Innocence had turned this girl into a living flame. She leaned over, kneeling barelegged on the ground. The snow around her had melted. She began sinking into it as the flames around her warmed the formerly frozen ground. She gripped her shoulders with the opposite hands, crossing her arms tightly in front of her. White flames engulfed her entire body, the very same flames that burnt down her house and killed her cat.

She knelt between Tyki and an Exorcist, the latter who seemed to be lying to her. Control the power? No, she wanted to get rid of it, something the gray-skinned Apostle said was possible. She felt anger boiling in her blood. She wanted it to go away. She wanted it to all go away.

She was betraying it. Or perhaps it was betraying her. The flames from the Innocence that had bonded with her ankles grew larger, starting to burn her body and everything around it. The gathered crowd quickly scattered.

"I won't let you have her!" the Exorcist shouted. Unzipping her black parka, she pulled it off, dramatically throwing it off to the side. She was a familiar Exorcist General. Her Innocence, the Dark Boots, grew up her legs quickly. Bending her knees, Lenalee launched herself over the girl and directly at Tyki.

The Noah smirked, amused at her hastiness. She assumed he'd done something to the girl, when in truth, he hadn't. Upon their arrival, Tyki had planned to force the girl to fall, to let the Innocence betray her and consume her, but she was doing it on her own. Her body was rejecting it, her mind fighting against it. Neither Innocence nor body would synchronize. The former was consuming the latter whole until the latter ceased to exist.

A quick turn in his step and Tyki dodged the attack completely, shifting at the last moment to turn and grab her pigtails. It jerked her to a stop, sending a shock down her neck and throughout her body. The Dark Boots allowed her to slow the impact, preventing the stop from causing more damage. They also kept her floating as she turned in the air as if springing off an invisible wall, twisting and shifting to sharply kick Tyki in the side. The maneuver grazed him just slightly, causing him to release her hair, though not without using the power of Refuse to simply cut the long pigtails short.

Missing her attack, she spun around in with a twist of a gymnast, landing on her feet with a huff. She liked her hair and once again, she'd had it cut off in the midst of battle, though this time it wasn't her choice to do so. It took her several years to get it back to that length again.

Ronald and Lavi remained perched on the shed roof in the distance, though now they were the only two remaining people left from the crowd. Ronald was hardly a fighter, even with his Noah genes. He was a creator, one who fabricated creatures and beings to do his work for him. His one creation with him, the large akuma-dog, sat below them in front of the shed, anxiously kneading its front paws against the snow as it waited for the command to attack.

Tyki seemed to have the situation under control, so Ronald had no intention to intervene just yet. Their orders in general were to keep contact with the Exorcists at a minimum, but as Tyki was a known Noah, the only one known alive to the Exorcists, Ronald hesitated to intervene.

While Lavi was focused on the fight and everything around it, he was incredibly curious to know who the fourth member of the Exorcist party was or how they got here to this remote island so quickly. Back in La Mancha, Tyki had killed Chaozii, destroying his Innocence along with him. Even Lenalee had stated that he'd died. It couldn't be Chaozii anyway; the shape and stance of the fourth member was different, even under those layers of parka.

And so that left her with two teammates, Krory and Korbinian. So who was the mysterious fourth member of the team? They were replenishing Exorcists faster than Lavi realized. He'd considered Innocence more rare, recalling a conversation in the North American branch that the number of Exorcists was quickly dwindling in the wake of the war. Perhaps his conclusions were incorrect.

With both feet now firmly back on the ground, Tyki stood tall, offering Lenalee a shrug. "You presume I had something to do with this." He shifted to push his glasses up his nose habitually. "But in truth," he waved that hand out in a sweeping motion towards the girl engulfed in flames, "you probably should be worrying more about her. The Innocence did this to her, that same godforsaken abomination you all rely on to fight on the wrong side of a holy war."

He was letting personal opinions into the matter. Exorcists disgusted him. His Noah blood boiled when fighting them, which lead to a highly exhilarating battle. Though there was more to his hatred for them. The Exorcists were unenlightened creatures, bowing at the feet of the Vatican and their damned religion. It contradicted everything he believed as a high-ranking member of the Illuminati and as a Noah.

Lenalee gritted her teeth at him. "You're on the wrong side!" she spat at him before turning to face the girl. The Innocence fire had grown when she was busy attempting to kick Tyki, and it was beginning to burn hotter. The other three members of her team had backed up several steps.

Korbinian had removed his parka, his bow in hand. He stared at the girl, horrified at what was happening to her. She was burning alive. Was it the cause of Innocence as the Noah had said? The proof was kneeling before him. He glanced down at his own hands, now bare after he discarded the gloves. The silver hue of his fingers reflected the bright white flames the girl was producing. The Innocence had always been inside of him, perhaps since he was born. But this girl was different. The Innocence hadn't always been inside of her. It was foreign and it was killing her. What was he fighting for, truly?

The girl interrupted the conversation, belting out a terrible howl of a scream. Her arms began expanding, her skin fizzling away to give birth to a new form of pure light and energy. Her legs followed suit, curling up into a solid ball at the bottom of her body. Her body then grew to unimaginable proportions, expanding at a rapid rate. Lenalee quickly leapt for her team, grabbing them in her arms to move them quickly out of the way.

"NO MORE PAAAAIIIN!" the girl screamed, her voice warped and warbled as the Innocence flames overtook her. Tears streamed down her face, turning into drops of fire as they dripped to the ground. The fire burned fiercely in the snow, burning it until the flame-drops fizzled away.

"Aslaug!" an older woman shouted from the side of the now burnt-down house. "Aslaug! Come back to us!"

The girl, Aslaug, floated above the ground, the transformation continuing as she expanded more and more, the flames within her becoming increasingly hotter. "NO MORE PAIN!" She screamed. She no longer recognized her family there, her mother shouting at her and pleading for her to return. She could only think of Buttons, her cat. Buttons was gone. Nothing else in the world mattered anymore. There was nothing left.

Korbinian gasped for air. "Vhat's happening to her?!"

"She's fallen," Lenalee replied, her brow knit into worry. "She's betrayed her Innocence. It has to be that Noah's doing. He did this to her."

"B-betrayed?" Korbinian stammered. He felt his heart sink. "Can't ve do something for her?"

Lenalee'd only seen it once, with Suman Dark. Allen was still around then. Allen-allen, not 14th-Allen. It was a different time back then, when friends were still all alive and things just seemed simpler. Allen spent a great deal of time fighting the Fallen Suman, physically and verbally, eventually talking him down out of his rage.

But Allen was different. He always was. She wasn't certain anyone could talk this little girl out of her anger. Fallen Ones would eventually die after Innocence consumed their body. She knew this. She learned the horrible truth about it. It was a slow and painful process, lasting anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. But until that death freed her from her pain, she'd cause unbridled destruction until that hatred was fully satisfied.

She shook her head. "We have to protect the people of this village, get them to safety."

"The closest city is kilometers away," the fourth member of the group informed them, her voice sharp and somewhat monotone. She watched the Fallen One expand at a rather rapid rate. The Noah had since left his position, though he hadn't left the area. He wasn't alone. There were two others, another Noah and a redhead, and a strange large dog. The Noah had gone to join them. She spoke nothing of it, simply stating, "It isn't safe here."

"I know, Dagrun" Lenalee nodded, unaware of Dagrun's silent observations. "But we have to do something." She turned back to the scene, noting that Tyki had seemingly evacuated the area.

The girl, Aslaug, suddenly let out a horrifying cry. White flames burst out from where her arms once hung, engulfing the town in a brilliant white blaze. Dagrun stepped forward, her parka still obscuring her features. She withdrew an odd black book from beneath her coat, opening it to an arbitrary page. Runes formed in a circle perpendicular to the ground. "Shell." The runes spread out as she slammed the book shut, forming a protective white, mostly translucent dome around the team, protecting them from the onslaught of flames.

As the flames settled from the burst, Dagrun observed the scene with her watchful emerald eyes. The two Noah, the redhead, and their odd dog had disappeared, the building where they once sat completely engulfed in fire. Much of the city was burning, the people caught within the attack. Lenalee cringed at the sound of people's cries as they were burned alive and disintegrated.

"There is little we can do here," Dagrun stated coldly. "And the Noah are gone. No matter where she goes, she won't reach another town within 24 hours."

Lenalee knit her brow into a worried knot. She hated to admit it, but Dagrun was right. There wasn't anything they could do here. "Wait, did you say 'the Noah are gone?' There's more than one?"

"Observant you are, General," Dagrun nodded, her icy gaze fixed upon Lenalee. "There were two and a strange dog." She purposely left out the redhead with the group. She could surmise who he was and his presence with the Noah had to be left out. He wasn't a player in this tale, technically nonexistent in the history of the world.

Gritting her teeth, the general huffed. She had hoped this war would be over sooner than it started, but it seemed while the Order was collecting Exorcists, the Noah were returning too. She didn't have a clue how any of it worked, but she knew their return would spell trouble. "There's not much we can do about it now. We'll have to return and report back to Big Brother."

"It's far too late to take conventional means," Dagrun noted, opening her book again. The village was quickly burning to the ground. Aslaug continued to belch flames at them, attempting to shatter the runic barrier and burn the Exorcists alive. Dagrun summoned runes around her book again. "Pathway," she commanded, slamming the book shut. The runes moved from her book to out in front of her, the circle stretching into a tall oval. Between the runes, an image of inside the Order formed, creating a portal directly to the Order.

The three other Exorcists stepped through the portal, Dagrun last. It closed immediately as Dagrun left, her shell shield shattering apart under the pressure of the flames.

…

Author's ramblings

So presumptuous you are, Exorcists! Though she really has every right to be considering the previous Tyki made Suman fall. But this one was completely not at fault. For once. Chikae is a pretty conniving bastard, after all.

And introducing another Exorcist! Man they surface fast.

The girl's name, Aslaug, is Norwegian for the Old Norse name meaning "Got-betrothed woman". I really just like the way it sounds.

The new Exorcist is named after her abilities. Dagrun means "day-rune". Her powers are based after the Scholar class in Final Fantasy XIV.