A/N: First of all, I'd like to apologize to everyone reading and following this fanfiction for the long hiatus before this chapter was posted. I guarantee that the remaining chapters will not have long interludes of nothingness in between!

"Why did you bring me along? Alena…did you ask him to bring me?"

The two of them looked at him, Solo's face wrought with confusion as he looked at Alena, whose face was just as bright as the gems that inhabited her eyes.

"Of course." Yeah, as though it were as obvious as her voice made it sounds as though it were. Sure, he'd dreamed even recently of her requesting for him to be taken on adventures so he wasn't taking up space in the wagon with Torneko or Borya, but fantasies and realities were very different places. This was, in fact, a dream come true.

But why only the three of them? Sure, a smaller party was far easier to heal and worry over, but on the other hand only three party members meant that the two most involved in the love triangle would be in a party with only the third member of the triangle there to attempt to be a buffer.

All in all, while this was a pretty well-balanced party, it was terrible on account of personal relationships. So much for this being a dream come true. Now it was more of one of those dreams where everything was perfect and then just one thing happened and everything was just ruined.

"Some elves told Solo and I that if we want to climb the tree, we can only bring the three of us." There, at least now he had a real explanation. That was at least a start. Now he needed to let it go and focus on the mission at hand. He'd been focusing all too much on his own weaknesses, and that was hardly appropriate. He had his skills. Solo winning Alena's heart at present did not mean they would be together forever.

No, but now he was doubting Alena's romantic decisions. That was hardly appropriate either.

Still, it was time to go on the mission. He'd been re-equipped earlier on to ensure his helpfulness in battle, thankfully.

In the tree they went, clambering over branches and tiptoeing over thick platforms of leaves, Solo at one point handing Alena a leaf from the landing they had reached. Maybe it was an item that would unlock something or give them some special benefits, like those seeds that made him feel full of life and made him move faster in battle.

It seemed very strange that Solo was so intent on coming here and bringing them along, but he couldn't keep second-guessing someone who was admittedly in charge. Solo had the map and had this hunch of where to go next that Kiryl couldn't disagree with.

At the top, where he could see beyond the mountain range that surrounded this small village and out to the landscape beyond, he heard a voice.An ever so slight and soft one, but his ears that had been honed to hear for the slithering, flapping, or dragging sounds of potential threats, he was still conscious and aware of it.

It was asking for help. For a hero to come and help them. Yes, the voice sounded like it belonged to a woman, or at the very least a young woman. Nothing younger than that, though. Of course, they had to go over there and help the speaker out.

The three of them went closer, finding an angel—Zenithian, rather—lying there amongst the leaves, quite honestly half-covered with them. How long had she been there? Had she been the one to tell the elves surrounding the base of the tree to tell them someone should come and assist them? How could she have communicated with them from all the way up here? Kiryl looked out at the surrounding landscape again and saw that they were far too high up for anyone to hear someone at this distance. Then again, she was a Zenithian, so perhaps she had some sort of psychic ability. Based upon what he had seen and heard thus far, anything was possible.

Goddess, now she was asking to join them. Hopefully she wouldn't replace one of their party members like so many other guests they had encountered, but if she didn't it's not like he would ever complain about it. They may be the chosen ones, but that didn't mean they didn't need a break every once in a while. The sole fact that they could learn from one another out on the field from the wagon taught them enough in order to gain the experience for an upcoming battle. Of course, it became problematic when the wagon couldn't venture into one of the caverns they always seemed to need to go into, but most of the time it was fair in the fact that Solo would bring the ones with lesser battle experience onward to the next location. That strategy certainly helped working things out when people became jealous of new equipment or abilities learned through excessive practice.

Somewhere while he was away with the faeries, she actually joined them and the other three had wandered off. So much for keeping him alongside them. Well, he certainly should have been paying more attention to what was going on, in their defense. As if they needed to be defended at all. No, they were perfect just the way they were. All of them were.

When had he changed so much? Just a few days ago he had been hating himself for everything he couldn't be and practically declaring war upon Solo over a love interest. But no, now he was beyond that. Perhaps the Goddess had blessed him with mental insight and understanding, as all pioneers of Her word must possess. Perhaps this was a sign from Her Benevolence to continue on with his training. That all of those negative emotions should be purged and squelched like poison from someone's veins. Nothing and nobody should be plagued with such Nadirian thoughts as those.

Just as they were about halfway through the Yggdrasil Tree, they ran into another battle, and that's when another pang of jealousy smacked Kiryl in the face. Orifiela, as he had been informed the Zenithian was christened, was a definite replacement for he and Meena. Not only was she one of the healing classes, she was also much quicker than he could ever dream of being. Now if only Solo didn't dedicate all of those agility-granting seeds to Ragnar (though he certainly did deserve them), he may stand a chance.

Still, he had to think of the good side. Though she was faster than he was, she was also deaf to all of Solo's battle techniques. While all healers were supposed to do what they were best out and protect the people who needed it on account of their generally low attack power and high health, Orifiela seemed to deny all those basic thoughts and instead attacked or cast random spells that were, in fact, worthless in the midst of battle when someone was in desperate need of healing, as he had learned in a battle nearing the end of the tree.

All he could do was hope that maybe Solo would realize that this was not a good person to bring along, even if they were on their way to Zenithia. Speaking of which, had they even retrieved the Sword? Could he really have missed that much in his ignorance of what was going on?