Disclaimer: *Insert clever quirk about me not owning Soul Calibur and how if I did so and so would be in SCV and junk*

Now, back from the dead, and with a brand new (and less stupid sounding name at that) chapter of….

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Legacy of Arthias

Chapter 11: Unfulfilled

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Sarieth slowly started to regain consciousness a few hours later. As tired eyes adjusted to the lack of light, he found himself lying inside a tent. His armor, removed while he was unconscious, had been discarded in a pile next to him, and he was covered with a blanket. Pushing the sheet aside, he slowly sat up as he tried to recall the previous events of last night, his hand absentmindedly brushed against his bandaged-wrapped abdomen. It took only a few seconds afterwards for the memories of what happened to come rushing back. Luna…

He fought back a growl when he remembered what she did, but a shot of pain that ran through his torso quickly quelled any anger that threatened to boil up.

Damn that girl… Sarieth eased back into a more comfortable position as he started to contemplate everything that happened over the past day.

Two things had occurred last night that changed his current view of the situation. The first thing was that he lost. The second (and obviously more significant) thing was the revelation that Kalent was okay and still in Dalkia.

That was not to say he thought otherwise. On the contrary; from the beginning, Sarieth had always went on the assumption that his brother was alive. The mere thought of something like that was buried in the back of his consciousness along with all the other doubts he refused to consider. There was the question of why he was still over there after all this time, but that was the furthest thing on his mind right now.

He had lost. Despite the fact that they had accomplished their main goal—pushing Dalkian forces further back into the capital—and done it while in a relative disadvantage, Sarieth had let his guard down and Luna made him pay for it; something that the young captain had to admit tended to happen a lot during fights his with extraordinarily skilled opponents. However, unlike the other times, where he always found, by one means or another, a way to attain victory, Luna had already encountered him once, and he suspected that her defeat by his hands had stung her way deeper than he had thought.

"Good morning…" The voice of Rhiona shook him out of his thoughts, as she climbed into the tent, looking like she had only about an hour's worth of sleep at the very most. "How are you feeling?"

"I suppose I could be better, but…." Before Sarieth could finish, Rhiona had already wrapped her arms around him and the words died in his mouth. "I'm sorry, Riona." He gave her a gentle squeeze in response, not wanting to see her break down crying like she often did when they were young. "I screwed up, but everything's fine."

"I know it's not your fault, but don't scare me like that again…" Her voice was muffled by his shirt. "You idiot…"

"Hey now, I get enough of that 'idiot' stuff from Riese already."

"I've been calling you that since we started military school; it's just the first time you've actually been close enough to hear it." Rhiona worked up a smile as she brushed stray tears from her face. "Anyway, are you able to stand up?"

"I'm still quite sore." Sarieth moved around a bit; none of the pain he felt was strong enough to stop him from moving. "…but it looks like I can at least walk. But enough about me, how is everyone else doing?"

"Everyone was a bit messed up last night. I don't know if you could tell, being passed out and all, but we're all still smarting from our respective fights. Apparently all of those girls were part of one unit, and they were extremely skilled."

That news didn't come as a surprise to him whatsoever. "How did you manage to hold them off?"

Rhiona gave a small shrug. "They were probably the strongest ones we've faced so far, but we stood our ground quite well." She paused as she tried to recall last night's events. "I believe Riese was the closest one to actually winning, but she heard that girl talking about finishing you off and…."

She trailed off, but Sarieth knew exactly what she was going to say. It was obvious that Riese blew a gasket and rushed to protect him, as she always would when he was in danger. "Looks like I have to give her my thanks."

"I hope you do that soon. She's been upset since she treated your wounds; last night Aeneas had to hold her down because she wanted to go after those girls. Riese could use some cheering up."

"I bet she does. Poor girl doesn't get as much credit as she deserves sometimes." Riese's unstable emotional state was something the young soldier was all too familiar with. "What about Abelia? Is she an emotional wreck too?"

"Actually, once she got a good look at the extent of your injuries, she was confident that you would be okay." Rhiona rose to her feet. "Speaking of Abelia, she's outside right now, talking to a royal messenger."

"A royal messenger?" That was the last person that Sarieth expected to see. "If that's the case, then it means…"

"Yes, we got a message from the emperor." Rhiona finished as she helped the still tired captain to his feet. "And you're involved as well, but I had to make sure you were well enough to hear it before he announced anything."

"What does he want? It's still a bit too early to be awarding me any medals." The Spada's relationship Emperor Strife had always been a rather shaky one, even at the best of times. Since they usually worked close with the army, however, any flare ups were usually rare. "He's here with good news, right?"

"I'm not sure you'll be happy with what he has to say; all I can tell you is to come out and hear it for yourself." Rhiona gestured outside the tent. "They've been waiting on you, so you better make an appearance soon."

Sarieth didn't really feel like doing much of anything so soon after waking up, but the duties of a captain never stopped, even for injury. "Alright, I'll be out soon. Give me some time to get ready." Sarieth shooed his cousin out of the tent. Gathering his stuff, he put his armor on and composed himself. He probably looked a mess, but his mother told him once that he was the type of person that could look handsome even if he woke up in the middle of the street.

He stumbled a bit when he finally stepped out of the tent. The rest of his unit was already up and active, but they must have assumed that he wouldn't awake so quickly, because his sudden reappearance startled them.

"Wha… Captain? You've woken up already?" Eurydice said. "I thought you were out cold after that fight?"

"How are you feeling? Still sore?" Meiga asked.

"As long as you don't have me doing anything involving actual physical effort, I'll be fine." Sarieth said, waving off the other's concerns for his condition for now. "It should be obvious by now that I can't be rid of that easily." He noticed Riese staring at him, just becoming aware of his recovery.

"Sarieth, I…." She stopped for a second. "Are you okay?"

"Uh…hi." He smiled, "I owe you tremendously. You really saved my neck out there. Quite literally, since I'm sure Luna was probably about to cut my throat..."

"You got that right, idiot." The glare Riese she was giving Sarieth unnerved the young commander. "What the hell happened? How did that trash get so close to killing you in the first place?"

"Well, Riese, it's like you said; your Captain is an idiot." Sarieth rolled his eyes in frustration. "Seriously though, these things just happen sometimes."

Aeneas abruptly inserted himself into the conversation before it got ugly. "I wouldn't worry about Riese at the moment, Sarieth. She's a bit testy after last night."

"I'm not testy! I was just concerned." Riese sounded dejected. "I was so focused on beating up that girl, that I didn't know you were in trouble till it was almost too late."

"Ah ah, no need to blame yourself for what happened." He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and Riese seemed to ease up a bit. "You're just doing what you had to do."

"If you say so…" Riese said resignedly; Sarieth's words provided little to ease her guilt, and she didn't feel like going further with this issue. "I'm going to get some rest; I've been on watch for hours now."

As Riese sulked to another tent, Sarieth looked at Aeneas, and all his friend could do was shake his head.

"Looks as if this is another case of 'let's leave Riese alone for a while', huh?" Sarieth said. "Getting back to business, where's this messenger they've supposedly sent for me?'

Aeneas gestured to a clearing where three figures where standing. "He's over there chatting it up with Abelia. "

Sarieth turned his head to the three people in question. One was a younger girl wearing a casual outfit, the other was someone adorned in attire that was common wear for people who worked closer to the Emperor. Abelia, in the midst of a conversation with the latter, looked as if as whatever subject this message was about was fairly disquieting.

"….Pardon me…" The royal messenger spoke up. "You are Sarieth Spada, right?"

He nodded. "That I am. And I hear you have something for me?"

"I've been ordered by Emperor Strife himself to give you some news about your newest assignment."

"Assignment? Well, whatever it is, I'm ready to hear it." He couldn't help but be eager to find out what was coming next. Whatever Rhiona was referring to when she stated that he 'wouldn't be pleased' couldn't be THAT bad.

/ / /

"Thank goodness that's over." Kalent talked to himself as he left out of the royal palace. "I didn't take me nearly that long to get here from Grandall as it did to get to Maletta and back..."

Kalent had returned from his assignment with Queen Aurelia, and came back with a newfound respect for how more leisurely his current position to following her around for days on end; Anymore time spent in that cold wasteland of a town and he most likely would have gone insane. He managed, though, and now his main duty was to wait for who knows how long till Luna and the others returned so they could go on their next mission.

From what some of the other soldiers that had been present in the capital had informed him, he knew that something happened at the area where the Klessirpemdo was stationed, but all he heard was that they ended up having to retreat, which more than likely meant that Sarieth had beat her again. And that would mean she would be in a bad mood when she got here and Kalent would probably be her punching bag again for another week.

With that dreadful thought now running around in his head, he stepped out to the courtyard, which was always pleasing to the eye despite the slowly growing cold killing some of the many colorful flowers that usually surrounded it.

"I certainly didn't expect to see you here."

Kalent quickly recognized the voice as Marta. Sure enough, a few seconds later he came bounding down the steps, carrying a relatively large bag in his hand. "What are you doing here? Are you waiting for Eula and the others to return?"

"Actually, I'm usually here to try to get some more scrap for the shop." He dropped the bag, which hit the ground with a loud clunk, "However, I had heard that you and Roin returned, so I decided to see how you were holding up. So, how are you doing?"

"I'm still alive, so I suppose thing are going fine." Kalent answered, "More importantly, how are YOU doing after what happened the last time we met?"

"I wish that was the case, but that little stunt you pulled sort of made me a bit of an outcast. I already had one person try to burn down my shop, and if I didn't have someone keep a look out while I'm gone, I'd probably be going home to a pile of ashes."

Kalent could only offer him a sheepish smile after that tale. "Erm…Sorry?"

"Don't worry, It'll be forgotten in no time. It's amazing how giving away some free items can have a crowd by your side." Marta dismissed the thought with a wave of the hand; It was obvious that it wasn't the first time this has happened to him. "Anyway, how was your trip?"

"DULL." Kalent put as much emphasis on that word as he could. "To be more precise, the country itself wasn't that bad, but the trip and back was absolutely horrendous. If this is a new kingdom, then it'll probably be for the better that they do align with Dalkia now."

"Do you know what they're planning?" Marta asked.

"Not really. Something about Halteese's capital and some junk, but it's still very fuzzy." Kalent shook his head. He was brought along for more protection-related reasons, and while he could have easily took part in any meetings just by benefit of his ranking, he never was one to appreciate the finer points of a strategy session.

As Marta stared pensively at the slowly clearing sky, a question came to Kalent's mind, "Hey Marta, you've known the Klessirpemdo longer than I have, right?"

"Absolutely. Hopefully once I get reinstated, Eula can convince Luna to let me actually join, but she shot down that idea twice already." Marta said, "Some nonsense about me being a detriment to Eula's ability to focus on fighting and stuff like that. What did you want to know?"

"Just for the sake of being curious, what's the story behind this group?"

"Oh, that….Actually, it's a bit complex." Marta relaxed a bit, "Luna, though you might have figured it out yourself, isn't that easy to get along with. While she is certainly a skilled soldier, many of the more experienced commanders had complained to Roin that Luna was difficult to work with due to her belligerent attitude. From what I heard, the Queen was the one to come up with the idea to pair her with people who had similar attitude. She hoped that they'd be more able to get along, and surprisingly enough, they did. It's just so happened that all of those people were girls."

That's certainly one way of explaining it. Kalent decided to press the issue a bit further. "So, you know where Lupi and the other girls come from?"

"I know that Aege was from a military family and that Heal-Do comes from a kind of rich area of the country. Lupi grew up poor though. Military life suited her because she's always been such a hot-headed girl."

"I see that now. What about you and Eula?"

Marta paused a bit, struggling with how exactly he wanted to explain it. "Eula is a war orphan. Right around the time the war started to heat up, her parents were murdered by Halteese invaders. They had done so in a botched attempt to take over a military base, and she ended up paying for it. She had a natural ability for fighting and strategizing, so it was inevitable that she would join the military." He shook her head, "Of course, I had to join her, despite the fact that I was never all that interested in the war to begin with…"

"Because you like her?" Kalent finished.

Marta tried to wave the question off. "Er…of course! She's my best friend after all. I'd do anything for her, including going through torturous military training and all that stuff." "It's not like I had much choice. I can't really do anything else besides fight or sell weapons; chose to fight, but unfortunately…"

"…You got injured." Kalent finished, and got a bitter laugh from Marta in response.

"Injured is a mild way of putting it." He pulled a sleeve of his shirt up enough to show the beginnings of a long, scar that was tattooed on the inside of his arm. "On the brink of death would be more accurate. Eula had to drag me to the medical tent, and even then it took a lot of work to keep my blood from spilling all over the ground."

"The look on her face when I woke up…" Marta's expression turned darker as he continued, "Eula was in much better shape then I was, but she looked broken; as if she had absolutely nothing left in her body. It's not the kind of feeling you want to experience again, and that's partly why Eula is so insistent of me NOT going back on duty. I don't think she could handle it if I got killed. I certainly don't want to even imagine her reaction."

"…I certainly know how that feels." Kalent muttered, and it was true. He remembered the period after Rhiona's father died. For a long time, she was only a shell of her old energetic self, and it took a good amount of effort to bring life back into her, and even then she still had a sense of moroseness radiating from her. He could only assume that Eula didn't want to experience such pain again.

That thought, however, made him want to lighten the mood up. "So, like I said earlier, do you two like each other? You know, in the 'make out' kind of like each other?"

Marta gave him a look that said 'ask her yourself'. "We're just friends, at the moment." He said, not wanting to get into a long discussion about their relationship. "If you want to ask her how she feels, be my guest."

It wasn't very long after that they could hear Luna's voice in the distance, and it sounded a lot less moody the last time he saw her. That was a good sign, but what could she be so happy about when her unit had to retreat?

As soon as they came within distance, Eula had already dropped everything to meet up with Marta. Luna, conversely, didn't look too ecstatic with his presence. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Ah, Luna; can't say I didn't enjoy your brief absence." Marta glared at her over the shoulder of the girl he was hugging. "Heard you lost. Again."

"Oh, on the contrary….we may have been forced to retreat, but I wasn't the one lying on the ground when it was all over." Luna said smugly.

Kalent was about to offer his congratulations, but then he remembered who exactly she'd been fighting that time….

"Luna," Kalent said with a bit of weariness, "Just what happened during your battle?"

"It's simple. I met up with the man that defeated me, and I kicked his ass." Luna said simply. "I probably would have finished him off too, if we weren't forced to turn back."

Kalent blood had gone so cold he could have sworn he wanted to shiver, but he couldn't do anything about it, not at the moment. Besides, he didn't know if Luna was referring to her brother or not. It had been a good number of months since they supposedly met, so they should have brought some re-enforcements…

"Kalent, why do you have that look on your face? Was that trip you went on that bad?" Lupi asked, and Kalent realized that his thoughts were showing on his face.

"Uh, n-no….well yes, it was pretty lousy, but…."

"….Nobody cares about that! We just got back, so let's get back home and relax already!" Despite the rude interruption, Luna seemed to be in a very good mood. "You can tell us all about it afterwards!"

"Actually, we can't go home quite yet…" All the exuberance Luna was showing got sucked out of her with those words, "Queen Aurelia saw fit to grant us another mission as soon as we got back to the capital."

Kalent waited to see how badly Luna would react, but surprisingly enough, she just frowned and mumbled a few curses under her breath.

"Okay, where does she want us to go now?"

"Back to Halteese, apparently. She said it's important to start as soon as possible." Kalent shrugged. "Sorry, but that's just how it goes. Imperial orders and such."

"Alright then, it looks like we're off." Luna turned back around, the other's following suit, though Eula couldn't help to give her friend one more hug before she did.

"Looks like you won't be getting any rest any time soon." Marta shook his head. "Hope you're ready to fight."

Kalent just shot him a look before he turned around and followed his unit out of the capital.

/ / /

"…and such are the orders of Emperor Strife." The messenger finished his statement. As the young man looked up from his paper, however, he realized the mood had changed significantly from the time he started reading the emperor's orders . He instantly assumed that Sarieth wasn't quite happy to hear this news.

"So…let me get this straight…." Sarieth said in as calm a voice as he could muster. "We're within distance of Dalkia's capital, and we have a chance to strike before the military can reinforce the area. So Strife now wants my unit to hand over all responsibility of that task to Abelia, pack up, go all the way to Halteese, try to penetrate their massive defensive wall, and then sit back and wait for reinforcements to arrive, of which in that time we'll be nothing more than a backup unit?"

"That's what it says. Halteese has invaded our country, so we need someone to go into theirs and hopefully cut off the flow of troops before it gets too troublesome…"

His unit looked on with concern; ready to jump into action at the slightest hint that Sarieth would try to cleave the messengers with his sword in response.

"Sarieth, please calm down and act like a rational person!" Riona pleaded, but her cousin had already begun his ranting.

"He thinks he can just dump this on us at a moment's notice…That arrogant little brat…" Sarieth growled as he paced back and forth a bit. He knew his anger would go mostly unnoticed; Even if they were well-received by the public (at least from what they've heard), they couldn't defy the emperor's orders. Besides that, if it was the case of Halteese declaring war was true, then someone had to stop any attempts at an invasion on the Halteese's part. And the fact of the matter was, if Kalent was alive and safe, as he was suspecting, then getting to Dalkia was no longer a matter of urgency.

That epiphany was just the thing he needed to cool himself down. He took a deep breath and turned to his squad, who were glad that they didn't have to deal with the consequence of their captain murdering a public official. "I know that this is a pain, but this is something we just have to deal with. Start packing up; we're going to the Halteese Republic."

Groans of frustration came in response, but his unit obediently left to gather their things. Meanwhile, Sarieth trudged tiredly back into his tent. This wasn't going at all like he wanted. Fresh off getting his hide handed to him by Luna, he was being sent off to face Halteese soldiers, a force, from what Riese had told them, that was way more intense and violent than any Dalkian forces he had faced so far. As crestfallen and injured as he was, though, he refused to show weakness to anyone.

"Sarieth? Are you doing okay?" Abelia entered the tent. "Considering the situation, you're unusually silent about it for once."

He gave his friend a pointed look. "Well, I WAS starting to feel a bit better, but now I'm feeling even worse." Sarieth ran his hands through his head, trying to get a grip about everything he had just witnessed. "With that has happened these past few days, I'm more than a little stressed, you know?"

"Hmm. Why not tell the others to stop packing and take some time to get some more rest?" She asked. Sarieth merely shook his head.

"No, no. Halteese is a ways away, so we need to depart as soon as possible." He managed to muster up a small smile went to retrieve his armor, but winced in pain as the injuries slowly started to make themselves known again. "Erg, At least I won't have to worry about anymore fights for a while; they'd probably aggravate my injuries…" Hopefully, the lingering doubt that he felt would be gone by time he got to Halteese. However, there was still something he had to tell her.

"Hey, Abelia? I have something important that I have to share with you, but I need you to promise you won't tell the others at the moment, okay?"

"Oh dear, what is it? Did you do something at the academy that Girardot hasn't found out about yet?"

"Quite a few things, to be honest, but it's nothing like that. Anyway, right before Luna and her friends retreated—right as she was about to mention something about Kalent." He said, wanting her opinion about what to do.

Abelia was obviously surprised to be hearing that name again. "He's still alive? Are you sure?"

"I certainly haven't fought all this time believing that he was dead." He was slightly offended she would even suggest such a thing. "Anyway, I do not believe Kalent in any danger at the moment, it seemed like he's gotten acquainted with Luna someway or another, though to what extent I can't say."

"Is that the reason you're didn't go into an insane rage when you found out about having to leave Dalkia?" Abelia asked.

"Pretty much, that and I'm too injured for tantrums at the moment." He smiled at his own joke "Anyway, if you do see Kalent, I need you to promise me that you won't cause a big spectacle about it. If word got out that he was a spy, things will probably not end well for him. He'll reveal himself if he knows you're on his side."

"You have my word, Sarieth," Abelia affirmed. "But what about you?"

"What about me?" His tone was indignant, "All I can do is keep pushing forward. I made a commitment to this group, and if there's a threat of Halteese invading Grandall, I'll do all I can to avert any assault they have planned. That's all I can do, Abelia."

"Sarieth…" Abelia muttered, but she just continued to gather his things. He was always so stubborn, but that was just the way Sarieth worked. She learned a while ago that it's better not to dig too deeply into the workings that went on inside his head. So rather than that, she merely walked up to the man who was both her rival and her friend and wrapped her arms around him. "Just be careful, alright?"

Sarieth nodded. "I will be, I promise."

Some time later.

From the top of a nearby hill, Kalent stared at the border garrison that separated 'his' country and the Halteese. It was an older one, and the soldiers here were fighters, but it was also a flawed structure that could easily be infiltrated, as he and the others were about to do. This should be simple enough. Well, for me at least.

Kalent slid down the hill and snuck towards the main building. In his hand was one of the bombs he usually kept with him for occasions like this. Unlike his other ones, however, this particular bomb was filled with smoke powder. It wouldn't explode, but it was good for making the environment surrounding the explosion nigh unbeatable. Lighting the fuse, he quietly rolled it inside the tent, repeating the process with the other tent before

I certainly hope Luna knew what she was talking about when she came up with this... Kalent scrambled back to where he started at and pulled out his new sword. At least I'll have a chance to break this new sword in. He took a few swings to gain a feel for it. Nice and smooth, just how I like it.

"So, did you do everything I asked of you?" Luna slid down the hill, coming to a stop just next to him.

"Yeah, the bombs are all in place. They should be scrambling out of their tents in a few seconds."

"Then follow my lead and make sure you don't do anything stupid. Let's see if anything I taught you has sunk into that hard head of yours."

As if on cue, Halteese forces stumbled out of the tent, some coughing incessantly, others desperately fanning away any remaining smoke from their faces.

Luna quickly ran forward and started cutting them down with Dystopia, the blood from the victims flying about as her sword danced in the moonlight. Kalent lost a bit of his concentration as he watched the scene of violence.

Damn; I've never seen someone take down soldiers with such efficiency. Kalent looked on as she struck down another man who had been in the middle of a coughing fit because of the smoke. Was she holding back this much when she was sparring with me? It looks as if she could easily kill me any time she wanted…

The shouts of soldiers broke him from his trance. "Look, it's another one of them over there!"

Kalent turned to see several men and women heading straight at him, weapons drawn and willing to strike the first person they saw which was, unfortunately, him. There wasn't anyway he could get out now, so he clenched his teeth and tried to numb his heart to what he was about to do.

"Please…You're going to need a lot more than that…" His right hand clutching the sword, he spun around and swung to counter the first attack, and ended up clipping the man right in the face. Kalent kicked the now bleeding body right into another soldier, using the distraction and quickly thrust the sword through his sternum, more or less killing him in a matter of seconds.

"Bastard, you'll pay for this!" A young female soldier with a short sword swung wildly at him, aiming for his ribcage, but Kalent quickly parried and quickly ducked out of the way, and as the woman tried to attack, the sword went through her stomach. He watched the girl slump to the ground, and locked eyes with the next person.

Everything was automatic. Even with his new sword, every single thing he did felt so natural it would have scared him how little hesitation he had now when it came to killing. Kalent had trained himself not to concern himself with such things when he was fighting.

As soon as the last man fell, Kalent regained his senses for a moment, and looked around the carnage he had been a part of, trying to see how Luna was doing-As if he really needed to. He found her kicking the body of someone who ended up being one of the captains of that particular unit. She looked at him, her own face stained with traces of blood, with probably the most genuine smile he'd seen on her face since he joined the unit.

"How are you feeling? " She asked, "This is your first battle in a while. Having fun yet?"

The young swordsman paused to let her question sink in a bit. He took a glance at the grassy hill, littered with the bodies of the fallen, before fixing his eyes on the sword-his sword-that just had its first taste of real blood. Looking at Luna again, he felt a bit odd This smiling girl in front of him….Any reasonable person, soldier or not, would consider the sight very disconcerting. Kalent, however, found himself strangely enchanted by her.

"Something wrong?" She tilted her head slightly, and despite the setting they were currently in, Kalent thought it was the cutest thing ever. "Don't wimp out on me now, Star of Heaven. There's more on their way."

Kalent broke out of his slight trance, and turned around. Indeed, he could see the shadows of more soldiers, and unlike the first wave, they were very aware of what was going on. Shaking his head, he ran towards the growing

/

After meeting up the other girls, the six of them unanimously decided that they should take up camp here instead of going further out. So after taking care of the dead bodies—which wasn't long since there was a cliff nearby-they took shelter at a place that, up until just now, was occupied by Halteese soldiers.

Everybody was now asleep, but Kalent couldn't get himself to doze off for some reason. Maybe he still had a bit of energy from the fight, perhaps? He turned over on his cot and looked at Luna; she looked as content as a cat that was sleeping after a good meal. Meanwhile, he was awake, unable to shake off the excess adrenaline from that long battle. That and the stench of blood from his clothes was making it hard to sleep.

Maybe washing this stuff will burn off this excess energy. Grabbing his sword, he quietly got up and snuck away from the tent. There was a small stream nearby which was probably his best choice. By time he reached it, Kalent had already started to shed his vest and shirt, and tossed it into the stream, keeping an eye out to make sure it didn't float away. Having to go around shirtless in front of all of those girls wouldn't be a very good idea.

"The blood can get a little out of hand sometimes when you're fighting people with no armor."

Guess I spoke too soon on that one. Kalent thought as he heard Lupi walk towards him. "What are you doing up this late?"

"I'm just being nosy. I noticed you were sneaking out, and there's not that much here that anyone would want to wander off to." She knelt next to him. "You feeling okay? I know it's been a while since your last real battle and…."

"There's no need to worry about me, I'm doing okay." He interrupted. "I'm just feeling overwhelmed by everything at the moment. We barely had time to sit down at home and already they're sending us out on another mission.

"It happens. You should have seen me Eula and Aege. That entire tent was a total mess by time it was over, that's why we're using the other one." She smirked, "It's a bit of a shame that we'll be leaving in the morning. I'd love to see the expression on the reserve unit's faces when they arrive to see that an entire unit got destroyed overnight." Kalent couldn't help but find the thought a bit humorous.

"It's pretty nice to see Luna in a good mood though. She was a bit down for a while after her defeat." Lupi continued.

"Really, I couldn't tell." Kalent muttered. "By the way she was laughing at me as she beat the hell out me, I figured she had gotten over it by now."

"Nope. It's just that using you as a practice dummy is a good way of relieving stress to her. I wouldn't think too much on it though; from what I can tell, she thinks of you as a friend now."

"A friend…" Kalent frowned. While Luna had her…quirks, she was always rather accepting of him as a member of the group. However, he didn't think their relationship had gotten that close. "Seriously?"

"Yep, she likes you." Lupi smiled as she started to take off her gloves. "We all do. You fit in quite well in our small group of psychopaths."

"If you say it like that, I'm not sure I appreciate the sentiment."

Lupi laughed kindly as she embraced him from behind. "I was just kidding, Kalent. Besides, it's not like you can say the time you've spent here wasn't enjoyable, right?"

Kalent paused his washing to think about it, "Maaaaybe." He said quietly. It had been a unique experience so far, to be certain. "But it still takes some getting used to. Honestly though, I really just want for this thing to end."

The fiery-haired girl let out a short sigh of frustration at the thought. "We all do, Kalent. But that's just how things are. It doesn't bother me much anymore. Besides, it's not like there's much for us to do once this war ends."

"Hm? Don't you have anyplace to go after this is over?"

"Nope. I left my family long time ago, and considering what happened, I doubt I'll be returning anytime soon." She looked up in the sky. "I don't know what will happen to me after this war. Knowing my luck, I'll probably be dead before it ends, anyway."

"Don't be so pessimistic." Kalent said, "Someone as tough as you will definitely make it out of this war alive."

"Aww, how sweet." Lupi knelt over, leaning far enough so that her hair tickled Kalent's cheek. "But the Flames of Hell aren't quelled so easily." She gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. "I'm going back to sleep. Don't stay up too late; we'll be heading out first thing in the morning."

Kalent nodded absent-mindedly, too nervous to come up with a decent reply. As soon as he could tell she was out of sight, he dunked his head into the river for a few seconds before lifting it back out.

Forget this war… Kalent thought grimly as he got back to washing. These girls are what will probably be the death of me.

Shikkoku: Hiiiiiii….. Well, I can tell you this, this was originally longer, but the chapter got so obscenely long, that I decided to chop it in half. Trust me; it's probably better off that way. The size of the chapter is also partly why it took so long to update, but oh well.

Also, the title has been changed to something a lot less stupid. In hindsight, I don't know why I thought "Tsurugi no Kirokusuru' would make a good title for this story; maybe I wanted something not so cliché, but then again, I was young and dumb when I came up with this story.

Notes:

- Speaking of old, I'm going to do some revamping of the older chapters. A lot has changed, and the story might be a bit…iffy, if you read this today. It'll mostly just be dialogue changes and small stuff.

- Next chapter will be somewhat Rhiona-centric this time around, and Kalent probably won't be featured too prominently in the next two or so chapters. Don't worry; the two brothers' paths are going to intersect sooner than you think.

The other half of this story is already done, but I still have two other stories that desperately need updating, so it'll be a while. Not as long a wait as the last update but still.

Next Chapter: Sarieth and his unit have to deal with getting past a nigh-impassible wall in order to get to Halteese. Rhiona, however, finds herself against someone who ends up being a bigger pain than anything she's faced before.

Until next time.