As Legato lead the party of six through town, Hayato made note of the structures. A hodgepodge of buildings half-sunken in the sand; most of them had holes in their roofs. He half-wondered if this place even had weather to make the holes a problem.

The village chief led the party of explorers to the dead center of the town, and then stopped before a large, dead, bleached-white tree. Standing directly in front of them was a humanoid figure wearing the familiar robes of a monk from the Temple of Time, facing away from them and staring at the tree.

Yuuki stepped forward towards the figure with a look of surprise on his face. There was a brief moment of silence.

"Kao…" Yuuki finally said. The figure turned around.

Hayato couldn't see their face, as their hood concealed most of their features, but the figure was definitely human. He could see the outline of a chin and a mouth, though the robe hid their eyes and any other identifying features.

"Yuuki…" Kao responded. Hayato was surprised at how similar the two sounded.

"What are you doing here?" The hero warrior asked. "The head priest is worried, you know."

"Ah." Kao replied. "I didn't mean to make him worry…I just- "

"You went to find your memories, didn't you?" Yuuki frowned. Kao nodded in response.

"If I may interrupt…" Legato spoke up. "…I sympathize with your predicament, traveler, but there is the matter of what happened…"

Kao hung his head. "It's my fault…I don't know how it happened, but I hurt the villagers here."

"What's done is done." Said Legato. "Please, tell them."

"Very well." Kao sighed and turned to the group. "There's something I have to warn you about. Have you seen the huge lake at the outskirts of town?"

"Big, sparkling, ominous…" Liuva rattled off. "…kind of hard to miss it."

"The townspeople call it the 'Lake of Oblivion'." Kao continued. "If you fall in, you'll forget everything. Every last memory."

The group jumped back in shock.

"…guess it's a good thing we didn't fill any water bottles then." Said Aran, failing miserably in trying to lighten the mood.

Yuuki, however, seemed more concerned. "Kao…you don't think…"

Kao scratched a non-existent itch on his arm. "I don't know. Maybe. I wanted to know."

Kao motioned to the dead tree behind him. "The lake is why the Tree of Memories was created. Precious memories are hung on this tree. The townspeople come by to look at them every day until the memories wither and vanish."

He sighed again. "I…thought there might be something from my past up there. I wanted there to be something up there. So I looked…but when I got closer…when I touched the tree…"

Kao hung his head. "All those memories…the precious memories of the townspeople…they all scattered."

"Scattered?" Asked Tear. "What do you mean?"

"The memories…they were scattered around town." Legato clarified. "But they were gobbled up by the powerful Erdas."

"I see…" Yuuki blinked. "W-wait, did you just say 'Erdas'?"

Legato nodded. "Weak Erdas like us wouldn't stand a chance."

"Wait, you're an Erda?" Asked Liuva. "As in, building-blocks-of-reality living-energy 'Erda'?"

"I don't know what you mean by that…" Said Legato, he seemed to frown. "I do not remember why call ourselves Erdas. We simply do."

"Like the name of the town…" Aran mused.

"Hypothesis: It is a side effect of being near the Lake of Oblivion." Xenon stated.

Legato shook his head. "The specifics do not matter. You six are strong, please help return our memories to us."

The group exchanged glances.

"We're not exactly ones to turn down someone in need." Said Yuuki. "Of course we'll help."

Legato seemed to smile. "Thank you, dearly. Here, I shall show you to the outskirts of town, where the more powerful Erdas reside." With that, Legato began moving forward, around the tree, towards the edge of the village. The party followed, and Kao remained behind, staring sadly at the empty tree.

"There are four kinds of memories kept on the tree. There are happy memories; times we remember fondly. There are angry memories; times we felt rage burn within us. There are sad memories; times we were faced with great hardship and loss. And finally there are joyful memories; times when our souls are completely content."

"Why would you hang sad and angry memories on the tree?" Asked Tear. "Aren't those bad things?"

"Negative emotions are important to have, little one." Said Legato. "To forget anger would be to forget joy alongside it; you cannot have one without the other."

The group finally reached the outskirts of the village and moved atop a dune of sand. Legato stopped, and the group looked across the expanse. The beach seemed to stretch on for miles in any given direction. The half-buried, half-dissolving structures still littered the landscape, this time with streetlamps which seemed to be melted and bent out of shape. The group could see movement among the sand.

The group- or rather mostly Tear- gasped in shock. A large, dark blue ball bounced out from behind one of the dunes. It was about the size of a person, and had a single, white horn reminiscent of the Tree of Memories stuck on its head. The front side appeared to have a circle imprinted on it.

"The powerful Erdas find themselves attracted to specific types of emotions." Legato explained. "As such, there is one for each kind of memory. This one is attracted to happy memories."

"A happy Erda…" Yuuki mused.

"It looks kind of…cuddly." Tear commented.

"I would not try 'cuddling' with it." Said the chief. "You might wind up its dinner."

"…does it even have a mouth?" Asked Hayato.

"It is actually quite powerful." Legato continued. "In terms of physical strength, that is. It is rather…lacking in intelligence."

"Big, strong, stupid." Said Liuva. She slammed a fist into her palm, both of her hands now covered by her gauntlets. "Seems simple enough." And with that, the blaster rushed forward.

"W-wait!" Legato shouted.

"Liuva, stop!" Aran stood up.

But the blaster heard none of it. She leapt off the dune and slid down the sand, expertly breaking into a sprint as she hit the bottom of the hill. Her arm cannon flared to life, the explosive tip radiating heat.

Liuva approached the creature with Olympic speed. As soon as she was within melee range, she planted her left foot in the ground in front of her and slammed her gauntlet dead center of the creature. She let loose a loud cry, and the tip of the cannon detonated.

The explosion echoed through the silent landscape, and the sand was whipped up into a whirlwind. The orange glow clashed against the pale blue of the surrounding area, and then faded into a ball of black smoke. Liuva panted as she drew her arm away. She turned to the six atop the hill, and gave a peace sign with her left gauntlet.

"Liuva!" Cried Yuuki in horror.

The blaster frowned and turned quickly to see a flash of dark blue come barreling out of the smoke towards her. Liuva bobbed to the side and, with a small hop in the air, slammed her fist into the creature a second time. The explosion was smaller, but Liuva rode the recoil backwards; backflipping through the air before skidding to a halt some distance away.

Liuva cursed under her breath; neither of her attacks had even left a scratch on the creature. Her image shimmered and faded from view as she cast Infiltrate. The Erda, seemingly confused that its attacker had suddenly disappeared, seemed to bounce around aimlessly for a few seconds before settling in the sand. Then, it hopped off in the direction away from the group.

Liuva's image rematerialized next to the group, panting.

"Huff…huff…alright…say it; that was stupid of me."

"That was stupid of you." Hayato commented. Aran gave the girl a smack upside the head for good measure.

"It was bizarre, though." Liuva said, now rubbing the back of her head. "An attack like that should have at least knocked that thing back a little. Yet it didn't budge at all."

"Correct." Said Xenon. "The first attack, by my sensors, equated to approximately 3.3 megajoules, and the second to approximately 5 kilojoules."

"I only got a C- in physics…" Said Yuuki. "…but I'm guessing that's a lot."

"Some kind of magic?" Asked Aran. "A barrier?"

"Unless the creature's reaction time was within nanoseconds- and it did not appear to be anything close to such- there should have been no time to prepare for that attack." Continued Xenon. "It should have been knocked back, barrier or no barrier."

"There's something worse…" Tear said, abnormally pale. "I can't talk to Eskalade…like, at all."