Welcome!

This be chapter Ten, Yay!

Inri: "He's written ten chapters… He's going to do that thing anytime now…"

Pit: "What thing?"

Inri: "It involves explosions, pointy objects, and Cheese."

Pit: Sigh "Not again with the riddles… Fine, I'll just pester you until you tell me." Starts poking Inri in the shoulder.

Inri: Forces fake smile. "Stop now, please, or else…" Grabs Pit's hand and twists it at an odd angle.

Pit: "Ahh, ok ok, I'll stop. Ow ow ow."

Do I need to separate you two?

Pit & Inri: "…"

On with the Story!

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

"Commander Ikarus!" The Desian commander turned to the approaching whip master. "Commander!" The Desian stopped in front of Ikarus but was unable to speak. He bent over as he attempted to regain his breath.

Ikarus stood there, arms crossed, waiting for his subordinate to answer. "Well," he said impatiently.
"Commander, we've found the boy's trail. It leads to Hima." Ikarus nodded slowly. The whip master continued, "Sir, a scout team has been sent forth to ascertain the exact location of the boy. They will report back via teleport."

Ikarus continued to nod as a smile crept onto his face. "Excellent. At this rate, we'll have the boy back in custody in no time. No time at all. Ha!" The whip master heisted before he moved to leave. "Stop!" The Whip Master slowly turned to his commander as he asked, "What else is there to report?"

The whip master looked up into the eyes of his superior officer and began to tremble. "S-sir, there was a r-report that a transport unit had been hit by a group of thieves. They were carrying the new substance sent down from Lord Yggdrasill." Ikarus' right hand began to tremble as his face slowly turned red. The whip master melted like butter under Ikarus' gaze. "I-it c-could have b-b-been the Ch-ch-chosen's group." Ikarus clenched his fist so tight the leather on his glove ripped along the seams. The whip master crouched and covered his head as he finished rapidly saying, "That's all there is to report, Sir!"

"Ahhhh!" Ikarus' enraged scream could be heard for miles. Birds fell from the sky in shell shock. The whip master in front of Ikarus was buffeted by multiple wind blasts. An Evil Sorcerer walked up to the heaving Ikarus and motioned for the whip master to leave.

While the whip master high tailed it out of the vicinity, the Evil Sorcerer turned to Ikarus and said, "Sir, Grand Cardinal Kvar sent us an order, we are now to kill the boy instead of capturing him alive." Ikarus' face seemed to twitch a little as his eyes widened. "The orders regarding the Chosen of Mana have not deviated, however."

Ikarus recomposed himself and looked out over the grassy plains. "So the boy dies now, interesting." He turned and walked back toward an encampment a short distance away. "Inform the scout team upon arrival of the change in orders. And inform the men they will have no new armor or weapons, it seems that the materiel it was to be made from has been…" Ikarus paused and scratched his chin in thought, "stolen by the Chosen of Mana."

"Sir!" The Evil Sorcerer saluted and moved toward the second of the three tents. Ikarus went into the first and sat down in front of a field table covered in maps. He picked up a red pen and started drawing a red line from an emblem marked 'Asgard Ranch' to one marked 'Hima'. Sitting back Ikarus stared at the map in front of him.

"First the boy appears outside Iselia." Ikarus puts his finger on the emblem representing Iselia and traces his finger long the red line from there to the emblem marked 'Iselia Ranch'. "Then Lord Forcystus captures him and sent him to the Asgard Ranch via teleportation." His finger stopped above 'Luin' where a blue line from the Asgard Ranch and the red line from Iselia ranch intersected. "However, he didn't make it, some kind of malfunction. But my men did report that there was some kind of disturbance when we were attacking the Pathetics here." Ikarus tapped the 'Luin' emblem a few times before he moved his finger back to the Asgard emblem. "Then he shows up at the ranch he was supposed to arrive at in the first place. But instead of subduing him, they were barely able to withstand him. He destroyed the factory! And then heads to Hima. But what is he going to do next? What is he doing with the Chosen?"

The same Evil Sorcerer from a moment before entered the tent and saluted. "Sir, we've made contact with our secondary objective. The supply caravan has arrived."

Shaking his head, he stands up and faces the Evil Sorcerer. "Excellent, supply them with the planned escort to the ranch. And order the men to pack up, we're moving out."

"Yes Sir!" The Evil Sorcerer turned and left the tent.

Ikarus turned and looked back down at the map, his forehead creased in concentration. "Where are you headed now little, filthy human."

"Okay Gaar. Destructive magic is, in my opinion, ten times harder than Healing magic." Genis summoned a fireball into the palm of his hand. Gaar put down his freshly empty dinner bowl and turned to the fireball. It gave off sparks as it twirled about in his hand. The light from the fire bounced off of Gaar's dilated eyes.

"Okay, but I don't see how that is harder than healing." Kratos sat down on the other side of the camp fire and started to eat the food he left there. Lloyd came back a short while afterward, limping, bruised, and bleeding slightly.

"Kratos," the bruised boy mumbled as he fell to the ground next to him. "You didn't have to be so rough, did you?"

"Humph." Kratos continued to eat his bowl of soup. Lloyd just leaned back carefully, hurting some of his bruised body parts, and shut his eyes.

"Gaar? … Gaar! … GAAR!" Gaar snapped his head around and looked back at Genis.

"I'm sorry Genis. It's just that… well Lloyd…" Gaar shook his head as he trailed off.

"He wished to push himself too far, I simply obliged." The two younger boys stared at Kratos while Lloyd groaned.

Continuing to shake his head, Gaar said, "Genis, you were saying that Destructive magic is harder than Healing, could you explain what you meant?" Genis dissipated the fireball in his hand and crossed his arms in thought.

"I'm not sure how to put it into words exactly… The best I could do would be to say that when you use Healing magic, the Mana only has one purpose, to heal. You create it and it creates fixed wounds." Gaar nodded and wrapped his arms around his legs. "When you cast a Destructive spell, the Mana still has only one purpose, but it switches from creating fixed wounds to destroying flesh and all other manner of physical objects. So you'd have to switch its purpose halfway through casting…"

"Huh?" Gaar was looking sideways at Genis.

"I told you this was hard to explain, so bear with me."

"I'm trying Genis, but what do you mean by changing the spell's purpose half way through the casting?" Gaar tried to raise his eye brow, but failed.

"What he means is that for the first half of the casting, you create the element in a defined space with the express purpose of existing, and then you change the purpose and make it destructive." Raine, Sheena, and Colette walked over and sat down by the fire. "Perhaps it would be better," Raine continued, "if you looked at it this way. If you gather snow into a ball, you have a snow ball, right?" Gaar nodded, Colette, who sat down on the other side of Genis, nodded as well. Genis closed his eyes and nodded. "Suppose that snow ball was a ball composed of Mana, and you were using that Mana as part of a spell. Now, you could use that snowball to hurt an opponent if you throw it at them, the same goes for the Mana in a spell, as long as you change how you're focusing the magic. Instead of healing, you focus on how you want the Mana to attack."

Gaar looked at the crackling fire. "Hmm… I think I got it. Instead of continuing to concentrate on creating, I must switch my focus to how I want to the Mana to attack my opponent. Therefore going from healing to destroying."

"Exactly." Raine's eyes lit up. "Gaar, I'd have to say you are a student on par with Genis."

Genis nudged Gaar in the side and said, "That's good, cause you don't want to be like Lloyd."

"I heard that Genis. Oww…" Lloyd rubbed his bruised elbow. Genis chuckled and Colette giggled.

"Humph." Kratos put down his bowl of food and stood up. "We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. I suggest you get some sleep." Everyone eventually found a place around the fire where they went to sleep. Lloyd stayed in the same position he had fallen over in and fell asleep with his hand over his face, making his snoring sound muffled. Kratos sat next to a sleeping Noishe and watched Tethe'alla as it rose into the sky.

Kratos ear twitched. He looked to the left, into the burnt remains of Luin, then to the right, into the forest. He stood up and in the process woke up Noishe.

"Hmmm…." he whined.

"Stay here Noishe. I'm going to check something out." Kratos turned and walked into the forest. His form disappeared from view and all was silent.

"CLANG!"

"Hmmmm. Hmmm-hmmm-hmmmm…." whined the green and white dog. Noishe trotted over to Lloyd and started nudging him with his nose. "Hmm-hmm-hmmmmm."

"No...no more…" Lloyd swatted at the dog unconsciously. "No, I swear dad, I'll remember the vow next time…. Let me eat… please…I'm starving…"

"Hmmm…" Noishe put a paw onto Lloyd and started shaking him.

"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"

Noishe looked quickly up at the forest then went back to pawing Lloyd. "Hmmm-hmmm-hmmm-hmmm-hmmmmmm…"

"I'm so hungy…starving…please, I'll remember next time…starving…" Lloyd rolled onto his side.

"Grrrrr… WO-WO-WO-WOOF!" Lloyd shot into the air and landed on his feet. "WO-WO-WOOF!"

"Noishe!" Lloyd looked down at the dog. Noishe turned and faced the forest. "Noishe, what's wrong? Where's Kratos?"

"WO-WO-WO-WO-WOOF! AWOOOOOOOOOO!" Gaar slowly sat up and wiped his eyes.

"What, is it time to go already?" Gaar stood up to yawn and stretch but stopped mid way when he saw Lloyd running toward the forest and Noishe running the other way. "I don't think that was the answer I was looking for…" Gaar turned to Genis and Raine, who were sleeping next to him and started shaking them. "Raine, Genis, wake up…"

"I want to go play… please, sis…"

"Maybe if I replace the sugar with the salt…"

Gaar gave up and crawled over to Colette, who was 'sleeping' on the other side of the Sage siblings. "Colette…"

"I'm awake!" Colette sat up and looked at Gaar. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure, but Kratos is not here, Lloyd went running into the forest, and Noishe ran away from the forest."

"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! SHIIING! CLANG! BOOM! THUD! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"

Colette features grew worried. "Oh no, I hope they'll be alright." Gaar moved to Sheena and shook her. Colette moved to Genis and Raine and attempted to wake them.

Corrine appeared in a puff of smoke next to her head. "Can't you tell, Sheena's sleeping, what's wrong?"

"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"

Corrine looked toward the forest and then turned back to Sheena. "Wake up Sheena, there's a battle."

"Yeah wake up Sheena!" Gaar shook Sheena again. A blush appeared on her cheeks.

"…mmmbm… idiot! ...stupid! ...philandering moron…" Sheena snorted and sat up quickly, her eyes half open. "Wha- what's going on? It isn't morning yet…"

"Sheena, there's a battle, let's get over there." Gaar stood up and moved back over to the Sage siblings. Corrine faded from view. Sheena rubbed her eyes and started searching her personal being.

"I'm all set. Colette, Garr, I'm going on ahead. Hurry up when you can." Sheena took off toward the forest.

"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! SHING! SCHEW-SCHEW-SCHEW! KA-BOOOM!"

"Professor please wake up, we got to help our friends." Colette was shaking Raine's shoulders up and down gently.

"I can't…ruins…can't leave ruins…" Raine's eyes snapped open and she sat up quickly, taking in a large breath of air. "What! It isn't morning! Colette, what's going on?"

"KA-BOOOM! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"

"Professor, a fight is going on in the forest." Colette pointed toward the forest. Several beams of light shot into the air as more battle noises were emitted. "Lloyd, Sheena, and Kratos are all alone! We have to help them!"

"Yes, we'll go immediately." Raine turned to Gaar. "Gaar, please wake Genis and follow when you can." Gaar nodded. Raine and Colette ran toward the forest and disappeared.

"SHING! SHING! SHING! BANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CRRRRAAAAACK! WOOOSH! KER-THUMP!" A tree in the forest fell over.

"Genis, wake up!" Gaar shook Genis as hard as he dared.

"I...srry…..mmmrrble…I…srry…" A tear slid down Genis' check as he came too. "Huh? Wha… where am I?" He looked around. "Where is everyone?"

"There is a battle going on in the forest, I stayed to wake you up." Gaar stood up and anxiously moved toward the forest. "Come on!"

"CLINK! KER-POW! KER-BANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"

"Okay, okay, hold on, let me find my Kendama." Genis stood up and looked all around him. Gaar saw the Kendama lying next to his bow. Smacking himself in the face, Gaar went over and gathered the weapons.

"Here, I found it." Gaar tossed Genis his weapon and the two sprinted toward the forest. "It's a lot more quite than before…"

"Yeah," Genis agreed. They entered the forest, the air still and stale. The sounds of night had left when the fight started. "I can't see anything!" He held his hand in front of him and conjured three fireballs. The fireballs were rotating around his wrist. What they saw left them slack jawed.

"Is… is that Kratos… unconscious…" Genis stammered. Gaar walked over to the man and poked him."

"Ugh…" Kratos winced at the physical contact. Genis reached into his side pocket, pulled out a Life Bottle, and popped the cork out of the top.

"Open wide Kratos." Genis held Kratos' nose and poured the liquid down his throat. Kratos choked on the liquid before he swallowed audibly.

"Ugh… Where am I?" Kratos sat up and rubbed his head.

"We were hoping you could tell us…" Kratos looked at Genis who looked out into the forest. "I hope my sister is alright." Kratos stood up and searched the ground. Then looked up and reached out. He grabbed the hilt of his sword and with a great heave, pulled the blade from the tree.

"HAAAA! SNAP! CRASH! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"

Kratos looked up. "That sounded like Lloyd."

"Yeah," agreed Genis, "and not too far away either."

"Let's go!" Gaar ran off in the direction of the noise. The trio ran through the forest, Genis' fire bracelet lighting the way until they came to the edge of the forest. "I was sure that noise came from here." Gaar walked out of the forest and turned around. Scratching his head he said, "I wonder where they went."

"Hey, Kratos, what was that noise we heard? Why were you unconscious?"

Kratos turned to Genis. "I was at the camp when I heard a suspicious noise. When I investigated I was attacked from behind by something black as the forest around me. I barely dodged the first sword swipe. When I counter attacked, I found his armor to be too thick to penetrate. Then who ever it was knocked my sword and me into a tree. That's all."

"Hmm…" Genis looked out over the field. "Hey guys…is that… It is! They're out there! I can see Raine casting Sharpenss now. Let's hurry up." Kratos bolted immediately, Genis and Gaar followed as quickly as they could. The three ran across the plain for minutes on end. Slowly Sheena, Raine, Colette, and Lloyd came into view, but the opponent they were fighting barely reflected any moonlight and was hard to pinpoint among the darkness.

Lloyd jumped to the side, the side of his left boot being shaved off by a sword as black as night. Colette's Chakrams flew through the air and bounced off the black head armor with a 'ping'. Sheena was constantly circling around the large armored man, searching for a weakness, an opening, anything. Raine glowed green for a moment and shouted, "Heal!" Her body glowed bright green. The green light shot out of her body like a bullet and slammed into Lloyd, healing a large gushing wound on his arm.

"Thanks Professor. Whoa! Guardian!" A green bubble of Mana appeared around Lloyd. As the sword came into contact with the sphere of Mana, the bubble started sinking. The giant sword was repelled only enough to stop its momentum. After the defense technique faded, Lloyd backpedaled to get out of range of the large sword, which came crashing down again. Everyone stopped moving and stared at each other. The hot breath vapors rose from the armored helmet. Lloyd jumped into the fray again, bringing his left sword up to knock aside the downward stroke of the larger sword. "Sonic Sword Rain!" Lloyd started jabbing the legs of the armored behemoth faster and faster until with on final lunge, he thrust his sword so hard that it got stuck in one of the joints of the leg. Lloyd jumped back as the Black Knight brought its sword back down. "Man, I didn't even scratch him. Nothing we throw at this guy works. Even a tree fell on him and nothing happens."

"Uh… Raine…" Sheena was looking at the armor with a Magic Lens. "It doesn't have a name, in fact… it doesn't even have a health count… this thing is invincible." Sheena dropped the now useless Magic Lens. "Looks like physical attacks won't work."

"Well then let's try using magic, Colette, you use angel techniques and Sheena, you use what you think will be effective. Lloyd!" Lloyd dodged another swipe of the sword and looked at Raine. "Keep him busy."

"Yeah," Lloyd said sarcastically. "I don't think that will be too difficult." He jump back and twisted to the side as the Black Knight slashed diagonally at him and the made a jab. The edge of the blade sliced open Lloyds right sleeve with a whisper of a touch. "Hurry up! I don't know how long I can keep this up with only one sword!"

Raine nodded and turned to Colette and nodded. Colette sprouted incandescent lavender wings from her back and started to pray. Raine closed her eyes and began chanting, a white glow emanated from around her feet and from the jewel on top of her staff. Sheena worked her way around to the back of the Black Knight, but every time she attempted to get in close, an armored fist swung around behind him with agility that belied his size. Feather of light began springing from the ground in a circle around Colette and the light beneath Raine grew brighter.

"Oh Holy One, I beg of you to reveal thy glory. Angel Feathers!" Colette's wings glowed brightly as feathers started shooting off forming rings of light.

The feather rings shot toward the Black Knight as Raine shouted, "Photon!" Bright white light started shining from within the pitch black armor and poured fourth from every crack that could be found. Suddenly though, the feather rings veered from their trajectory and started swirling around the Black Knight.

"You ready Colette?"

"You bet Professor," she the cheerful reply.

"Holy Rings of Light!" they both shouted. The rings of angel feathers went from bright lavender and violet light to bright white light and twirled around the Mana faster and closer. The bright white light shining from within the armor grew brighter and brighter until Lloyd and Sheena had to shield their eyes.

"Heh… heh heh… Ha… HA… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!" The booming, deep, base laughter coming from the Black Knight threw everyone off their feet. They looked up in horror as the Holy Rings of Light were sucked violently into the armor of the Black Knight. The bright light shining from within died down and darkness took its place. "You pitiful beings and your planets pitifully weak Magic. Ha!" The Black Knight started walking toward Lloyd again, each step shaking the earth, his armor clinking heavily. "You do not have what it takes to defeat a true Knight! You are too weak." The Black Knight held his sword vertically over his head and brought it down on Lloyd.

"Aaahh-Shing!" Lloyd looked up to see Kratos. "Kratos… Y-you saved me!"

"Are you alright?" Lloyd nodded at Kratos' back. Gaar and Genis ran up to the group to see the Black Knight picking up his sword. "Good. Be on your guard next time." Lloyd scowled as he stood up.

"I'd like to see you do better, oh great mercenary Kratos!" Lloyd and Kratos jumped apart as the Black Knight's sword.

"It doesn't matter how many of you pathetic weaklings there are, you cannot defeat me." The Mana froze in place. He slowly turned until he was facing Gaar, who had an arrow aimed at his helmet. "You… You will die NOW!" The eyes of the Black Knight burned red as flames of hate sprout from the viewing hole in his helmet. Gaar trembled and lowered his bow as the Black Knight charged towards him. Each of his heavy steps left a small crater in the ground.

"Spread!"

"Angel Feathers!"

"Photon!"

"Thunder Blade!"

The Black Knight was lifted slowly into the air by a gigantic plume of water Mana. While in the air, an enormous bolt of lightning in the shape of a sword fell from the sky. When the bolt of lightning hit the metal armor, it lit up like a Christmas tree. As the Black Knight fell a white light again started shooting forth from within the black armor and the rings of angel feathers sliced through the joints of the armor. The Black Knight fell to the earth.

"AAAAAHHHHHH-BOOOM!" The explosion threw everyone back several yards.

Slowly Lloyd stood up. Walking over to the edge of the crater he said, "I think that got him, but we can't be too careful."

As Gaar sat up to look at what happened, Lloyd's unconscious body flew past him. He rolled a few times once he touched the ground until he came to a halt, covered in blood and cuts.

"Look out. Ahhhh!" Colette was flew through the air and landed beside Lloyd, her wings shimmered and blinked a few times before she fell unconscious and they disappeared completely. Gaar looked back at the crater to see the Black Knight running faster than he should have been straight for Genis.

"Ahh, get away from me." The Black Knight picked up Genis by his shirt and threw him at Raine. Genis' form almost disappeared from sight as he flew through the air until he collided with Raine's head. They both fell to the ground unconscious, Raine's nose was bleeding. Gaar stood up slowly and started to run toward Lloyd and Colette when Sheena's body just cleared his head. Her body landed next to Lloyd and Colette's.

"Sheena, Sheena!" Corrine appeared in a puff of smoke next to the unconscious ninja. "Sheena, wake up!" Gaar looked back at the Black Knight to see him attempting to hit Kratos, but Kratos was now moving at speeds Gaar had never seen him move at before. Every time the Black Knight would throw a punch, Kratos just barely moved out of the way in time.

"You are much stronger than your companions, but it won't last for long. Prepare to DIE!" The Black Knight held out his hand and his pitch black sword flew into it. He swung downwards at Kratos' head but his sword was there first. The two swordsmen locked blades for minutes on end, sparks flew between the swords as Mana started to bend the air and heat the ground. Slowly Kratos was pushed back, though every now and then he would slightly glow white and push the black sword back an inch before he winced and lost two inches.

"I won't be defeated so easily," Kratos retorted.

Gaar picked up his bow, knocked an arrow, and shot at the Black Knight. The arrow 'pinged' off of the armor.

"You will be next, boy!" The Black Knight hadn't even looked at him but his voice rung through the air all around Gaar. Gaar looked at the bodies around him.

"I know I can't use magic without hurting myself, but if I can't use these powers to help my friend when they need me the most, what good are they." Gaar closed his eyes. "I'm sorry Professor, but I'm going to try to use magic again." A strong wind began circling around the locked swordsmen, half of it white, the other half dark purple.

"What's this wind?" Gaar reached out and his hand passed right through it. "It's just like the fire Mana. But this purple one is much stronger. If the white one is from Kratos, then he won't last much longer." Gaar set up another arrow and pointed it at the dark metallic form of the Black Knight. "Let's see, I need to pull Mana and change its purpose…" A red hazy glow surrounded Gaar's Mana wind buffeted form. "Ok, I have the Mana, but now I need to change its purpose..." The red haze wavered a bit but didn't change in any shape or form. "Ahh… it isn't working."

"I've had enough of this," boomed the Black Knight. He pulled his sword back and started bashing it against Kratos' sword over and over, each blow causing the weakening mercenary to lose ground. Finally the black sword slammed into Kratos' blade and sent it flying. Kratos jumped back just as the sword came down where he was standing.

"I will not fall as quickly as before." Kratos jumped left and right, avoiding several swipes and kicks. "You may be more powerful than me, but you are unable to hit me with all the weight of that armor." Kratos jumped into the air to avoid having his legs sliced off. The Black Knight continued to swing his whole body around and kicked Kratos out of the air. "Oof!" He landed on his back and did not rise.

The Black Knight turned to Gaar, who was still holding an arrow pointed at him. "You will not be able to defeat me with those, pathetic little boy. Now die!" The Black Knight walked slowly toward Gaar, who had his eyes closed. The flames coming out of the Black Knight's helmet grew larger. The dark purple wind grew darker.

"Oh," Gaar moaned in frustration. "Why can't I just shoot the Mana at him…! I got it." Gaar concentrated and the red haze surrounding his body moved to concentrate in his hands and then from his hands across his bow and onto the arrow. Once the arrow was glowing red, Gaar opened his eyes to see the Black Knight swinging his sword. Gaar's mouth dropped open and in his surprise, he let go of the taught string. The string, wanting to be in a state of rest, pulled forward and launched the arrow forward at a speed faster than the sword was swinging. When the arrow left the bow, it burst into flames, and went streaking toward the Black Knight. The fire Mana propelled the arrow faster and faster until it struck the black armor of the Black Knight.

Inri: "Ahh, sweet cliffhangers… my bread and butter!"

Pit: "So… why did the Black Knight attack? "

Inri: "It could be the fact that he is an enigma. And that Yggdrasill ordered it, but aside from that I don't know. But I do know why he was so strong. And it might have something to do with Gaar…"

Pit: "What?"

Inri: "I'm not telling."

Pit: "Tell ME!" Starts to throw a tantrum by jumping up and down.

Inri: Sighs and walks off.

Ok… Pit needs some time to himself. Please review so he'll stop that... it's kind of... disturbing.