Previously...
"I knew it," Mithos muttered as his head slowly rose, his eyes brimming with tears. "I knew it! Big Brother!" He shouted, stepping back from Lloyd and Suna.
"What the—?" Lloyd wondered, startled at what his friend had just said "What do you mean big—? Whoa!" A large burst of water had blasted the two up into the air. And then, once they landed back on the ground, a ring of fire sprang up all around them.
"What is all of this about, Mithos?!" Suna demanded, glaring at him as best she through the flames. Just before she unfurled her wings, Suna remembered the fact that no one except Lloyd and Mithos knew who she really was. "Dang it," she muttered angrily.
"I'll take it from here, Mithos."
The young tri-elf nodded, "Right." He then turned his back on his two friends inside the circle of fire and ran as fast as he could back to his house, mumbling, "I'm sorry, guys…"
For the rest of the week, Mithos would get up and leave for school extremely early so he could wait at the entrance for Lloyd, or even Suna, to arrive so he could walk in with whoever it was that came, up until the point where he would have to run inside or be counted as late. But neither of them came to school that week, leaving Mithos to hang out with his new-found ally Zelus.
It was a cloudy, fall, Thursday afternoon and Mithos was sitting outside underneath the same tree he, Lloyd, and Suna usually sat under. He sighed, completely bored out of his mind.
"What's wrong, Mithos?"
The tri-elf looked up to see Zelus standing before him, an expression of concern on the elder boy's face. "Hey, Zelus?"
"Yeah, bud? What is it?"
"What…did you and the others do to Lloyd and Suna that they aren't coming to school?"
Startled the boy would ask such a question, Zelus paused for a second and then replied casually, "Oh, you know," he shrugged "the usual." Seeing as that answer didn't exactly calm Mithos' worries, Zelus continued. "Why do you care anyways? All they've ever done was control you like a mindless slave. You know how people like them can be, looking down upon you just 'cause you're blood is different from theirs' and all that junk."
Mithos' head tilted downward in sadness. "Yeah, but—"
"They had your head so filled up with lies, that it was really hard to be able to get you to see sense, Mithos. Can't you trust me?"
The younger boy sighed. "…Okay," he nodded, looking up once more. "I trust you, Zelus."
He wrapped an arm around Mithos' shoulders. "That's my bud," he said contentedly.
That same day, right after school ended for the day, Mithos was walking to his locker when he suddenly got hit in the back by some kind of flying spike made purely of earth. Since no one else was in the hallway, he was by himself to face whoever it was that attacked him. "So you think you can just betray your friends like that and get away with it, huh?" A seventeen-year-old girl's voice questioned him. "Well think again, little brat."
"What the—?" Mithos gasped, turning behind him to see that it was one of the girls that usually hung around Zelus and his friends. "Aren't you Kris—?"
"Silence, kid. We don't need to hear your complaints," A different voice, this time a boy's, ordered. "Isn't that right, Kristi?"
"You are absolutely right, Pai," Kristi agreed. A circle then slowly appeared around Mithos as Pai chanted, Kristi keeping the tri-elven boy in one place.
Just as she had attacked Mithos, Pai finished his incantation by shouting, "Achtina(1)!" Sending four streams of light down in a square upon where Mithos laid, the fifth and final light hitting him in the center of the square. "That ought to get it through your stupid, little, mixed-blood head not to stay around our leader," he seethed.
"Yeah, stay away from Zelus you little—"
"Leave him alone!" The familiar voice of a certain blond-haired, elven boy rang throughout the hallway. Then, Zelus came running down towards the three of them.
The pair of attackers stared at him in disbelief. "You-you mean us, Zelus?" Kristi asked, unable to take in the fact that Zelus was standing up for a tri-elf.
"Who do ya think I mean, him?" The blond questioned, pointing down at Mithos. He raised a hand near Kristi's face, seeming to be about to slap her. Assuming the worst, she shut her eyes tightly and ducked her head over to the side as well as lowered it a bit. Although, in reality, Zelus was merely doing that so he could begin casting a spell of his own. "Return to the dimension of those unworthy of Gnome's domain. Sobaros(2)!" He shouted the final word, causing a set of spikes to come out of the ground beneath the young, fallen tri-elf.
"Ah!" Mithos grunted as the earthen spires hit him, each at a separate time. Then, a final spike thrust up form right under Mithos, shooting him up into the air and hitting the ceiling with his back. Landing back on the floor, he attempted to get to his feet. "Zelus, I-I thought you were my friend…But you, but you were lying to me…weren't you?"
"Now see here, Mithos. I really thought you were gonna join our side, but then you had to go and be worried about those other two," Zelus countered, bringing a hand up to keep the other elves silent. "That, my little ex-friend, is where you went wrong."
Gaping at the blond, elven boy in disbelief, Mithos tried as hard as he could to keep calm. Despite his futile attempts, a soft light began to appear around him. Confused, Zelus, Kristi, and Pai backed away from the youngest boy. Then, the light completely engulfed Mithos' body. As it slowly disappeared, the three teenagers were face with a face they had only see on the front page of the newspaper; the face of Yggdrasill.
"Wha-what the—?" Zelus stuttered. "How the heck are you-how are you him?!"
"Run away!" Kristi shouted, spinning on her heel and leaving the hallway as fast as she could; Pai hurriedly following.
"Cowards," Yggdrasill muttered disdainfully as he watched the two retreat. Seeing Zelus trying to do the same, he questioned, "And just where do you think you're going?"
Freezing where he was, Zelus turned to look Yggdrasill in the eyes. "I'm gonna tell the truth and say, uh, gettin' the heck outta here."
"Oh really?" The man inquired, just before beginning to chant, "Powers of the sacred spirits, cast thy judgment upon these tainted souls…I summon thee from the domain of Shadow to unleash thy strength…" A large, dark, light blue-ish spell circle then encircled Zelus. "Aganaktisi Edikasi!" Just after he yelled the name of his attack, a bolt of lightning came thundering down upon the young elven boy. Seeing as he lay on the ground motionless, Yggdrasill commented, "Who did you say was 'unworthy of Gnome's domain', impudent brat?"
Just then, a whole crowd of both students and teachers combined came stampeding down the hallway toward Zelus and Yggdrasill. "That's him!" Pai shouted, pointing at Yggdrasill. "That guy is really Mithos!"
Yggdrasill's face turned stone cold. "I'm disappointed in all of you, especially those of you who actually know what my surname is."
Meanwhile, Martel was walking to Lloyd's house when she heard a voice shout: "Aganaktisi Edikasi!"
She turned in the direction of the voice. "Mithos…?" Shaking her head a few times, Martel continued on to the residence of the young half-dwarf and his mother. "It couldn't have been him…he's in school right now."
When she arrived, Lloyd's mother told her that she could visit Lloyd for just a few minutes because he had "that run-in with a rabid wolf" and needed to rest.
"Oh, I understand completely, Anna. Mithos was sick not even a week ago, so…I know what you mean," Martel sympathized. "Can you tell me where I would find Lloyd's room?"
"It's upstairs and to your left," Anna directed, pointing up the wooden staircase. "Good luck trying to get him to talk to you, though. He hasn't said a thing to me all morning."
The forest green-haired woman walked up to the second floor and, once reaching the door directly to her left, raised a hand and rapped on the door. "May I come in, Lloyd?"
"…"
"I'll take that as a 'yes', shall I?" She opened the door and looked around the room. "Where is he? Anna said that he was—"
"Hi, Martel!"
"Ah!" she screamed in surprise, a hand coming up and covering her heart. "Lloyd, you…you startled me."
The young brunette half-dwarf smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Heh, I wouldn't say 'startled' is the word for it."
"Lloyd!" Anna called from the first floor, causing Lloyd to spin around and face the doorway. "Stop scaring people like that!"
"Okay…" The boy responded sullenly just before turning back towards Martel. "I'm sorry, Martel. I—what did you want to talk to me about?"
She stared down at him in silence. "…It's…about Mithos."
"Oh…" Lloyd almost sighed in response as he carefully walked over to his bed and sat down. "What about him?"
"You know how I had told you he had Angel Toxicosis, right?" He nodded. "Well…when I had told you that, he didn't actually have it. But then, that night, he came and told me that he couldn't sleep at all, so…he does have it." As she spoke, Lloyd's expression changed from being confused to being shocked that Martel would lie and then back to being confused.
"What's that got to do with what he did a couple days ago?"
Taken aback, Martel wondered, "What do you mean 'what he did', Lloyd?"
"Uh…never mind," he said quickly, ducking beneath his covers. "I didn't say anything, okay?" Getting suspicious, Martel carefully pulled back his blanket, trying as hard as she could not to lose her hold on it since Lloyd was resisting her removing his covering. "I didn't say anything about Mithos befriending Zelus, now did I—oops." He started to speak, but then realized what he had just said as Martel took away his covers. The young teen's head fell to rest on his chest.
"What do you mean be 'befriend Zelus'? Do you mean that other blond elf that was here before?"
Lloyd nodded, deciding that telling Martel about it wasn't such a bad idea after all. "Don't tell him I asked you this, but…why did he have to help Zelus? I mean, he always angered Mithos, so why would he help Zelus in beating me and Suna u—?"
"It's 'Suna and I', Lloyd, remem—what?" Martel inquired. "Mithos was the on that hurt you like that?" She motioned towards the boy's scorched back of his neck as well as his arms and feet.
Lloyd shook his head, wincing a little from the movement. "No, he just signaled Zelus and his friends so they could do it. Mithos didn't attack either of us at all."
Martel sighed in relief. "That's good I suppose…what is it they did to the two of you?" She asked softly, being cautious of Lloyd's injuries, not knowing if they still hurt or not.
"Uh…we-well," the boy stuttered, unsure if he should tell on one of his best friends. "First, we got surrounded by a ring of fire. Then…I got knocked out cold," he started to explain, his face apologetic. I'm sorry I couldn't have been more of a help to you, Martel. I really am."
"That's okay. You tried your best, but you could only remember a little bit of what happened. No one's going to blame you, Lloyd," Martel comforted, walking over and sitting on the edge of his bed as she spoke. "So don't think like that, okay? I—heh, I guess we really are related…" she murmured softly while in thought.
Lloyd on the other hand, just simply stared at her in confusion. "…What?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Lloyd. It's just that—well, I repeated something Mithos had said to me just now, and…"
"Oh, I get it," Lloyd responded seeing as the older woman had gone quiet. "What you said reminded you of him, right?"
"Yes…but I don't know where he is right now."
"Shouldn't he be in school? It is Fri—"
"Lloyd! Martel!" Anna called, sounding urgent. "Please come down here, quickly." The two of them looked at each other before they both rushed out the door and down the steps. "Ah, you're here. Look at this." Anna pointed toward the television screen where a human man with long, blue hair sat behind a desk. On the wall behind and a little to the right of him, was another screen; a frozen picture of winged Yggdrasill flying over a sea of fire.
"How horrible…" Martel breathed, shocked at what she saw.
The man on the screen explained, "This is a shot taken not too far off from the local high school of the newest terror, Yggdrasill, is wrecking havoc on the teenagers who had just gotten out of school for today. More information is coming in rapidly as we speak. Presea, how are things over there?"
The screen then switched to show a woman about the age of 28 standing a mile or so away from Lloyd's recently destroyed high school. She had long, bright pink hair and eyes the color of the sky. Her expression was grave as she spoke. "I would like to say thank you for that, Regal, but I doubt it would suit what is occurring here. I am not even five minutes away from the point where the demon known as 'Yggdrasill' is terrorizing the students of Mana High. The scene you see behind me is a result of, what nearby residents have said, was a large explosion from an 'Indignation Judgment' attack from the blond menace. Back to you, Regal."
It went back to the blue-haired man named Regal. "As you can see from these pictures," he said as he motioned towards five pictures that rotated on the screen behind him. "The damage done will take a long time to repair. Not only that, but it—hm?" Regal paused, a young man with short, messy, silver hair came into view and handed the man a sheet of paper. "Thank you, Genis." He nodded in the direction the sliver-haired runner had left, reading what the paper said. Looking up, he stated, "This just in, it has been reported that mostly all of the faculty and students were able to get out of the range of Yggdrasill's attack before it went off. All except for five people. Their names are yet to be—Thank you again, Genis." Genis came back into the screen with another sheet of paper, handed it to Regal, waved at the screen, and then left. "Their names are as follows: three elves: Zelus Wilder, Kristi Page, and Pai Alvey, a half-elf named Raine Sage, and a—"
"What!?" A voice shouted from inside the television.
Regal looked off screen in the direction Genis had gone. "Is there something wrong, Genis?"
It could be heard that, off screen, the silver-haired Genis was running through multiple obstacles and then appeared on the television. He stood beside Regal in furry. "That's my sister you're talking so calmly about!"
The man simply stared at him for a moment before turning back towards the camera. "Anyway, the fifth unknown person is a tri-elf by the name of Mithos."
"Mithos?" Genis asked, confused.
"Yes, the last name of the tri-elf is unknown," Regal responded evenly. "And that has been our special report on Yggdrasill the Demon. We shall now continue with the regular news with Sheena—?" He was still talking just as Lloyd reached over to turn off the television.
"Well that was…interesting," commented Anna, looking over at the other two in the room. "Don't you think so, Mar—Lloyd?! Where are you—?"
"I'll be back before nightfall, Mom!" Lloyd shouted as he ran out the door.
"Okay…" She and Martel looked at each other, stunned that he could go that fast and his injuries didn't hurt very much.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," the young half-dwarf muttered, running as fast as his charred legs could carry him. "Why did I have to pass out inside the ring of fire?" He got to his school grounds just in time to see a teenage girl plummet from the sky and crash land ten feet away from him. She had long, raven black hair and silver, crystal-like wings. Finally realizing who it was, Lloyd dashed over to help her up. "Kazuko!" He knelt down beside her. "Kazuko, are you okay?"
Slowly rising to support herself with her elbows, Kazuko loudly muttered, "You can just call me by my name you know, Lloyd."
"Huh?" Lloyd wondered, thinking about what it was he had called her. "I did call you by your name. Isn't Kazuko your name?"
"…You could say that, yes," she responded. "Lloyd, I need to tell you something. Yggdrasill is—"
"Silence, little girl," the above-mentioned tri-elf commanded., firing a shock into the middle of her back. The attack struck her directly, causing her to fall flat back onto the ground.
"What about Yggdrasill, Kazuko?" Lloyd asked, trying to get her to continue talking to him. Seeing as the girl got knocked unconscious, Lloyd hurriedly picked Kazuko up and carried her as far away from Yggy as he could. He then turned back to face the adult tri-elf.
"What, are you planning on fighting me yourself, Lloyd Aurion?" Yggdrasill inquired. "Do you really think you, who can not use any kind of magic at all, have a chance against the same person who defeated her? The one they call the 'Wind Spirit'?"
The auburn-haired, teenage boy glared at Yggdrasill, his usually brown eyes looking as though fire was actually burning in them. "I'm not scared of you, Yggy," he stated defiantly.
"Really?" The man questioned, using only a single hand to make Lloyd fly all the way across the school grounds and land flat on his stomach. "It looks to me like you don't have any sort of desire to beat me, boy. Too bad for you she's already gone. If she wasn't, you'd actually have someone to protect."
Lloyd attempted to rise to at least his knees, but continuously lost his balance and fell back down. Eventually reaching a position in which he could look up at Yggdrasill from where he knelt on his hands and knees, Lloyd saw the limp form of Kazuko in the distance. Realizing the fact that Yggdrasill might just be right, his head dropped downward as his entire body began to shake vigorously, streams of light emerging from the boy. "No…" He started, his voice uneven. "You're wrong, Yggdrasill…Even if Kazuko is dead, I can still protect everyone else from you. Especially my best friend who might still be buried underneath all that rubble."
Yggdrasill's eyes softened slightly at Lloyd's mention of his "best friend." "And just who would that 'best friend' be?"
"He's the greatest, most kind friend a person could ever have," Lloyd explained. "And I get why Zelus picked to deceive him instead of Suna or me." His body suddenly emitted a ray of red light that then divided into two and connected him to, not only Kazuko, but Yggdrasill as well. "Tell me where Mithos is right now, Yggdrasill!" The teen ordered, his breathing slightly ragged from the hard landing, raising a clenched fist into the air just so he could slam it into the ground underneath him. "Tell me!"
"He's right here," Yggdrasill responded evenly.
"Wha—?" Lloyd began just as a really, really bright light shone, covering Yggdrasill's whole body. "What're you—Mi-Mithos? Why—how—wha-what are you doing here? I thought you—"
"I could ask you the same question, Lloyd," the young blond tri-elf countered. "I was starting to wonder how long it would take for this to happen…" he mused. "So, Lloyd, do you have any kind of guess as to why I told you I didn't know Yggdrasill?"
Hurt, the auburn-haired half-dwarf glared at his friend as the shorter boy unfurled a pair of rainbow-colored wings and took to the sky. "You—you lied to me, didn't you? All that time, you knew you'd never have a run-in with Yggdrasill because—because you're him!" Lloyd concluded. "Why, Mithos? Why do you keep attacking people? What did they ever do to—?"
"They did nothing. The people who were simply running errands, like you unexpectedly had been, did absolutely nothing to me personally. They did, however, hurt many of my people by their words and actions."
"Then why attack the school? Nobody here has ever—"
"So you're saying no one attacked me eight years ago? 'Nobody', Lloyd? What about Zelus? Or Suna?" Or…" his voice trailed off for a few moments before he continued, seeming to not believe what he was about to say. "Or you?"
"What?" Lloyd asked, practically speechless. "I didn't do—"
"That's right. You didn't do anything to help me, Lloyd Aurion," Mithos interrupted sullenly, his voice sounding as if he felt betrayed. "And now, you have the guts to say no one ever did anything to harm me?!" He shouted angrily, his hands clenching to form fists. "Despicable. Truly despicable…"
Just at that moment, a set of four, glowing swords came crashing down upon Mithos; a fifth one soon following in the other four. The strikes caused him to fall out of the sky and land almost directly at Lloyd's feet.
"Stay away from him, Mithos," a familiar female's voice ordered sternly, a dark shadow slowly walking over to the pair of boys.
"Ah! Kazuko, how are you—?" Lloyd started to inquire before she held up an open palm in front of his face.
"Quiet, Lloyd Aurion. This is a battle between me and Yggy here, so you can run away and go back home now."
Offended, neither of Lloyd's feet moved a single inch as he raised a hand to remove her's from his line of vision. "No," he told her, his voice beginning to sound like he was going to be acting rashly if something wasn't done quickly. "I'm not gonna run and hide while you risk your life, again, just for the sake of protecting other—"
"You."
"Wha-what?" The half-dwarf wondered, rapidly shaking his head from side to side.
"I said you, Lloyd Aurion," Mithos answered, struggling to get to his feet. "The reason you always see Kazuko when you are in any kind of danger is because she puts protecting you before anyone's, even her own, safety. Do you understand?"
Lloyd stared down at the young tri-elf in surprise. "You don't have any kind of proof of that, do you, Mithos?"
"He doesn't need any more proof than my saying that he's right, does he, Lloyd?" Kazuko asked, turning towards him.
"Wh-why do you actually want to protect me—?"
"Years prior to today, you help me out more than you will ever know, Lloyd. That debt I have now fully repaid." She turned on her heel and began to silently walk away. "Good bye, Lloyd Aurion." Pausing for only a moment, Kazuko took that time to spread out her silvery wings. Taking off from the ground, she was about to leave the two boys by themselves back on the earth's surface. "Until next time, Mithos Yggdrasill…"
(1) Ach-Tea-Na Ray
(2) Sew-Bar-Os Grave