Desclaimer : I own nothing... (runs away crying as they forced me to give this statement)

"Aaah" Hartia screamed as he felt thousands of knives stabbed him. He felt as many poisonous scorpions have stung him. He felt that his body is burning and his blood is boiling. This is what he felt when Azalies' spell stuck him. "Krylancelo", his mind screamed. He knew he had to tell his best friend the truth. "Childman is no more Childman, its Azalie in his body. "The same gentle and loving Azalie, who was a mother figure for Krylancelo and like an elder sister to Hario but now the way she is acting, one could no more find the gentle Azalie". "Run Hartia", his mind screamed. "Live just long enough to tell Krylancelo the truth." His mind ordered him again. He chanted his own spell, and Childman shielded his eyes from the bright light. Hario ran for his life. He ran to the teleporter, knowing the fact that Azalie will be able to get to him in no time as he was sure he is leaving his trail behind in the form of blood, but he didn't care for it as he had much important things in his mind. He now not only had to save Orphen and Azalie, his favorite master, master Childman was also added to the list.

Cleo noticed Hartia as soon as his feet touched the ground. "Shrimpy" she exclaimed. Hartia feet were unable to bear his weight and he could do nothing as ground rushed forward to lick his bloody face. As Cleo saw him falling, she cried again "Shrimpy". Hartia did not have enough mana left in him to reply to her to comfort her. All his numb mind could think was, "Who is this girl? And to whom is she addressing by calling shrimpy, but anyway the way she calls shrimpy sounds oddly familiar". As Cleo rushed forward to help Hartia, her heart did a somersault and she felt nausea over power her as the smell of blood reached her nose. "Oh Hartia", unknowingly she called to him and almost unconscious Hartia smiled a little as he realized that the girl was none other then Cleo, Krylancelos' partner, he has reached where he wanted to reach. And then he smiled again by the thought that Cleo has for the first time called him by his name. His numb mind gave him another way, he thought that he may not be able to live long enough to reach to Krylancelo and tell him the whole story; he opened his fist and the crystal that he was holding fell to the ground. "Maybe just maybe by pitying my current situation, Cleo gives it to Krylancelo". And after that when he felt that his task has been done, he welcomed the darkness that was embracing him.

Cleo realized that Hartia is in the bad shape and he needs help urgently. She screamed for Orphen and Magic as she draped Hartias' arm around her slender shoulder, and braced his weight by circling her own arm around his waist. She tried to carry his limp form to Stephneis' home. (A/N: I think that when Cleo found Hartia, she was in the Stephanie's house backyard.)

"Master! Its Cleo, she is shouting for you and me", Magic informed Orphen upon hearing Cleos' shouts. "Aaah she must have seen some beetle" Orphen snorted carelessly. But when he too heard the urgency in her screams, he ran to the backyard. Cleo was a strong willed girl but she was not strong enough physically to carry the dead weight of a full grown man like Hartia. She was trying to drag the man along to the house and was failing miserably. "Cleo what the hell? You silly brat! If you are screaming for no reason I am going to whack you hard, you know……" Orphen stopped dead on his tracks when he set his eyes on Cleo and ….. he felt that as if his heart has stopped beating, and breathing has gotten difficult for him. Magic also felt that somebody has punched his solar plexus when he turned the corner to the backyard and saw Cleo soaking in red, holding a man with flaming red hair bleeding badly. Who else other than Hartia have red hair? Orphen felt as if somebody has taken hold of his heart and squeezing it. Magic was in enough in his senses; he rushed forward to get hold of Hartia and asked Cleo, "Cleo are you hurt too?" "No, but Hartia is." And with that her knees gave way. Orphen moved like a lightning and grabbed the limp form of Hartia so that Hartia don't get any other injury by hitting the ground hard. Magic stabled Cleo to stop her from falling. The dark sorcerers' eyes were betraying him terribly that night. Orphen was the kind of the person to keep his emotions to himself but his eyes gave too many emotions that night. Pain, hurt, panic and guilt were clearly written all over his face. Which was no surprise to anybody, as they knew that no matter how hard Orphen pretends to detest his childhood friend when the fight; the truth was that he did not have too many people to rely on in the past. Apart from Azalie, he just had Hartia.

He carefully carried Hartia to the house, not even caring about the blood that had started to seep through his own clothing. He was only aware of the fact that he is very near to losing a friend. Hartia is losing too much of the blood. Hartia never had been the one to get any tan but at the moment he was deadly pale and his breathing labored.

Stephanie gave a cry of surprise when she saw an injured Hartia, she was just getting out of the bathroom. "Orphen is that Hartia?" not actually wanting to hear the reply, she asked. Orphan did not bother to reply. He carefully placed Hartia on the bed and peeled of his clothes to examine the damage. Stephanie placed a sharp hand over Orphens' shoulder, "Orphen step aside, your hands are shaking. Get a grip and try to calm yourself down while I patch Hartia up. These cuts are deep and your spells will not be enough."

In the trio, only Magic was the one who was of any help to Stephanie; Cleo was just standing in the doorway with shock written all over her face and Orphen was leaning against the wall to stabilize himself. Orphens' eyes were wandering from wound to wound, scar to scar over Hartias' body.

Orphen gave a sigh, although he had many arguments with Hartia, he had told him not to show him his face but he never wanted his friend to end up like this. He wanted his friend to live and not to show his face to him but he never wanted Hartia to die and hide his face from him like this. He silently removed the tear from his eye, while the attention of everybody else in the room had their attentions on the poor Hartia.

"please Hartia………", he couldn't say anything else as he stumbled near Hartias' head.

and then he started chanting his spell to heal Hartia, with the new determination in his eyes... as he is not going to lose anybody else close to him anymore... and everybody will see that how he is going to do that but he is definitely never going to give up. this was the lesson he has learned from his best friend, as for all these years Hartia had not given up even for once when he stubornly refuses to listen to his side of story...

Thats what Hartia made him understand... "NEVER GIVEUP"

A/N: sorry guys, i suddenly lost interest in this story as you all might have guessed by the abrupt and kinda lame ending. but sorry my brother has been telling me that no body is going to read my story and this hurts me... so drop a word if u have made to this far please...