called miraculous. With uncertainty and anticipation mixing within me, I stepped forward into an unknown world. what awaited me at the end of this desert?"

A task force of Zwerg Ats detaches from Killy's ship and descends toward Quent. Arron and Gurran try to reason their that he was nothing to worry about, but this does little to put Killy at ease.

Chirico catches up on recent history with Shako, who explains that Quentians gave up their technological civilization thousands of years ago to live in the desert crevasses. Suddenly, Zwergs appear to give chase. Shako outmaneuvers them and escapes, but damages the radiator in his sandrunner, and must push the vehicle by hand. He enters a deep crevasse in the desert in hopes of finding a village of Quentians, but the Zwergs require their target and open fire on the ailing sandrunner.

Chirico manages to commandeer one of their attackers' ATs and launches a counterstrike while Shako destroys another by ramming it. They continue their journey and word of their victory reaches Albert Killy. Furious that his men were brash enough to start a firefight in the vicinity of a Quentian village, he berates Arron and Gurran for their carelessness.

On the surface, Chirico and shako approach another crevasse, within which lies Shako's own village.

"The Quentian village lay in the depths of the ground. But was the mystery of the PS, of my own origins, hidden here? A race which had abandoned civilization and destroyed itself. Wasn't Quent, in the end, simply a graveyard?"

Arron and Gurran have tracked Chirico's progress and speculate about following him themselves. Killy agrees to let them go, provide they use extreme caution.

Chirico and Shako enter the Quentian village, but rather than talking with the chief, Shako instead gives Chirico a drink which causes him to pass out. That night, the women of Shako's tribe perform a strange ritual. Chirico wakes afterward, and Shako explains that they wanted to determine if he was "one who was changed," but says no more.

Rochina prepares to leave the Sunsa system, and Fyana demands to know what he thinks Chirico will find on Quent. Rochina doesn't know precisely, but he does admit to having been following the orders of a higher mind...and has questions of his own to be answered on Quent.

The next morning, Chirico questions Tedaya, the chief of Shako's tribe. Tedaya explains that Chirico might be "one who was changed," but says that he must speak with Meji to learn more. Venturing deep into an underground labyrinth, they find Meji, who appears more ancient than the very rocks around him. Meji explains something of Quent history, about beings who appeared 3,000 years ago and where driven away into darkness after they said all Quentians would be reborn by their hands.

More confused than ever, Chirico later runs into Arron and Gurran, who chase Chirico and Shako deeper into the caverns...which give way to ancient underground technology. They corner Chirico and fire a tranquilizer dart at him. The air around them comes alive with power, and everything begins to fade away...

"Even as consciousness faded from me, I saw it. Saw how they'd disappeared. What had happened? And what was going to happen to me? Was I still even alive?"

Chirico is left alive with Shako in the tunnels, but Arron and Gurran inexplicably re-materialize 800 km away in the streets of Gomor. They report this to Killy, who is amazed to finally learn one of the secrets of ancients Quent: teleportation.

Chirico and Shako return to Meji for an explanation of what happened, but he cannot answer. Chirico asks where a power generator might be found, and Meji says the upper portion of the Tower of Gomor is one of many forbidden places.

Albert Killy is faced with a decision. Fleets are approaching Quent from both the Gilgamesh and the Balarant, and he has to act now if he wants to seize the planet before they arrive. He deploys a contingent of Zwergs to the surface under Arron and Gurran's supervision. They land in Gomor and begin a march across the city, alarming the citizens and defying the city's small security force. From his chamber in the mercenary center, the emissary touches his stone monolith and sends out an emergency signal which is noticed by Chirico and Shako in the deep desert. Shako laments that they cannot reach Gomor in time to be of help. but Chirico has an idea; they turn the stolen Zwerg around and head back into the underground labyrinth.

As Arron and Gurran lead their army toward the upper section of the tower, Chirico and Shako enter the caverns. Chirico fires a random shot into the darkness - and instantly teleports them to Gomor! They strike immediately at the Zwerg army and a firefight begins, which carries inside the tower itself. Again, the air crackles with energy and lashes out at the battling ATs...

"Again! It was happening just as I'd predicted. Where would it transport us to this time? And what had we set into motion?"

Killy watches from his ship as the Gilgamesh fleet approaches Quent, where Rochina's Balarant fleet awaits them. Arron and Gurran report from the surface that they are safe, but their entire AT army was destroyed. Killy is content to wait and watch history repeat itself now that the power of Quent is reawakening.

Admiral Lepard speaks with General Battentain, who warns him about what he is walking into. Someone has been tampering with the secrets of this planet, perhaps even the lost Perfect Soldier.

Arron and Gurran watch as Lepard lands and is greeted by Rochina. The two officers begin their verbal fencing, Lepard demanding that the Prototype be returned. Rochina attempts subterfuge, but when Gotho, Vanilla, and Coconna appear, his lies about losing contact with Chirico and the Prototype are revealed. Recovering, he offers to rendezvous in orbit and bring the Prototype with him. Everyone who watches the proceedings know what a risk this will be...especially with Chirico involved.

Chirico infiltrates Rochina's AT platoon, and the Balarant fleet lifts off into space to play its part in the deadly game. Rochina's landing party docks with Lepard's ship, and he produces Fyana, insisting that the Gilgamesh now leave Quent. Lepard refuses, but as a Scopedog steps forward to seize Fyana, Chirico makes his move, striking out from inside a Balarant Fatty. Rochina escapes with Fyana, and the Battle quickly escalates into an all-out bloodbath!

Chirico takes a moment to free Gotho and the others, then escapes outside into the escalating firefight.

"The battling had turned more intense than I expected. And then somewhere in my body, I felt it. A premonition. Yes, one from the darkness, for only me to know. And that's when the whole horrible thing happened..."

Furious over the turn of events, Lepard is bolstered by the fact that his force outnumbers Rochina's, and when the battle is over, the prize of Quent will go to the Gilgamesh. Rochina relizes Lepard's attempt to recover Fyana was only a ruse, and he pauses to receive visitors; Gotho, Vanilla, and Coconna, who barely made their way through the battle to his ship.

Even Chirico is hard-pressed to emerge alive from this conflict. He makes it back to Rochina's ship with little room to spare. And it is then that Quent makes its move; enormous streams of energy burst our of the Tower of Gomer and blast into space, destroying everything in their path! Both fleets are devastated, and the only survivors are Rochina, Chirico, Fyana, Gotho, Vanilla, and Coconna, who manage to escape in a shuttle and power down to avoid being hit.

They are soon picked up by the only other ship now in Quent orbit - that of the Secret Society. Killy gloats over his victory, with all of his enemies now under his control and the secrets of Quent ripe for the picking. But before he can act, his ship is seized by an invisible force and pulled away from the planet by the same superior intelligence that has manipulated everything leading to this moment.

Chirico finally recognizes its identity.

"Wiseman. The name of Quent's mysterious, ancient intelligence. As we proceeded into the unknown, toward our destinies, I felt as if the fate of everything we knew now rested with us."

"It seemed that Killy, Rochina, and I were three of a kind. The ship we were on, under Wiseman's control traveled on through the darkness of space, its destination still unknown to us."

Killy's ship proceeds through a belt of sinister floating tubes and toward a gigantic artificial planet, which he calls the technology of God. Drawn inside, the ship is set down and a silent command is spoken to Killy; to bring Chirico to Wiseman. Rochina admits to having received the same commands in the past, and Killy orders him imprisoned.

As Killy leaves with Chirico, the time of execution has finally come for the other prisoners. Ever the trickster, Vanilla manages to overcome his would-be executioner and frees the others. Rochina is allowed to escape with them, but is not trusted with a weapon.

On planet Melkia, a report of the disaster at Quent reaches Battentain. One Gilgamesh ship avoided destruction, and sighted the Secret Society ship leaving intact. Battentain postulates that since the Gilgamesh and Balarant both lost ships in the conflict, they now have the basis for an alliance against the mysterious enemy on Quent.

While Killy and Chirico march closer to Wiseman, Rochina fills in his fellow escapees on what brought him this far, and warns them that Chirico is far more than they imagined him to be. The group is sudenly caught between two groups of Killy's guards, and a running battle begins, from which Rochina manages to slip away.

Finally, Killy and Chirico reach the center of the complex, and Chirico is levitate into the core shaft. There, the truth is finally revealed; he is a natural-born PS, a new "Overman," for whom Wiseman has been waiting all this time. Chirico is to be his successor, the master of the entire Astrigius Galaxy. Offered this blessing, Chirico accepts it.

An incredulous Albert Killy is told that his mission is over - and he is killed by Wiseman without a second thought.

"I was Wiseman's successor. His will had determined this forme. I could finally se my destiny unfolding before me. Because I was a child of God."

Chirico Cuvie is reunited with others from the Red Shoulder unit as they pursue their revenge against Yoran Pailsen. Unknown to them, Yoran and his group have created the Perfect Soldier, Ypsilon.