Daichi: Summoning level four, huh? Yes! THEY WILL ALL BURN!

Verity: And I thought I could be sadistic. At least her files are here... Edea, a little help here?

Edea: I'm not even here willingly. Why did you bring us here?

Tsukaimon: Dai's idea, and she's kinda... emulating Ominas Crowe right now... so we can't ask her.

Edea: The girl spazzing over Promethean Fire doesn't own anything.

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The first thing Tiz felt was warmth. Warmth, and the sensation of softness. But how? The last thing he remembered was being with Til and the sheep just outside of Norende... He bolted up with the realization. Til was dead.

Not just him, either. Everyone he ever knew, gone. Unless someone was out of town at the time, but the odds of that...

Norende had been a small village. He knew everyone there by name. There was no one else.

"Oh, you're awake." He hadn't noticed the man, or felt like it was worth noticing. The innkeeper, most likely.

"How long have I been out?"

"A week. I hate to tell you this, but you're the only survivor from Norende. The other lad brought in with you wasn't from there, he believes. Hard to prove, with his amnesia and all... but his hair color isn't exactly usual for a place like that."

Someone else? He didn't remember any visitors. Then again, he could have just been arriving. But the village hadn't had all that much contact with the outside world. They would trade their goods, of course, and answered to the Caldislan King, but living where they did made travel conditions less than ideal. He'd never left town without a knife, and never went farther than the sight of town.

"Where is this place?"

"You're at the inn, in Caldisla."

Tiz nodded, taking in the information.

"I need to go back. See the damage for myself."

"You've only just woken up. You need your rest."

Tiz consented to sleep for just a bit, in order to regain his strength. He'd return to Norende come the next day.

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The next morning, Tiz went to the weapon shop, buying a dagger in case he came across monsters. He could probably take a goblin with his bare hands, but didn't want to risk it.

Sticking the dagger in his belt, he left. The ravine was through thick forests and he ended up having to slice through brambles that got in his way. A slime surged up in his path, and he effortlessly disposed of it.

Eventually, he reached the ravine. It was a rather straightforward path, only a few branches served to converge together again or reach a dead end. If one were to get lost, they would have to have an extremely poor sense of direction.

Eventually, nearing the location that Norende used to be, he saw the edge of a wide chasm. The bottom of it was full of spikes, covered in blood, wool, and the remains of buildings, what looked like machine parts, and people.

He almost broke down right there. Almost. But he couldn't. He decided right then.

He would rebuild his village, by himself if he had to. He figured that the best way to start that would be to see how far the chasm spread.

Walking along the edge, he saw a girl, about his age. She was speaking to a creature right next to her about something.

"Uh... Hello!?"

The girl turned around, stepping back, and nearly falling off of the edge. Thinking quickly, he ran forward and grabbed her wrist just before she could take the plunge.

"Th-thanks."

"No problem. It was sort of my fault anyway."

"Not really. Just, hearing a voice, out here, it... shocked me."

"Sorry about that. I'm Tiz, by the way. Tiz Arrior."

"Agnes Oblige, Vestal of Wind."
"Vestal?"

"She gives her life to serve the crystals," the being next to her explained, "Anyway, I'm Airy. I'm a cryst-fairy, here to assist the vestal."

Agnes looked apprehensive at Airy giving away all that information, but didn't say anything. Tiz decided that this girl on her own needed protection. This is what set him on his life's path. This is what caused him to form the bonds that would last a lifetime.

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The Sky Knights were a force to be reckoned with, given their power, and access to four Asterisks. They were also quite the large force, as, while Barras Lehr was quite powerful, there was nothing quite like an armed battalion for stirring up trouble. Naturally, despite things including safety in numbers, there was the issue of food and lodging for an army.

Basically, their premise was that commanding officers got a roof over their heads, and the grunts did not. Thankfully, while Edea was not a commanding officer, she was the Grand Marshall's daughter, and thus treated with respect.

She sat at a window at Lontano Villa, wondering just how all of her friends were doing. The Venus sisters were likely still listening to DeRosa, of course, and Alternis had likely arrived back in Eternia by now, as the duchy's airships could be extremely fast if pushed.

He'd left rather quickly, only stopping long enough to tell Heinkel what to expect from Caldisla, not even bothering with sending a greeting her way. She didn't mind. Such things were to be expected from him, as she'd long noticed.

Given that his spying efforts involved being without his helmet, she was disappointed that he was wearing it the brief time that he was there. She wondered if she'd be able to recognize him otherwise. It had been so long since she'd seen him without it, she could no longer remember what he looked like.

It was a sad day when you realized you didn't even remember the face of one of your closest friends.

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Ringabel shuffled through the pages of his book, reading the notes. It had a lot of information, but not about the past he had lost.

No, this book had a story of the future, a story of a boy and two girls, written in the style of a journal. After the... rather bizarre last few written pages, he had started his own journal, with his own drawings in it. It just felt right, somehow. But while he wrote in the book, he also read it, looking for clues to his forgotten past in the glimpses shown of the future. A futile effort, but one that made him feel better.

One of the girls in the story, Edea Lee, was... special to him, somehow. The pictures showed her as beautiful, and something made him want to see her, just once.

And he would, soon enough. For now, content enough, but unknowing where his choices may lead him. Little did he know just how essential he would be to the quest.

How essential he'd be to the survival of all worlds.

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Daichi: Even if they don't do anything special, I'm going to have the five main characters appear at least once every chapter.

Verity: When did you stop...?

Daichi: When I beat Chaugmar. Now, for this... first, how did no one notice this thing? Second, why must there be so much with a thunder weakness? Oh, well, more experience, given that level grinding before Qada is definitely a good idea... Oh, Edea, you can leave now.

Edea: Finally.