*Chapter 4 edited.


It was just her luck.

She had finally found herself a more valuable treasure than gold, and possibly a challenge. Her heart was beating so fast that she could barely contain herself. She was about to steal from an emperor. An emperor!

The Skaia, the emperor of Maple World's most valuable possession was soon to be hers. Well, more like "soon", if she could actually find a place to start. She had yet to know the exact location of the emperor's castle, or whatever the heck he lived in. Never mind the possibility of a challenge, this already WAS a challenge!

"Ma'am, we've obtained the coordinates! Please take a look!" said Collete.

Aria rushed to the room and looked at the squared spot on the electronic display of all of Maple World.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Send those coordinates to Renault and let's be on our way!" she exclaimed. "Renault! Did you get all that?!" she yelled, from across the ship.

"Already on the way, ma'am!" yelled the ship's pilot.

Aria's heartbeat then increased rapidly. Finally, a location. Victory was coming so close, she could practically taste it on the tip of her tongue.

(A few minutes later)

"Are you sure these are the right coordinates?" Aria asked, "We're right above the ocean, and I don't see anything related to an emperor here."

"Yes, we're absolutely sure. This is exactly where Ereve is supposed to be…" said Christianne.

"Why don't we ascend a little bit, Renault? Maybe we can get a better view."

Renault did as he was told, and ascended the ship to the point where all of the crew could see almost all of the ocean, yet they saw no island.

Aria let out a heavy sigh. This was going to be harder than she thought. Just then, Gaston stood next to her, while sipping on his tea and looking in different directions.

"Madam Aria, if I may…"

"Not now Gaston, I'm busy. I'd appreciate it if you didn't interrupt me again so I can concentrate."

Gaston ignored her last comment and continued. "You might want to go on the deck and look up. I believe that's what you may be looking for."

Aria gave another heavy sigh. She was too tired from all of the disappointments lately. She was willing to take anything at this point.

Aria made her way to the deck and looked above.

"Gaston, I swear, if this is another one of your tricks, I'll-wait a minute…" Right directly above her head was a series of floating rocks all surrounding a large looking one in a circle. "You can't be serious…to think that somebody would steal my idea of having a stronghold in the air."

"Madam Aria, actually…"

"Not now Gaston, let me have my moment. Alright, crew! New plan! I have located the area of my next heist!" Aria pointed her finger skyward. "Renault! Further up we go!"

"Aye!" the pilot saluted.

While the rest of the crew celebrated the Master Thief's discovery of her target, the butler behind her sighed and took another sip of tea.

"But it was I who located it…"


The trip to Edelstein was awfully short. So short that Phantom didn't even have time to be nervous, much less worried about himself and the knights back at Ereve. Despite this, he could understand that it was imperative that they made it to Edelstein as soon as possible. Their support to Edelstein had been disappointingly limited, to the point where members of the Resistance were already getting upset. He couldn't let this happen again. When Edelstein came into view, Phantom could already see several soldiers several miles off the town fighting off an army of weird creatures with long ears wearing black suits, and skeletons using a variety of weapons. They were quickly advancing towards the town.

As soon as the ferries landed near what looked like the base, they were met with a woman wearing a mask wielding a whip and dagger in each hand.

"…I'm glad you all could make it. I hate to admit this, but the army was stronger than we thought. We need your help more than ever." She said.

"I apologize for making you feel that way," Phantom replied. "I understand that the contributions from us have been rather lackluster, but as the emperor, I promise you that it will not happen again. Also, that's why I brought a plethora of soldiers with me. By the time this battle is over, I plan on stationing some of them here. That is, if it is okay with you."

"Well, it's not like we have a choice. Our numbers are low, so this will surely help our cause. Enough talk, as you can see, our forces are dwindling as we speak, we must make haste and join the fray." With that, Claudine turned and hastily ran into the battlefield.

Phantom turned to face his knights.

"Knights, quickly! We must make haste and give our all to this alliance! We cannot let them down like how we had before! If we fail our comrades, then we fail ourselves not just as knights, but as people! Now then, into the fray!" He shouted. With that, the knights, led by Mihile and Eckhart, rushed into the battle yelling and fighting off the army of strange creatures. Phantom was about to rush in as well until he found his shoulder gripped by his tactician.

"Wait a moment, Emperor Phantom. If you just run into the battle like this on your own without any knowledge of the enemy you'll be killed immediately. It's best that you stay back with me and wait as I devise a strategy based on the observations of the battle." He said.

"But Neinheart, they're my knights! I can't just stand back idly while all of my knights out there risking their lives alone, much less without a strategy of attack!"

"You need not worry about that, Emperor. I already devised a strategy for Mihile and Eckhart while we were on the way here. They know what they're doing. Besides, not all of your knights are out there fighting. If you look behind you, you'll see that I've assembled a small army to be led specifically by you."

Phantom proceeded to look behind him and found out that Neinheart was right. Behind him was a group of about fifty soldiers, both kinku and human.

"Wow, I'm surprised you were able to come up with this so quickly." Phantom chuckled, "We were just informed of this attack roughly half an hour ago!"

"Such is an elementary task even for an average tactician. Who would I be if I wasn't able to pull something off like this? For now, just sit back. I promise that I'll have an even stronger plan of attack in a short while."

As Neinheart observed the battle, Phantom paced around the camp. He grew even more anxious when he saw stretchers carrying several wounded soldiers pass by, some of which were from the resistance and gave him dirty looks as if they were disgusted that he was not fighting unlike their own leaders. As they were laid down for treatment, Neinheart walked by to ask some questions. Surprisingly, all of them gave information, although many later commented that he wouldn't be able to draw anything from such. As more and more soldiers were being carried in, Phantom's anxiety had reached its peak.

"Neinheart, how much longer must we-"

"I'm finished."

"Eh?"

"Emperor Phantom, please listen carefully. Based on my observations, the enemies individually are not strong, however, they make up for that with their large numbers. Also, the battle will be fairer and most likely to our advantage if the soldiers with ranged weapons go against the skeletons because they also have ranged weapons and the melee soldiers focus on the bunnies. When you go into battle, I suggest you pair up with someone else so he or she can protect your blind spots while they protect yours. I also urge you to relay this message to Mihile and Eckhart as quickly as possible, for they along with the others seem to be worn out. And also take this pouch with you. It contains all kinds of elixirs that will definitely be needed on the battlefield."

Phantom breathed a sigh of relief. If not for Neinheart, Phantom could have died, much less failed as an emperor.

"Thank you Neinheart. Now then knights! Let us help our allies! Charge!" Together, Phantom and his army drew out their swords and rushed into the battle. Immediately, bands of skeletons and rabbits charged at them. Phantom smoothly dodged all of their sloppy attacks while using his Heaven's Gate to slice his opponents. Bones dropped to the ground, and suddenly the rabbits shrunk in size while running away on all fours.

There was no time to celebrate, however, as more and more kept coming. As Phantom kept fighting, he found himself quickly becoming exhausted and already suffered minor wounds on his body.

"Darn it! I should have brought Shinsoo with me… she would have been able to keep everything at bay..."

But this was no time for complaining, as more and more soldiers arrived and quickly caused Phantom to be separated from his soldiers. With so many enemies around him, Phantom was forced to be on the defensive.

"Argh! Just my luck…" he muttered.


It was just her luck…again. Right when she had arrived at the floating island, Aria had found out that someone else had arrived before her. To make matters worse, whoever had arrived first supposedly wanted to wreak havoc on all of Ereve. Thanks to that, the island was overrun by knights and weird looking monsters holding swords, scythes and cubes. On the bright side, however, since the knights were preoccupied with holding the enemy forces back, it was easier for Aria to stay incognito.

"Now then my soon-to-be treasure, where might you be?"

Looking around, Aria figured it best to look in a large building, which she easily located in the center of the island. The fact that it was also heavily guarded further reinforced her prediction. The emperor was most likely inside, probably protected by his elite guards. Luckily the soldiers outside were distracted enough to not see her drill a hole in the glass window on the balcony using her cane and sneak in.

When she made her way in, however, she was surprised to find it empty and void of any life. Truthfully, she didn't really know where she was at the moment. Looking around, all she could see were shelves full of books, a fancy couch, several flower pots, and a large desk on one end of the room. If anything, it looked like she was in the library, but she couldn't be too sure. Perhaps the emperor was smart enough to not be in a place that many would expect. She made her way to the desk for clues to confirm if she was in the right room. Nothing much was on the desk except a bottle of ink, a light, a quill, and what looked like a smeared letter. She could really care less about the contents, so she moved her eyes to the bottom and at last confirmed her suspicion. At the bottom of the letter was a signature that neatly spelled "Phantom".

"Bingo. Sorry your highness, but your treasure will be mine any minute from now…that is if I can find you…or it."

This was strange. If the emperor wasn't in his quarters, then where would he be? Would he be in an attic? A basement? Or would he have already escaped to an area far away from here? No, the latter was unlikely. Assuming that he actually cared for his soldiers, he wouldn't turn tail and run away. But then, given certain circumstances…

Aria ruffled the sides of her head.

"Ugh, there are too many variables and not enough time for me to solve this equation…looks like I have to do it the old fashioned way." Aria sighed. She should have come here more prepared, otherwise she wouldn't have to resort to such a tiresome method: looking for and examining very nook and cranny.

Just when she was about to start her search, she heard the shattering of several windows. Looking in the direction of the source, she found several knight on the floor groaning in pain, and several floating black creatures with weird color markings holding different weapons float in her direction.

"Ugh, just my luck…"


Phantom's energy was going down at a fast rate. Trying to block blows from about twenty enemies was no easy feat, especially when he had to get in certain positions to block the blows properly. In a matter of seconds, the number doubled, and with all the blows coming to his sword, it shattered.

"Blast!" He didn't have time to draw his other sword, because in an instant, a skeleton soldier was already headed his way, spear pointed toward his heart. Phantom closed his eyes, bracing himself for the impact and the pain that went along with it.

It never came. Suddenly, the cackling of the skeleton ceased, and around him, all of the enemies were either turned into a lifeless pile of bones, or empty black suits and hats. A growl suddenly sounded behind him.

"Waaaaahhhhh!" he yelled, as he turned around fell on his bottom. He suddenly found himself face to face with a fierce-looking panther.

"Oh come on, don't be such a big baby, he's just my companion! Seriously, you guys from Ereve are scared so easily. Anyway, are you alright?" On top of the panther sat an orange-haired woman holding a crossbow, offering her hand. Phantom gratefully took it and stood up.

"Thank you. Sorry about that, I thought he was going to eat me."

"Oh trust me, if he wanted to eat you, he would have done so already. Anyway, now's not the time to continue chatting. Hurry up and get yourself ready for the next oncoming waves." She said.

"Ah, yes." Phantom drew out his Blue Screamer and once again positioned himself for battle.

The woman smirked as he did so. "Something tells me you've learned how to fight through the books."

Phantom blinked. This woman sure was observant. Did all archers have such sharp eyes?

"That is correct. How did you know?" he asked.

"You moving into posture and your fancy moves give you away. A word of advice, when in battle, forget about performing techniques correctly and getting in proper positions. Those will only get you killed faster since they are waste of energy and time. Just use direct attacks and blocks to conserve energy. You'll be more efficient in battle if you do that."

"I see. Thank you miss…"

"None of the titles please. Just call me Belle, and this is my panther Black Jack."

"Very well. Thank you, Belle. Thank you, Black Jack." Phantom then pulled out several elixirs and handed them to her. "Before I forget, please take these for yourself and the others. You need them more than I do."

Belle nodded placed them in her bag. Before she could ride away, Phantom stopped her.

"Ah, before you go, a word of advice," he said.

"I highly doubt it'll be useful, but I'll give you thirty seconds before I ride away."

Phantom then relayed Neinheart's strategy to Belle as quickly as he could. Belle's eyes then widened for a split second before immediately returning to their normal, calm state.

"Hmm…even I've never thought of that before. It seems like that tactician isn't all talk. He does have at least some brain…no offense."

"Haha, I understand. Sometimes I feel as if none of us give him enough credit, but it's hard to do so based on the way he acts, right?"

"That makes two of us. Anyway, I'll see you later. I'll relay what you said to the rest of the resistance. Before that though, I'll at least open up a path for you so you can relay this to someone else. I take it nobody besides me knows of this strategy?"

"You are correct."

"Well then…how about the blondie? Right now he's the closest to us."

"Mihile? Of course."

"Alright. Get ready, in a moment I'll open a pathway for you to reach him. Once I start shooting, run immediately. I don't know how fast the enemy sends reinforcements, but we can't afford to take chances and take things a little more easily. Our losses are piling up by the minute. Understand?"

"Absolutely." Right when Phantom voiced his understanding, Belle immediately started firing at the bunnies and skeletons.

"Go!" she shouted, and immediately Phantom ran as fast as he could towards Mihile.


To her surprise, the black creatures were surprisingly hard to ward off quietly. When one disappeared, two more came. If this went on, it would capture the attention of the knights on the island. If Aria wanted to remain undetected, she would have to immediately leave the emperor's chambers, but even doing so wouldn't stop the knights from noticing the broken glass windows. If that happened, they would tightly secure the chamber and make Aria's goal that much harder to achieve.

Right now though, she needed to focus on her current objective, which was getting these creatures off her tail.

Because she didn't have Dark Sight, a common camouflage skill among thieves, she had to rely on her own speed to get around the army of black creatures, and make her way out of the chamber without being detected. Thankfully, none of them were as fast, so she easily outran them and was now out of their sight. They now would need to find some other targets.

Right when Aria was going to release a sigh of relief, she heard an explosion and along with it, felt the island shake. Knowing that the source was near, she looked up from behind the rock she hid in and could hardly hide her surprise at the sight.

Up ahead, corpses of knights were scattered everywhere, and only a handful remained standing. Out of all the knights, three stood out. The green-haired archer, the redhead mage, and the knight with the pirate hat. Since they were the ones who stood out the most, Aria guessed that they were some of the leaders of Ereve's army. However they didn't seem to be in good shape either. Each one of them had their fair share of cuts and bruises. Aria then turned to who they were facing. He looked like he didn't belong, to say the least. For one, he had wings and horns, his skin was too gray to be human…or elf for that matter, and overall his body was too big for him to be human. Aria could tell by his appearance that he was most likely the one who caused the attack.

Things were not going to end well. She just knew it.


Irena tried her best to keep her calm demeanor in front of the man…or dragon. As he got closer though, she felt her arm, which had strung her bow, shake uncontrollably. She knew very well that her knights needed her morale and leadership to keep them fighting, but with all of the wounds that she, Hawkeye, and Oz have suffered and all the soldiers that they lost, such a thing was almost impossible, which was furthered by the menacing man that stood before them.

Exhaustion was present in Oz's face as she spoke. "Who are you…? And why are you here?"

The man chuckled. "Quite brave you are, to be asking such a question before your doom. But very well, I'll answer your question; I am Magnus, ruler of Pantheon, the land of dragons, and one of the commanders of the Black Mage, my master. I am here simply because he wishes me to be here and to eradicate those whom he deems dangerous. Whatever he wishes me to do, I do. Honestly, I didn't expect you all to hold off my army of specters for so long, but that doesn't matter now. My master has just ordered me to make this quick."

There was something about this man…or dragon. The way he talked, looked, and carried himself. It was paralyzing…suffocating…as hard as they tried, none of the chief knights could do anything but stare in fear.

The man guffawed as he raised up his gigantic sword. "Sleep."

The eyes of all the chief knights widened, as if awaiting their death.

Without thinking, Aria sprang into action, rushing forward to intercept the attack. In less than in an instant, Aria was in front of Magnus, and pointed her cane at Magnus, making a flurry of cards wound his head. Magnus flew back in surprise while wiping off blood from his face. For a while, he was silent, examining Aria.

He sneered.

"How precious. Blonde hair and a raven hat. Aria, The Master Thief, has come to the rescue of the Cygnus Knights! Did you have a change of heart and finally decide to care for the world? No, of course not. You care too little about it to do something like that. Let me guess, you are having trouble finding what you want and hope to earn the favor of the knights so they might be able to help you!"

"What makes you think you know me so well?" she harshly asked.

"Please, I wouldn't dare proclaim myself as an individual who knows you inside and out. So if that's not the case, then what are you here for?"

"That's none of your business. And did you say you're from Pantheon, the land of dragons? I've never heard of it before. Do you have anything to prove that?" Aria did her best to intimidate Magnus, but seeing as how he didn't even react, it wasn't working. If anything, he guffawed louder.

"What makes you think I should answer to you? If that's all you have to say, then why don't you run away like the petty thief you are? I had just received a message from my master to relay to the knights, and you play no part in it."

Aria felt the three knights tense up, as if expecting an attack.

"Relax, it's not an attack of any sort. He only wants to strike a deal. To put it simply, he wants all of Ereve to pledge their allegiance to him, and in return he'll ensure your safety."

"The Emperor will never give Ereve to you!" Irena shouted.

"Such a rash answer. One does not simply refuse an offer from my master. Sadly I can't stay here and play for too long, but allow me to make this offer more convincing before I leave."

In an instant, Magnus held his sword at the ready and dashed toward Oz. Hawkeye, once realizing Magnus's target, dashed to the rescue.

"You idiot, get out of the way!" he shouted. As soon as he forcefully pushed Oz out of the way, Magnus performed a diagonal slash at Hawkeye, causing blood to rush out of the gash in his upper body and fall unconscious.

For a moment, all of Ereve froze.


Thanks to Belle, it didn't take long for Phantom to reach Mihile and relay the message and for one of Mihile's Dawn Warriors to relay the message to Eckhart, and so on. Now that everyone had been informed of the new strategy by Ereve's tactician, the battle had finally shifted in their favor, and after what seemed like hours of fighting, the enemies finally started to withdraw. Cheers erupted from both the Phantom Knights and Resistance Soldiers alike, however their joy was short-lived as three floating figures emerged from the withdrawing crowd. Two were together and were wearing black cloaks, with one wearing a hat to top it off, and the other figure was a lady with long red hair, and beautiful golden eyes while wearing clothes almost similar to the Ariantian royalty. Although they there were only three people, their appearances gave off the aura of menace…and incredible power. It was as if the Resistance was but dust to them based on the way they carried themselves.

"My my," the red-haired woman said, "The Resistance held out longer than expected. To think that the Phantom knights would make such a difference…it seems that maybe I might just enjoy this." She chuckled lightly.

"Who are you?!" Claudine asked, exhaustion present on her face. Her clothes suffered several tears, and her mask had completely fallen off.

"How impolite. Isn't it proper to introduce yourself first? Even in battle, it'd be nice if you could spare some manners or two, like me. Had your question angered me, who knows what would've happened to your dear friend." With a snap of her fingers, a body appeared.

"Brighton!" Belle and Claudine yelled, with Belle rushing over and carrying the injured mage back to the group.

"You…!" Claudine yelled.

"Relax, he'll live. But then again, that's what he gets for messing with me, Hilla, the Shamaness of Azwan."

"Azwan?!" Phantom thought.

"The mythical city in Nihal Desert?" Phantom blurted out, "It exists?!"

Hilla flipped her hair and sighed. "Of course it exists. I'm tired of hearing people say that it doesn't. Read the books. They have more than enough proof."

Phantom was bewildered. He had lived in the desert for a number of years, hearing stories of Azwan only being myths. For someone to nonchalantly claim that Azwan was real…

"That's enough Hilla, we didn't come here to make small talk with these pests." Said the one wearing the black hat.

Phantom froze. He recognized that voice.

"Orchid?!" Phantom looked at the face of the one next to her to confirm his fears. "And Lotus?! What are you two doing here?!"

"Simple." Lotus replied. "We are doing this under orders of our master. He has ordered the obliteration of all who oppose him."

"But why? What does he want?"

Orchid scoffed. "What else? You pathetic humans and your petty desires are the reason for the chaos in this world! That's why our master has decided to rule you all and create a world where all people are subjects to his will so there will be no more chaos."

"Then your master…he couldn't be…"

"Who else other than the Black Mage? He is the only one capable of all this. Anyway, we've wasted too much time. Let's hurry up and end this."

Slowly, the three floated forward toward Phantom and Claudine.

Mihile and Eckhart then stood in front of Phantom. "Emperor Phantom, please stand back. Let us take care of this."

"What?! Absolutely not! Are you too out of your minds?!" Although they looked in far better shape than himself, Phantom doubted even the two of them would be enough to take on these commanders.

Suddenly, the commanders froze as if they were listening to somebody. And then they moved once more.

"Well it seems like today is your lucky day," Hilla said, "Our master has ordered us to fall back for now. It seems like what we had set out to do has already been done by one of our fellow commanders."

"What do you mean by that?" Phantom asked.

"Patience is key, dear emperor. Now if you'll excuse us, we have more...important things to do." And slowly, the three commanders started to float up to the sky.

Before he could let them go, Phantom needed an answer from two of the commanders.

"Wait! Orchid! Lotus!" The two commanders stopped in their tracks and looked down on the emperor.

"What do you want?" they asked.

"Why?!" Phantom asked, "Why are you two doing this?! You used to be such pure and kind spirits! Why are you serving someone like the Black Mage?!"

Orchid scoffed. "What do you think? Do you honestly think we enjoy living amongst weak and untrustworthy beings like you humans? Everywhere we go, we see you humans plagued by your desires. It's pathetic! Even our master acknowledges that humans are pitiful beings." With that, the twin spirits floated away once more, leaving Phantom with so many questions.

...

Although they had technically won the battle, the mood amongst the soldiers was nowhere near positive, especially when Brighton, the leader of the Resistance's Battle Mages, was severely wounded. The emperor was currently resting, so it fell on the tactician to perform his duty. Neinheart then walked over to Claudine and handed her three power elixir bottles.

"Here," he softly said, "For you, Brighton, and Belle. You all need it more than us."

Claudine nodded and silently took the bottles. Neinheart then proceeded to pass out more bottles to the other wounded soldiers and knights.

"Wait."

He turned around and saw Claudine stand before him looking down, albeit more nervous than before.

"Yes?"

"I know that the Resistance and I have been quite rude and hostile to you all, but I just want you all to know that if it hadn't been for you…we would have lost this battle, and Edelstein would've been gone. Despite our rocky relationship, you all fought valiantly and risked your lives to protect us. So…thank you."

The tactician showed no emotion and simply adjusted his monocle. He expected some speech along the lines of "Don't think we're equal…" A mellow speech like this caught him quite off guard, but oh well. As much as he loathed to admit it, he was thankful the knights were being recognized.

"Don't worry about it. I suggest you save your thanks until after we have made up for our past disappointments in full."

Claudine chuckled lightly. Despite her hostility towards the Phantom Knights, especially their tactician, she was beginning to understand why he was so respected among his peers.

"Of course. Just to let you know, the only time we'll call it even is when you help us retake our home from the Black Wings."

"Ah yes. It seems like we have our work cut out for us. Ah, but if you'll excuse me, I'll need to distribute these elixirs to the rest of the wounded." Neinheart said.

"I understand. I'll be taking my leave now."

With that, the tactician proceeded to handing out the elixirs to Mihile, Eckhart, and the rest of the injured knights and soldiers. After he was done, he spotted the emperor outside, facing the night sky while holding the glowing purple jewel he had kept beside himself for so long.

"I wonder how everyone on Ereve is holding up…"