Ain Soph Aur

Description
The third and final Mission Mode, unlocked by opening up the full roster of enemies in Matrix Orders.

A continuous run through 26 sub-areas called zones, using 3 lives and the Phase Level setup of Unlimited difficulty. Each zone contains either a random assortment of enemies or a fixed boss fight.

Unlike the main game, sub-areas are named exclusively using letters, and if the time runs out the game ends.

Regular zones begin with three random groups of standard enemies (which may be identical) from the main game, plus one new enemy type only found in Ain Soph Aur with the same appearance as the machine the Sapphire Master rides. As these enemies include those which follow named enemies in the main game (during a period of invincibility), it is possible to suffer an unavoidable death from certain enemies' entrances that was not possible in the main game.

At the end of each regular zone is a random named enemy which can be any from the main game (or Demonic Challenge) excepting Elixirel forms and those found 4C and all D areas. Named enemies can appear multiple times in a single Ain Soph Aur run, even in succession, and provide the same defeat bonuses, bomb and life pickups as in the main game. As they are the only potential source of life pickups, there is no guarantee that the number of lives can be raised above 3 each run.

Fixed bosses begin with the first five Matrix Masters scattered through the run. Toward the end, a gauntlet of the main game's chapter bosses is followed up by the remaining Matrix Master, and then a boss exclusive to Ain Soph Aur. Reaching the latter earns the Play Order Procyon, which in turn unlocks BGM 13 used in this fight.

All backgrounds seen in Ain Soph Aur are unique to the mode. The BGMs used for regular areas are grouped between each boss zone and are used in reverse order from Chapter 4 to Chapter 1 from the main game.

Zones
The final three zones are fought as one continuous multi-form boss and do not show a sub-area score screen between them.