Chapter 9

"You're Sheena?" Lyle asked.

"That's right." It looks like she climbed up the stalagmite and managed to squeeze her way through a hole in the floor next to it. She was just about to step off.

"Wait!" Lyle shouted.

She stopped with her foot in mid-air. "What?"

"The house isn't stable right now. Any added weight could cause it to fall."

"Relax," she said and then stepped onto the house. She half-slipped, half-walked her way down toward the hallway. "The house is actually really stable. I saw it sway before, but it moved into a more stable position. We're actually free to move around. You guys go ahead and climb down the stalagmite. There are footholds all the way down. I'll find a way to help Lloyd out."

"Wait a minute," Lyle said.

Right as she was about to disappear around the corner, she stopped. "What is it? And hurry up, we have things to do." This was the first time, he had a clear view of what she looked like. She was drop-dead gorgeous. Her features were perfect and…that body. "Spit it out!" she shouted.

Lyle shook his head, snapping out of his thoughts. "Right, sorry." That wasn't very gentlemanly, Lyle, he told himself. "How are we going to get Zelos and Colette down?"

"Oh, I almost forgot." She reached into a pocket and pulled out some rope. "Tie this around their waists and then lower them."

"Alright, thanks." Lyle gratefully took the rope. She resumed sliding down the hallway.

"Sheena, is that you?" Lloyd asked.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"Man, what a relief to hear your voice."

"It's nice hearing your voice, too….Lloyd, your arm! What happened?"

"I was attacked by Kuchinawa."

A deafening silence followed. Then finally, "Kuchinawa? He's here?"

"Yeah."

"But how…how could he have hurt you so bad?"

"His skills have improved. In fact, they might be greater than my own."

Another silence followed. Then Sheena said, "I've got an idea. Stay still."

Lloyd chuckled. "It's not as if I'm going anywhere."

While they were talking, Marta stood up and said, "I'll go ahead and descend so I can receive the wounded and make sure nothing happened to them."

"Wait a minute," Lyle said. "What about Colette? Are you going to remove the knife?"

"It's best that I leave it in, right now. Just pulling it out will do more damage than it already has. When we get out of this mess, I'll surgically remove it."

"I see, but…are you absolutely sure?"

"I'm the doctor, remember?" She smiled as she climbed up the awkwardly angled floor, grabbed hold of the stalagmite, and made her way down.

As they tied Zelos up, Lyle realized something odd. He turned to Genis and said, "You know, you didn't seem surprised that Sheena had arrived."

"That's because I figured out why this stalagmite here is so huge."

"Um…okay, that's great, but what does that have to do with Sheena?"

"You see, Sheena is a summoner, which means that she can call forth powerful beings, summon spirits. The only one who could've created this thing is Gnome, the Summon Spirit of Earth."

"Honestly, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'll go along with it."

"You think I'm insane, don't you?"

"No. I'm friends with people from a completely different world—one of which is sort of an angel—and we are being attacked by assassins which could possibly be ninjas that wear black during the daytime. I'm half-expecting to see flying pigs sometime soon."

Genis laughed. "I see what you mean. But you forgot a half-elf in there."

Lyle looked at him. "Half-elf? What do you mean?"

"I'm a half-elf."

"Elf? As in…pointy-ears kind of elf?"

"Half-elf. I was borne of both human and elven blood." Lyle tried to form words, but he had no idea where to begin. Genis noticed this and asked, "You didn't know that?" Lyle shook his head. "I would think that that would be pretty obvious. It's the reason why I can use magic."

"But…didn't Kuchinawa say that you couldn't use magic?"

"That is true in this world. You see, in order to use magic, you need mana. And since there is no trace left in this world, my spells become useless. Which is really too bad, considering how much they could help here. Oh, well. At least I honed my knifing skills over the past couple of years."

"You know, I've been wondering. Why did you start using knives?"

"A couple of years ago, a Summon Spirit by the name of Ratatosk rewrote the natural law of our world so our land would no longer be dependent on mana. This way, he could slowly drain the mana out while everything else would be unaffected. Half-elves—myself included—live really long lives. So it was entirely possible that magic would become inert during my lifetime. So instead of focusing on magic, which I was already good at, by the way, I decided to take up knives. I thought about using a sword, but I couldn't hold it for very long."

"Oh, I see. That makes sense." Lyle lifted Zelos with a groan. "Colette was so much lighter," he managed to force out of his throat. He started climbing the floor, but slipped and fell forward. Luckily, Zelos remained in his hands. "Oh, forget this." Lyle put Zelos down. "If I keep at this, I'll wind up killing him myself." He waved him over. "Come on, I've got a better idea."

Both of them climbed up the wall with the rope in Genis' hand. Once they reached the stalagmite, they started pulling up the Chosen. "Hey, what's taking so long?" Marta asked from the ground.

"We've almost got it!" Genis called down.

Zelos was still unconscious by the time he reached the two. "That's kind of funny," Lyle remarked. "I was expecting him to be awake by now."

"Yeah," Genis agreed. "Me, too." He carefully pushed Zelos through the hole while Lyle kept hold of the rope. Once Zelos' full weight was supported by the rope, it sliced across Lyle's hands. He groaned as he felt the skin rub away. Genis quickly grabbed hold of it. It stopped sliding. "Are you okay, Lyle?"

It hurt a lot, but Lyle said, "Don't worry about me. Let's finish this quickly."

They quickly set up a rhythm with their arms moving at the same time. As they were lowering, Sheena came back. "Is everything alright? I heard groaning."

Lyle didn't answer. He was mostly focused on not groaning. So Genis answered, "We're fine. How's Lloyd?"

"He can't climb up with only one arm. I'll need to help him up."

She started untying the bow around her waist. Lyle couldn't help but stare as he kept lowering. "What is she doing?" Lyle whispered to Genis.

He was staring, too. "I have no idea."

"Hey, you can stop, now!" Marta called out. Both snapped out of their trance and stopped. Lyle put the rope beneath his arm and studied his hands. They were covered in blood.

Genis saw them, too. "You know, you can rest if you like. Sheena and I can keep working."

Lyle shook his head. "No, it's fine. I can't sit by and let you guys do everything; it'll take longer. And the sooner we get out of here, the better."

Genis started pulling up the rope. "I can tie up Colette by myself. Sit down and rest."

"He's right," Sheena said. With her bow now untied, her clothes were now loose and looked more like a multilayered robe than anything else. The cloth was now just one long strip. "Get some rest."

"But it's only a flesh wound," Lyle said.

"Sit down, Lyle!"

"Are you trying to slow us down? This is nothing compared to what the real wounded have!" Sheena threw the cloth to the floor, marched over to Lyle, and yanked on his hair near the front so he was forced to look at the floor. "Gah, what are you doing?"

"Look at yourself!" she shouted. Lyle winced when his hair was yanked off, but when he opened his eyes, his mouth fell open. The clothes he was wearing were all charred and blackened from that energy wave the assassin sent at him. His eyes trailed from his arms to his hands. They were burnt. Not quite blackened, but pretty close. He could imagine this all over his body. It was a miracle he wasn't set on fire. Plus, there was where the skin was rubbed away. "You are wounded! In fact, it's a wonder you're standing at all! You shouldn't push yourself, otherwise you'll wind up killing yourself, you idiot! Yes, I understand our work will be slowed, but it will be a great tragedy if you wind up killing yourself in the process! So sit down and shut up!"

Genis, who was watching the scene unfold, remembered what he was supposed to do and made his way to Colette. Lyle gritted his teeth as he felt anger welling up inside him. He didn't feel nearly as bad as he looked. He can still help out! But he grabbed Sheena's wrists, removed them from his scalp, and calmly said, "Fine. I'll go sit down." He settled on the wall next to the hallway. "You happy now?"

Sheena didn't say anything as she picked up the fabric she dropped earlier, held onto both ends, and sent the middle down the hallway. "What was that all about?" Lloyd asked.

"It's nothing," Sheena said. She pulled the knife from its sheath on her back and stabbed the wall.

"What are you doing?" Lyle asked. "We don't have time for you to take your frustrations out on some plaster." She pulled the knife out and turned around as if to rebuttal Lyle's comment, but decided against it and stabbed the blade in a different place. She repeated the process one more time. This time, the weapon was lodged in place and wouldn't move. As she started tying one end of the cloth to it, Lyle figured out what she was doing. "You know, you could've explained it to me."
"Explained what?"

"The fact that you lodged the knife in the wood beneath the wall—oh, wait, that can't be it."

"Actually, you're right."

Lyle stood up. "But wait, if that's it, then how did you know that the house was framed with wood?" She jerked her thumb at the stalagmite. Lyle turned and saw wood protruding around that area. "Oh…" He always found it funny how some things that are obvious to everyone else completely escape his notice.

The two of them chuckled a little bit, but their laughter died away immediately. They were still a little angry at each other. Sheena finished tying the end and shouted down to Lloyd, "Alright. Test it. Is it good?"

Lloyd yanked on it. "Solid as a rock, but what's keeping this thing from tearing apart as I'm climbing up?"

"Don't worry. This is Mizuho's finest linen. It's strong enough to hold ten of you."

"You're exaggerating."

"Well, yeah, but the point is, it won't tear."

Lyle looked down at Lloyd. He really was a mess. There was a trickle of blood coming down his face. He kept one of his arms close to his body. That must be the one that's out of joint. And his clothes were completely torn up. "Alright, I'm trusting you on this." He put the linen around his lower back and slowly put his weight on it. Just as Sheena said, it did not rip. "I'm ready."

"Here goes nothing." Sheena started pulling Lloyd up with the untied end of the cloth as he walked up the tilted floor. He placed his uninjured hand on the wall for balance. Lyle watched as Lloyd carefully made his way up and Sheena strained to keep him from falling. When he was near the top, Lyle scooted over to give Lloyd room to sit, which is what the man did. Sheena was catching her breath while sweat was beading at her brow. "Whew!"

"Thanks a lot, Sheena."

"No problem."

"Hey, Lyle!" Genis called out. Lyle turned and saw him standing next to the stalagmite. "I've got Colette all tied up. Now I could use your help." With that, Lyle made a quick glance at Sheena. Then, without waiting for approval, he clambered over to him.

Colette was still out cold. How long will she stay like this? Lyle wondered. The rope was tied roughly around the Chosen's waist with the rope leading to Genis' hands. Lyle took hold of the rope and felt it burn his hands. But he didn't care.

Just like with Zelos, they pulled her up the floor and then lowered her down to Marta. Once that was done, Sheena used the rope to tie up Lloyd. She started pulling him up as he walked up the floor, exactly like in the hallway. Genis started taking a break so Lyle took position in front of her and started helping him up. "Lyle," Sheena said, "do you-?"

"No. You don't need to remind me."

"Let me finish. Do you know why I said those things?"

"You said so before. 'My death would be a great tragedy.' Am I right?"

"Yeah."

"Sheena, listen. I feel I should apologize for my snide behavior after your little talk. It's just that while I was on the other side of town and while I was in here, I was completely useless. So I felt that I should make up for it by helping out in every other way I can. And give each task my maximum effort."

"I see. You don't need to apologize. I suppose I could've handled it better. I'm sorry."

Lyle had to admit that he was a little surprised to be hearing this from her. "Your frustration is understandable. Although, I do find it a little odd that you reacted so strongly, especially since we just met."

"Yeah. That's the strange part." Lyle felt himself blush a little bit and for once, thanked his lucky stars that he had burns. Lloyd reached the two and then got down and was lowered by Lyle and Genis. Sheena watched the redhead work and said, "Let me ask you something. Exactly how much pain are you feeling right now?"

"There is some pain, but it's more uncomfortable than anything else."

"That's it?" Genis asked. "Just uncomfortable?"

"Yeah."

"Lyle, when we get out of this, I'll get Marta to take a look at you."

"She examined me only a few hours ago. There's no need."

"Lyle, you should be lying on the ground, writhing in pain."

"Please stop, Genis. We already had this discussion."

They brought Lloyd up to the hole and started lowering him down.

"I'm only bringing it up again because…well…frankly, you're scaring me. It's like you turned into a zombie or something."

Lyle sighed. There was no getting out of this. "Have you considered the fact that maybe I have a high threshold for pain?" In truth, he had no idea pain could be so tolerable.

"If that's true, your threshold is as high as the old Tower of Salvation."

Lyle looked at him. "Tower of Salvation?"

"It's a tower in our world that was used to symbolize freedom and restoration. It was destroyed four years ago, unfortunately."

"How tall was it?"

"No one knows exactly. It's so tall that no one bothered to measure it."

Lyle tried to pictures something like that in his mind, but couldn't. "That's hard to imagine."

"It's one of those things where you had to have seen it to believe it."

"No doubt."

Lloyd finally reached the bottom. Marta untied the rope and carried the man to safety. Sheena pulled the rope up.

"Since all of the wounded…" She glanced at Lyle. "…well, almost all of the wounded are down, it's our turn. Lyle, you go first."

He sighed and said, "Alright." He was sick and tired of arguing.

"Before you go, tie the rope around your waist."

"I'm not going to be lowered. I'll climb down." Lyle figured that they were both pretty exhausted. There's no need to tire them further.

"Well, even so, if you slip, we can hold onto the rope long enough for you to regain your footing."

"But, wouldn't I just slip through the knot?"

"Not if you tie it tight enough."

Lyle had to admit that it was hard to argue with that. He went over to the rope and was about to pick it up when he suddenly remembered something. "Oh, wait! I almost forgot!" He went over to the lopsided kitchen and just as he thought, his sword was still there. In fact, he must've landed on top of it. He was lucky he wasn't sliced in half.

Lyle picked it up and started making his way back to the other two. Before he could take two steps, however, a very familiar puff of smoke appeared right next to him. Lyle immediately prepared himself for a fight (as if he stood a chance). And sure enough, when the smoke cleared, the assassin identified as Kuchinawa appeared before him.

Chapter 10 Coming Soon…