Dirge of Symphonia

Written by Rena Chan
5659 words

Chapter 1 - The Last High Summoner

"This child will face a lot of trials and hardships. He will make mistakes, he will stumble and fall, but he will not give up. He is strong of heart and will learn many things. And through all that, he will, one day, save and protect this world."

Tch. Even though I said that, the future is not set in stone. So what is the point of having the power to see the future? The world has already gone through two life-threatening crisis, but it was not him that saved it. He did have a hand in it...but it really doesn't count. And now... He is just wandering aimlessly...

But... What is this terrible feeling I'm having? Why is it I feel that something, even greater than anything I've ever seen, is going to happen? Something that not even the Eternal Swordsman can defeat?

I'm feeling an imbalance of power... He couldn't possibly have awakened...could he?

OoOoOoO

We are the last of the Angels of Cruxis, spending what most likely would be eternity on Derris-Kharlan, floating around in space, orbiting around Symphonia, out of reach of normal communication and the power of the Eternal Sword. "If a half-elf of Cruxis remains here, then the discrimination against half-elves will never disappear." is what he said. I'm here on Derris-Kharlan not because I agree with him, but rather, because he is my best friend. The only real friend I have left. The only person alive that I care about. Besides, there is nothing left for me to do on the surface. The two worlds have been reunited and a new World Tree has been born.

And the name of the new World Tree? Yggdrasill. The name given by the Eternal Swordsman, the one who awakened the Great Seed, Lloyd Irving. Why did he name the tree as such? Kratos says it's in memory of Mithos and Martel Yggdrasill. Afterall, they were half-elves, people that were caught in-between all this mess. They had tried to end not only the Kharlan War, but also discrimination. When Martel had died, Mithos lost himself, and tried to rid the world of discrimination in the wrong way, something that I knew Martel will never agree to. And everything kind of went downhill from there, until about two months ago, when the two worlds were reunited and a new World Tree was born.

But I have to agree. This name is quite fitting. Afterall, this new tree is the symbol that represents all life, every single life that exists on Symphonia. It is also a reminder that half-elves are people too.

Hopefully, once the World Tree is fully grown and the world is filled with mana once again, a war won't start again. Mistakes of the past must never be repeated. Not only that, I truly hope that discrimination against half-elves will also end. It might take a while, but I know that it's possible. Afterall, by best friend is a human, and I'm a half-elf. Too bad when it does happen, I won't be there to see it.

Yuan sighed. He was doing nothing but starting at the huge computer monitor in-front of him. It was doing a mana reading of the World Tree that was back on the world of Symphonia. The computer was just starting to do its work, but Yuan wasn't expecting the readings to be any different from any of the previous readings he had taken. They were always normal every single time. Yuan muttered some stuff to himself and decided to lie back on the chair he was sitting on, stretching his arms.

That was until he heard an explosion, and something shattering.

"Dammit! Why is that stupid spell so hard to cast?"

"Because you and the ice element don't mix."

"Very funny, Aska."

"It's been proven to be true many times over."

"Even if you say so, it's a spirit magic, I'm supposed to be able to cast it!"

"Even then, if an element and a high summoner don't mix, it's not easy to cast the spirit magic of that element."

"But it's not impossible."

"Yes, it's not impossible, just very hard to do."

"Having fun blowing things up with your failure to cast a certain magic spell?"

Both Kratos and Aska turned to look at the person that had entered their conversation. Yuan had dragged himself from wherever he was previously and was now leaning at the doorway with his arms crossed looking at the both of them. Kratos turned to take a look around the room, then turned back to face the half-elf.

"I think something might have gotten frozen somewhere..."

Yuan raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" Then he noticed a frozen piece of machinery. Then he frowned. "You know, Kratos Aurion, I simply cannot understand why you can't do this somewhere else instead. There are stuff around there that I want to fix up and reactivate, and I really can't have you destroying them."

"Well, fine," Kratos muttered in reply. "I'll go down to Welgaia. Happy?" With that, Kratos strode past Yuan and walked out of the room.

Aska, who was in his smaller than usual form, followed behind the retreating Kratos. But, before the summon spirit flew past him, Aska paused and looked at the half-elf.

"I'm sure you know very well why Kratos doesn't want to go down to Welgaia." With that, the Summon Spirit of Light went on his way.

Yuan had no reply to that. "I know...but..." Yuan muttered to himself. Then he slid down the doorway and sat on the floor, crossed his arms and put his forehead on them. "I wish I can do something about it... But... With the current knowledge I have...it's impossible..."

OoOoOoO

Someone slowly approached the site of an old ruins. He was dressed from head to toe in dark gray clothing and had long silver hair tied up in a loose, low ponytail. He also wore a gold-colored armlet on each of his wrists, silver leg guards on both of his legs, a silver-colored neck guard and a brown belt on his waist.

However, what he found there wasn't something he wanted to see. The glyph that laid on the ground of the ruins was no longer glowing. In fact, it looked like it had been shattered.

"Oh great. This is bad. Very bad."

"So you felt it too?"

He turned around, and found himself face to face with someone familiar. He had four arms and wore purple-colored knee high boots. He had blond hair and wore a cloak that resembled really long hair, and had several pointed things that resembled spear-heads floating around him.

"Origin..."

"Haven't seen you for a long time, Sekundes."

"Yes," Sekundes replied, turning away. "Not since you asked me to imbue the Eternal Sword with the power of time and space."

"That turned out to be quite a disaster..." Origin muttered solemnly, more to himself than anyone else.

"Ho, I see the both of you are here too."

Both Origin and Sekundes turned to face yet another newcomer. He wore a purple-colored robe and hat, and sat on a circular floating platform with several triangular and arched appendages around it. His form is that which gives the look of an old wise sage.

"Maxwell..."

"Ho, this certainly doesn't bode well, does it?" Maxwell replied, after surveying the ruins that was in-front of the three summon spirits.

"That's not all," another voice said as it slowly came out of the bushes. The thing that came out of the bushes was a large fox with nine tails. It was yellow-brown in color, and it has four green and five blue tails. It had blue-colored paws and was wearing a bell on its neck. "It seems that he might be trying to poison the tree's mana."

The other three summon spirits turned to face the nine-tailed fox.

"Are you sure, Verius?" Origin asked.

"Yes," Verius replied. "I had spoken with the new Summon Spirit of the World Tree before coming here. That is what she told me."

"This spells real trouble," Maxwell said as he placed his left hand on his chin, as if thinking. "The new tree is only about two months old. It's not going to be able to get rid of this mana very quickly, which will lead to the death of the tree. And we don't know for how long it can hold up. If we're lucky, between one to two years. If we're not..."

"And this time, there won't be a Great Seed," Sekundes added, realising the problem was more serious than he had originally thought. "The tree is still too young to have a seed."

"And we still have to deal with him," Origin frowned, crossing two of his arms. "We barely managed to seal him with the help of the elves, the original angels and the sacrifice of a high summoner the last time, but I don't think we're going to be able to do it this time..."

"I had a feeling he's bound to free himself from the seal sooner or later," Sekundes shrugged. "Now we need to find a way to deal with it. Too bad we can't do what we did the last time. In the end, it doesn't really solve the problem."

"If only there was a high summoner that can bring out Sekundes's full power, we might still stand a chance of defeating him once and for all," Verius muttered, twitching his ears about uncomfortably. "But the high summoners... They're all..."

Origin turned away from Verius. Sekundes caught onto Origin's thoughts and Maxwell simply sighed.

"Not like there has ever been a high summoner that was strong enough to defeat Sekundes," Origin said, speaking in what sounded like a bitter tone. "If there was, then this problem might have been resolved a long time ago."

"I'm sorry, Origin," Sekundes started as he turned away, with the intent of leaving the place. "I know what you're thinking. But whether you like it or not, he might be our only chance. He might have done some things you're not too happy with in the past, but if it weren't for him, the two worlds would never have been reunited and we wouldn't even be here talking to each other."

"Sekundes is right, Origin," Maxwell added, stroking his beard. "If the world was still split in two, he could have easily destroyed the link that held the two worlds together and whatever mana that supported them both. The world would surely have died then."

"That is irrelevant," Origin replied. "Afterall, his goal is to remake this world, not destroy it."

"While that is true, are you just going to let him do that?" Sekundes turned around and yelled at Origin angrily, despite the fact that the Lord of the Summon Spirits still had his back turned from the rest of them. "Well, I'm not going to allow that to happen. I have a certain attachment to this world and I still believe in the people that reside on it. A world that he's going to create, a world filled with mindless puppets, is not something that I want to watch over."

"Do whatever you want," Origin replied. "But he will have to prove himself should he appear before me." With that, the Summon Spirit of Creation disappeared from sight.

"Ho, it looks like someone will need to change his mind, if he can prove himself that is," Maxwell mused. "Well, I'm going to see what I can do about the tree's mana and see if I can slow the problem down." With that, the Summon Spirit of Birth also took his leave.

"What just happened?" Verius asked, completely lost in what had just transpired. "Who is this person that 'might be our only chance' you are talking about?"

"A high summoner," Sekundes replied as he turned, preparing to leave. "The only high summoner that is still alive."

"Wait! You mean there is still a surviving high summoner? Despite what happened during the Kharlan War?" Verius replied, quite surprised by this revelation. "Who is he?"

"Kratos Aurion."

OoOoOoO

"Kratos..." Aska started as he landed, perching just beside the human which the summon spirit had found sitting on the railing of a balcony that looked over the lower levels of Welgaia.

"Aska..." Kratos started as he stared into the huge empty space in-front of him. "Do you think I made the right choice?"

"It's really hard to say," Aska replied. "You had two choices. In the end, you chose responsibility."

"No, I didn't choose responsibility," Kratos replied softly as he stared at his crossed hands. "I chose to run away. Again."

"Ha!" Aska laughed in sarcasm. "You know that and yet you did it anyway?"

Kratos sighed and said nothing. Just then, Aska hopped onto the human's arm and pointed one of his wings at him.

"All right! What did you do to the real Kratos, you fiend!"

"Aska, what are you...?"

"The Kratos I know would never give up just like that! He would do everything in his power to protect the things that he cares about! And hence, he would do something about it!"

Kratos was completely taken aback by the Summon Spirit's outburst. Then as if realisation dawned on him, Kratos picked the two-headed bird from his arm and glared.

"Okay, fine, forget about the 'do something about it' part," Aska muttered shook himself free from Kratos's grasp. Flapping his wings, he hovered in place. "Seriously, the real reason you chose to do this was because of your body's frozen time, something that cannot be reversed, right? Afterall, no parent should have to see their child die... I can understand that."

"But I feel kind of stupid for doing that now," Kratos muttered as he turned to look at the ceiling. "I should have made the most of the time we have instead..."

"Hmph," Aska huffed. "Don't you think it might be a little too late for regrets?"

"You know what Aska?" Kratos started, turning to look at the summon spirit with an evil-look in his eyes.

"Uh oh, that look means you're planning something which is going to involve me..." Aska shuddered.

"You should become my messenger bird!" Kratos clapped his hands together in excitement.

"Uhh, what?" Aska yelled, indignant. "I'm going to call that summon spirit abuse!"

"Well, you're the one that wanted to stay with me, so you have to obey all my commands!" Kratos exclaimed as he reached out to grab the summon spirit. But before Kratos could accomplish that, Yuan came dashing down the path that lead to the balcony where the summoner was.

"Kratos!"

Kratos turned around to face the half-elf. "What? Come to ask me to go back to Vinheim?"

"Look, Kratos," Yuan began as he stopped in-front of Kratos. "I'm sorry, that stuff weren't important, I don't need them."

Kratos simply gave Yuan a blank look.

"What the heck am I saying?" Yuan yelled, clutching his head with both his hands. "Come with me! You have to see this!"

"See what?"

"Just come!" Yuan exclaimed one last time before heading back the way he came from.

"I think we better follow him," Aska said. "It sounds really important."

"I know..." Kratos muttered in reply. "I have a bad feeling about this..."

OoOoOoO

"Look at this," Yuan said as he pressed several buttons on the large computer, bringing up a chart that was just completed and another older one and placed them side by side.

"Hmm, the readings are different today," Kratos mused has he placed his left hand on his chin, thinking. "It's fluctuating a lot. I don't think it's normal for the mana flow to be this irregular."

"Irregular mana flow..." Aska muttered. He was sitting perched on Kratos's right shoulder. "Something's wrong."

"Something is very wrong," Yuan said, turning to face Kratos. "What are we going to do?"

"What can we do?" Kratos replied, sighing and rubbing his head. "It's not as if we can leave here."

"Can't we at least send a message or something?" Yuan asked. "Maybe a message to Lloyd to investigate this? Afterall, he's the Eternal Swordsman and is responsible for the new World Tree since he is the one who gave it its name."

Kratos flinched slightly at the mention of Lloyd's name. Then he turned to look at the two-headed bird on his shoulder. "Aska, time to make yourself useful as a messenger bird."

"Uh, what?" Aska replied, clearly not amused. "You were serious about me being a messenger bird."

"Aska, this is no time for jokes," Kratos replied, clearly not amused himself by Aska's reply. "We have no means of communication to Symphonia. You're a summon spirit. You can go back and forth Derris-Kharlan and Symphonia as you wish."

"I'm only doing this because the tree and the world might be in danger!" Aska huffed as he lifted himself off Kratos's shoulder. "But I will not be your means of communication for personal reasons!"

"Aska," Kratos sighed. "I was joking just now."

"Oh, are you now?" Aska replied, glaring at Kratos.

"There is no point in you telling the Eternal Swordsman about this. Not even he nor the power of the Eternal Sword is strong enough to defeat the source of the problem."

Kratos, Yuan and Aska all turned around immediately when they heard that. The owner of the voice was sitting on one of the chairs with one of his legs over the other and his arms crossed, seemingly making himself comfortable.

"Who are you?" Both Kratos and Yuan exclaimed at the same time just as they stood ready to draw their weapons.

"My, you're with pretty hostile company, Aska."

"Oh, don't worry about them," Aska replied. "That's how they are. What brings you here, Sekundes?"

"Wait a minute, you know this guy, Aska?" Yuan asked as he fell at ease.

"Aska, did you just call him Sekundes?" Kratos asked as he moved his hand away from the hilt of his sword, looking quite surprised.

"I'm pretty sure I did," Aska responded.

Yuan raised an eyebrow. "You know him too, Kratos?"

"He's..." Kratos started, feeling somewhat uncomfortable in Sekundes's presence. "Sekundes is the Summon Spirit of Time and Space..."

"Oh," Yuan replied nonchalantly. It was only a few seconds later the half-elf completely registered what Kratos had said. "Wait a minute! The Summon Spirit of Time and Space? I have never heard of a summon spirit like that before!"

"Don't be surprised, half-elf," Sekundes replied, shrugging. "Only someone like Kratos, a pure-blood summoner, would know about me."

"And why's that?" Yuan asked, pretty curious about this summon spirit he had never heard of before.

"Because..." Kratos mumbled. "Only a high summoner is allowed to attempt to form a pact with Sekundes."

"Oh? How come?"

"Because Sekundes's power is not something a normal summoner can control. Origin doesn't want a normal summoner to bite off more than the summoner can chew, thus keeps Sekundes's existence a secret," Aska simply replied. Then he turned to face Sekundes again. "What brings you here? You seem to know the reason for the irregular mana reading of the World Tree."

"The seal has been broken, Aska," Sekundes replied as he stood up, looking serious.

"What? Are you serious?" Aska exclaimed.

"Yes," Sekundes replied solemnly. "The four of us, the Greater Summon Spirits, went to check the site of the seal. It's no longer active. He is the one responsible for this."

"This is unthinkable!" Aska cried, seemingly in a panic. "What are we going to do?"

"That is why I'm here," Sekundes answered as he walked towards the trio. "High Summoner Kratos Aurion, we need your power."

"Me?" Kratos said as he turned away. "I don't think I can accomplish such a thing. I may be a high summoner, but I actually think I'm not really all that strong. I couldn't even stop Mithos from doing what he did. You might want to find another way instead."

"Really," Sekundes replied, not very amused by Kratos's answer. "Is that what you think? Like I said just now, not even the Eternal Swordsman nor the power of the Eternal Sword can defeat the source of the problem. You might be our only chance. Are you going to turn away from the world that needs you?"

"Kratos..." Aska muttered. "You're not serious, are you?"

Kratos did not reply. The summoner simply stood where he was, not turning around to face either summon spirit. After about a minute of silence, Yuan, who had just stood there and listened to their conversation, started walking towards where Kratos stood. Then the half-elf threw a punch towards him.

"Yuan, what are you...?" Kratos exclaimed as he sensed the attack from behind. But before he could block it, the punch connected, slamming the side of his face, knocking him to the ground.

"Whoa," Sekundes remarked. "He punched him."

"It's usually the other way round..." Aska added, quite amused at what just happened.

Kratos, without getting up, turned to face Yuan as he placed a hand over the site of impact. But that wasn't what concerned Kratos the most. It was from seeing Yuan shaking in anger, clearly upset about something.

"Yuan..."

"I can't believe what I just heard...!" Yuan snapped at the human, seething in anger. "The Kratos I know will never turn his back from someone in need!" Then the half-elf finally broke down and slowly crumpled to the ground. "He may seem cold and doesn't care about anything, but he really is kind and cares for the people and what's happening around him. The Kratos I know will never give up just like that..."

Kratos sat there in silence, letting Yuan's words sink in. After a few more moments, Kratos finally said something.

"First Lloyd, then Yuan..." Kratos muttered, more to himself than anyone else as he stood up. "I'm really an idiot..."

Yuan said nothing as Kratos turned to face Sekundes. "I'll...do it."

OoOoOoO

"Really, you make a much better healer than an offensive spell caster," Aska commented as he watched Kratos heal the wound on his face.

"I beg to differ..." Kratos muttered as he finished healing himself.

"Oh come on!" Aska exclaimed as he stared down at the summoner. Aska is currently in his true form as opposed to the smaller, about the size of a normal bird one which he was using just now. "You were trained by the Legendary Healer Boltzman himself! He wouldn't have passed on his techniques and knowledge to you if he didn't think you would make an excellent healer!"

"All right, fine," Kratos mumbled. "Whatever you say..."

"Well, I think we're ready to hear what you have to say, Sekundes," Aska chirped as summon spirit and summoner settled down. "It's about time you explained why you think that Kratos may have the power to defeat him."

"Who is this 'him' you're talking about anyway?" Kratos asked. "You two don't seem to be willing to reveal his name nor even tell me who or what he is."

"There is no need for you to know right now," Sekundes replied, shrugging that question off. "He won't be reaching full power just yet. He will need time to fully recover his power. At this point in time, I want you to concentrate on what I want you to do. We will tell you when the time comes."

"Yeah, sure, that certainly is very reassuring," Kratos grumbled. "So, how exactly do you plan on me defeating this...'him'?"

"I need you to form a pact with me," Sekundes simply replied. "If a high summoner can somehow bring out my full power, we may actually stand a chance."

"And Kratos is the only high summoner left," Aska mused. "That's why you came looking for him."

"Basically, yes."

"You want me to do it now?" Kratos asked as he closed his eyes in thought. "That..."

"No, not now," Sekundes replied bluntly, cutting Kratos from his thoughts. "You're not strong enough yet. You must find the other summon spirits and form a pact with them first. This includes Verius, Maxwell and Origin."

"Wait! Even Origin?" Kratos exclaimed as he went on alert. "I don't think I'm ever going to be ready to face Origin... Even though at that time when I released the seal on him, Origin listened to me and seemed to have forgiven me, but I know better. He's not going to do such a thing so easily..."

"I know..." Sekundes muttered as he turned away. "The outcome will depend on your will, conviction and determination."

"You say that so easily, but I'm not so sure of myself..." Kratos sighed.

"But as long as you're willing to try, that's more than enough for me," Sekundes said.

"And that's what counts, isn't it?" Aska added.

With nothing more to say, Kratos, Sekundes and Aska sat there in silence, as if waiting for something to happen. After a few more minutes of silence, Kratos sighed.

"What's taking Yuan so long?" Kratos muttered to himself as he stood up. "I'm going to check on him."

"You'd better go do that," Aska chuckled. "Who knows what strange things that half-elf is doing, or even trying to bring with him."

Kratos grumbled as he scrambled up the stairs and disappeared from sight, leaving the two summon spirits with each other.

"I've been wondering, Aska, what's the deal with the two of them?" Sekundes asked, breaking the silence between the both of them.

"What do you mean?" Aska replied, tilting both his heads in confusion.

"Well, you know..." Sekundes tried to explain. "Yuan basically punched Kratos and yelled at him, then Kratos changes his mind. It's like something transpired between the both of them, something that I don't quite understand..."

"That's called 'friendship', Sekundes," Aska chuckled. "They've been best friends ever since their Kharlan War days."

"Oh?"

"Well, it wasn't like that at first, but things sort of just happened," Aska continued. "They share an unbreakable bond of friendship. They understand each other through ways that others will find strange or not even understand. But you ain't seen nothing yet. The way they fight together, it's something to see."

"So basically it's a kind of friendship you don't see every day," Sekundes mused.

"It's something that you've never seen before, Sekundes," Aska corrected. "Even the friendship between Lloyd and Genis, the Eternal Swordsman's half-elf best friend, pales in comparison to this."

OoOoOoO

"Where the heck is that half-elf?" Kratos grumbled to himself as he searched every single room on all the floors of Vinheim with no luck. After poking into a few more rooms, he finally reached the area which housed Yuan's workshop. There were several smaller rooms between the workshop and his blacksmith forge. Then there was the library, with several smaller rooms separating it from the forge, ending with several more smaller rooms and the path he came from back to the workshop in a circle. The smaller rooms were often used for random things, or when they needed the extra space to do something. This part of Vinheim was officially theirs, since both seraphim had kind of claimed the area when Mithos had split the worlds and they started living on Derris-Kharlan.

Hearing some noise from the direction of the workshop, Kratos immediately figured that was where Yuan was and walked over.

"You're taking awfully long to get ready."

Yuan immediately turned to face Kratos when he heard his voice. "Sorry about that. I couldn't find a bunch of things that I wanted to take with me..." Yuan silently cursed to himself as he continued to turn the place upside-down to find what he was looking for.

"Well, it would help if you kept the place neater," Kratos commented as he looked around. Quite a good number of machines and machine parts were lying all around the floor, shelves and even the table. A lot more laid inside large boxes and chests that were located on the floor and several of the shelves. Even the toolbox laid open with the screwdriver just beside it.

"Excuse me for not being a neat freak like you, Kratos," Yuan retorted without turning to look at his friend.

"Excuse me for being a neat freak," Kratos replied sarcastically as he looked around the room some more. As he gave the area a closer look, his eyes fell upon a couple of items of interest. There were two wing packs sitting beside Yuan's computer.

"Wing packs? You didn't actually stash away some Rheairds here, did you?"

"Actually, I did," Yuan replied as he moved over to the next shelf. "I thought they might come in handy, although most of the Rheairds I have are at the Renegade bases."

Kratos walked over to the table and picked up one of the wing packs. "I guess I'll hold onto one of them."

"Why not, there are two of us and two wing packs," Yuan replied, still fumbling for whatever he's looking for. After searching another box, the half-elf gave a silent cry of triumph as he pulled out what looked like a couple of computer navigators, the very ones they had used during their Kharlan War travels.

"Is that what you were looking for?" Kratos asked as he watched Yuan walk across the room to another table with a few boxes of machine parts on it.

"Well, yeah," Yuan replied as he pulled out several things from the box.

"Isn't the information stored in them...horribly outdated?"

"I've been working on updating them along with a new power source for machines."

"Is that what you've been doing?" Kratos muttered. "Even though..."

"Isn't it the same with what you've been doing?" Yuan replied in a slightly annoyed manner as he fixed something which looked like some sort of energy source into the back of both the navigators. "Even though we're most likely stuck here forever, you still practiced your swordsmanship. Plus you've been practicing magic on top of that."

"I'm just..."

"Killing the time?" Yuan cut-in as he paused on what he was doing. "I don't buy that. Remember? 'Always look on the brighter side of things.' You were the one who taught me that."

Kratos had no reply to that. He just stood there staring into empty space. The only sounds that could be heard for the next minute or so were the sounds of Yuan tinkering with the two navigators as he resumed working on them.

"I'm only saying this because," Yuan started, breaking the silence as he pushed some sort of a micro card into a slot on the navigator. Then he proceeded to do the same with the other one. Picking up both devices, Yuan walked over to where Kratos was. "I'm sure, somewhere deep down, is the Kratos I once knew," Yuan finished as he handed one of the navigators to Kratos. "Let's just do our best, all right?"

Kratos took the device from Yuan's hand. "Perhaps I just need to look harder."

"Of course you need to look harder, dummy," Yuan scolded has he gathered up his computer and the other wing pack. "We better get going."

"Aska and Sekundes are probably getting a bit impatient with us by now," Kratos nodded as he put the navigator away in his bag.

OoOoOoO

"Continue to have the others find and gather up the remaining Exspheres and Cruxis Crystals."

"Yes, Lord Kratos," The two angels saluted and bowed. "And put them into the containment room as usual?"

"Yes," Kratos nodded in reply. "We'll decide what to do with them later."

"Understood."

"Oh, Taylor, Runo, one more thing," Kratos continued. "You know where to find the Key Crests right?"

"Yes, we do," Taylor replied, nodding.

"We'll be sure to use them if any of the others show any signs of breaking out of their lifeless state," Runo added.

"I'll leave it to the both of you then."

"You can count on us, Lord Kratos," Taylor replied as he saluted once more.

"May both you and Lord Yuan have a safe trip," Runo added as she too saluted. Then both the angels took the transporter back to Welgaia.

"You know," Yuan commented as he watched the two angels disappear from sight. "I can't believe that someone actually managed to break out of the lifeless state the Cruxis Crystals caused."

"That goes to show how strong the will of a person can be," Kratos replied.

"Just like you did. Although I still think your willpower was something else."

Kratos merely shrugged off that comment, though he knew very well what Yuan had meant. "Those two have helped me a lot ever since."

"I didn't realise you had such help," Yuan grumbled. "I wouldn't have gotten in your way if I knew what you were really planning that time."

"Yuan," Kratos started as he turned around and glared at the half-elf. He knew very well what Yuan was referring to. "What happened is now in the past. I'm not going to hate you for it either. In fact, I've forgotten all about it."

"That's what I hate about you," Yuan grumbled. "You can never hate anyone, or anything for that matter."

"Is that so bad?" Kratos asked, looking indifferent.

"For me it is," Yuan grumbled. Then he noticed the indifferent look on Kratos's face. "Argh, just forget it!"

Just then, both Aska and Sekundes appeared before them. Noticing the strange atmosphere between the two friends, Sekundes couldn't help but wonder what happened between the both of them.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Aska commented as if reading Sekundes's mind. "That's just how they are."

"Okay..." Sekundes muttered. "Then are the both of you ready to go?"

Both seraphim simply nodded. Aska then disappeared in a flash of light. After that, Sekundes raised his hand and a glyph appeared beneath Kratos and Yuan. In a flash of light, both seraphim disappeared, with the summon spirit following suit.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

This fic is actually a rewrite of my former Tales of Symphonia post-game fic, Angels of Cruxis, under a new name. There will be no change in the general plot of the story. The general changes to the fic compared to the original one are mainly parts of the story being reworked in a different manner, the personality of the characters, and the time the story happens. Not only that, the chapters will also be shorter, and should not exceed 10,000 words, so thus, there will be more chapters and lesser words in a chapter. Some of the chapters in the old fic was simply too long, so I felt this needed to be fixed. I had wanted to rewrite the fic for a long time, and only really got around to it now after thinking about it more, and it had also been partly due to time constraints.

So, with the revelation of this chapter, the previous Tales of Symphonia fan fic I had been working on, Angels of Cruxis, will effectively be discontinued. I know I hadn't updated for a long time. Hope you enjoy this new and improved fan fic of mine.

P.S. I couldn't resist doing a 'punching Kratos in the face' part, he needed it XD