As much as Lightning tried to keep her vision clear within the tunnels, she could only see further than her own hands because of the flickering fire on Fang's fingertips. And even then, she couldn't see anything but darkness off in the distance. Even as she tried to focus upon the goal, on the destination her fellow hunters were tracking, Lightning felt how her mind started to wander itself right back to the stone surface in the garden, to the very eyes of the beast. It wasn't easy to explain why it felt so solid within her memories, like a permanent fixture, something she couldn't even forget if she tried.

While Lightning kept walking on through the dusty hallways of the underground, a certain thought crossed her mind, yet it wasn't a normal notion, not by a long shot. It was the sort of memory that almost made her nose tingle with the scent of the ocean breeze, with the smell of pines, a living image of the place where she'd first gained insight into seeing the past visions of an object. And when she realized that, it all became so clear.

Lightning could already see the first few outlines on her gloved hands, the almost invisible representation of the statue. She felt her own thoughts get swept away with visions of the past, of the people who had once toiled to drag it there, propping it upright against the soil, but not before they had excavated the tunnel itself. But where did it lead? She could sense that same feeling of anticipation, the cold prickle in her spine, the feeling under her fingertips that something else was watching her, plotting her every step, so much that it was only up to her to fight off the bonds of fate, to carve out her own destiny into the path she walked upon...

But how in the world was she supposed to do that when she found herself completely and utterly alone?

"Light?" Fang quickly narrowed her eyes against the darkness, yet when she honed her vision in upon the shadows themselves, coiling and twisting against the walls, she knew that it was no mere illusion that stood between her and all of her friends. "Lightning!"

But there was no answer in the cavernous tunnels, not even a whisper of sound.

"Damn it..." Fang tried not to hiss or grit her teeth, but with every step she took, her own fire seemed to illuminate less and less of the path around her. "Light? Anyone?!"

The dusty halls stood in silence, chiseled there with that signature chessboard design, the lifeblood of Luxerion's aesthetic. The very sight of it made Fang want to rend her claws right into it to reach whatever waited beyond, but that was a secret she still needed to keep locked tight. There could be no dragon who would knock the tunnels walls down just to save the day, to fly Lightning far from whatever had placed them apart. Fang knew that to solve such an irritating conundrum, she would need to rely on her own wits instead.

She had left her satchel back in the sleeping quarters, as she was not quite willing to possibly lose her belongings in the heat of battle, even if she held no earthly idea that Cie'th would be that they encountered, not those of the Order. Fang began to narrow her eyes again, and she reached down into the pockets of her new clothes, the fabrics that looked just as green as foam of the sea and as blue as the afternoon sky, where she began to rummage through whatever she'd forgotten to leave behind.

There were a few packages of crackers and dried food, the small snacks that she had brought along over the past couple of days, just in case she and Lightning missed lunch while away from the compound, or even dinner. There was also the scrap of an interesting flower petal that she'd found out in the Wildlands, which was shriveled up slightly from the exposure and a lack of liquid. But there was also something that Fang had nearly forgotten about, the little metal compass that she'd once exchanged for her own freedom, as well as a bit of current information.

Fang peered at the stars that were engraved upon the tiny device, before she used the nail of her thumb to push open the lid, revealing the thin, shiny glass that held a slim magnetic pointer. "Think you can help me out?" Her own voice barely even reached her ears, for the sight of the rapidly spinning pointer, the magnetism that was clearly quite defective, it brought a frown to her lips. "Not likely..." She turned to look out at the tunnels, before she took a few paces forward. "Not when you can't even point north."

But it was in that very moment when she moved, when the device suddenly snapped back to attention, facing a single, unwavering direction, when she peered out into the shadows to see a distant, glimmering set of eyes, it was in that moment when Fang's grip tightened further than it had ever reached before.

Lightning moved on through the darkness as quickly as she could. She felt her way around the tunnels by touching the walls beside her, even though it proved rather difficult to navigate when she reached a set of stairs. They weren't very steep, but it surprised her enough to trip her right out from beneath her boots.

The sudden blur of motion and the pain in her spine forced out a sharp gasp from her throat, but she quickly realized that the full brunt of the impact was likely taken by the thin metal armor beneath her clothes. She swore to herself to thank Heloise for it.

And before long, slowly rising up into a sitting position, Lightning merely waited there for a moment, staring out into the utter darkness, before she swore that she saw something moving off in the distance.

"I just don't see why we can't leave the whole damn thing behind us... All of this paperwork, who needs it?"

Lightning's eyes widened, before she swiftly rose up to her feet again. "Fang?" But with another pace forward, she suddenly froze, gazing out at the image of her own impassive face.

"Because you've been trapped in there for years? Because we need to finish what we started in the first place?" It was her own voice, yet it was slightly deeper than how it usually sounded, perhaps strained by some sort of residual effort. "You... Could you even hear me in there? Do you even realize what I had to do?"

And there was Fang, standing in the image of a great blanket wrapped around herself, with shards of broken, flickering crystals at her feet. "I heard... We heard whispers."

Lightning's image looked away, and her current self nearly tensed up at how those eyes went so cold, so solid again, utterly impassable barriers that held her emotions so tightly within herself, hiding the person she truly was.

"Light?" Fang's image took a slow step forward. "What happened to you, Light?"

And Lightning, that woman of another world, another time, hardened by so many years of solitude, by the bitterness of seeing that her fond companion seemed so very nonchalant, able to brush the time aside like it was nothing, she took an identical pace away. "You don't want to know... You really don't want to know."

Lightning herself, her present life, she watched the way her past self began to retreat, even when the image of Fang followed after her. The sight of it was enough to make her look away from both of them, to silently pray that their lives would see something far happier than that single moment in time.

And as she wandered back into the darkness, still wondering how she had been able to see such a thing, she began to think of the way that Fang had once opened the other worlds to her, how she'd created an image within both of their minds, something she could touch and feel, from that primordial forest near the beginning of time, to Lightning's own memory, the fire that consumed the world from all around her. Was that the sort of thing that her latest vision had been?

But before she could think on it further, she felt the soft pressure of grass beneath her boots, before her eyes came alive with the sight of a house on the very height of a hill, a place where two figures sat very close to each other, gazing down at the sea.

"You know I can't refuse something like this." Lightning recognized her own voice again. "They need everyone they can get."

And Fang spoke in a soft tone, yet it soon became clear that she wasn't quite as calm. "You'd leave home for it?"

Lightning's image turned, bearing the scars of many previous battles, yet she almost seemed to shiver when Fang reached out to touch them, slowly caressing the smooth skin of her face. "Just for a while."

"No... They won't have you." Fang's voice grew darker and darker. "They won't hurt you again... Won't claim this damn war is for honor; you know what this is."

Lightning's image, her eyes went very distant. "It wasn't for honor?"

"Shh." Fang drew in a very deep breath, and she tugged Lightning close, holding her there in her arms, all while they felt the cool air of the sea brushing down against their skin. "I didn't say that... You might've been honorable, but they weren't."

Yet even as the days passed by, when the ocean sky grew dark beneath the shadow of flying ships, when a certain animal looked down at the strange objects that were crossing the sea, he couldn't help but snarl at the sight of them. And it was far from there, later on, upon the reddened shores of a distant coast that Fang suddenly fell to her knees, dragging a single figure away from all the rest, even when the woman in her arms sputtered and choked with blood, falling limp when she was brought against the great tracts of dirt that led towards the ocean waves.

"Stupid..." Fang's eyes welled up with unwelcome tears. "I told you."

And Lightning, resting there within Fang's grasp, her eyes were merely facing the distant clouds, at the gulls circling far above the battlefield. "Are we going home?"

"Yeah..." Fang's fingertips trembled with each small scrap of cloth that she pressed to Lightning's wounds, feeling the path that every bullet took, even when she realized that Lightning's body hadn't really moved while she dragged it away, that those words hadn't truly reached her ears, that they hadn't ever been said in the first place, and that there was no heartbeat beneath her touch, no warmth to the blood that seeped down against the earth. "We're... We're going home."

"Wait!" Yet Lightning's own present self, even when she lurched out towards them, reaching for the pair upon that ocean slope, her fingertips closed against nothing, only darkness. "That's not... I wouldn't die like that, not so recklessly!"

"Would you?"

Lightning felt her blood freeze at the sounds, at the swirling collection of such incredibly different voices, so many that they sounded utterly unnatural, and almost grating in a way, mechanical.

"And what difference would a mere memory make? Your fate is immutable, no matter how much you attempt to deviate from it." Those eyes pierced right through the shadows, sharp with a golden hue. "You still draw breath, and you still walk upon this earth with your life intact... No matter how little time you may have left."

And in a single motion, a single whistle of sound, Lightning drew her blade to face those voices, the eyes that shimmered as if they were the last fading rays of sunlight, so many thousands in degree.

"Oh, child, you are no match for me." The voice grew louder and louder, so much closer and closer, until Lightning swore that she could feel the humming sensation right within herself, the rumbling of a great machine, something that simply couldn't exist in her world without an immense amount of magic. "You are... Only human."

Lightning's grip didn't waver as she charged, and she still held her sword aloft.

"You've brought them here when you should have fled to live another day... But such strange outcomes have already been calculated." Those great golden eyes swirled with the inner pulsing of the grand device. "There is nothing that you can inflict upon me that I have not yet seen... That I have not prepared for."

Lightning felt her eyes sting when the darkness was swiftly swept away, when she realized that she wasn't even in any sort of tunnel at all, merely a massive, domed structure beneath the earth, a cavern so impossibly bright that she could scarcely see the ends of it.

"But there is one reason... An exception, if you will." Those eyes shifted to such a gentle gaze, a poisonous gaze, seething within the sharp light of the sun. "A reason why you have not already been disposed of."

And as Fang chased it, stashing the compass back into her pocket, right beside her racing heartbeat, she felt herself run faster than she could ever remember, swifter than she had ever moved before, all up until she nearly crashed right into another wandering figure from around a sharp corner, another soul within the labyrinth.

"What?!" The mask of a great gray owl suddenly peered out from within the darkness, before a certain someone held up a bit of luminous magic on her fingertips. "Fang..."

"Holly?" Fang took a very deep breath, before she gestured at the opposite corridor of the tunnel. "Come on, we've got to find the others."

"What's happening here?" Holly stood up to follow after Fang, running right in her footsteps. "Everyone just-"

"Smoke and mirrors." Fang turned past another corner, racing off into the darkness. "The bastard's keeping us separated, messing with us... Physical illusions, fake magic tricks, just think of it like that."

"Physical illusions..." Holly almost skidded to a halt at the sight of a much larger room, one that was still so cloaked in darkness. "This would be so much easier if it wasn't impossible to imagine existing."

"Just keep at it, pretend it's fake." Fang slowed her pace within the strange room as well, gazing around at the hazy outlines of metallic shards and broken fixtures, an abandoned scrapyard right within the very depths of the earth. "Just keep moving..."

Holly glanced at all of the unusual things that stood upon the walls and ceiling, the objects that were still hidden in the shadows, but she quickly drew to a halt at the sight of a certain outline. "Fang, look at this!"

Fang turned back to peer at what looked like something standing against the ceiling, bereft of gravity, and she slowly narrowed her eyes. "Like I said... Smoke and mirrors."

It was only when a sharp clacking echoed out into the haze, when the suddenly creature dropped down from so far above, landing with merely a whisper of sound, only then did Fang draw out her spear from the fire of her soul.

"Cie'th!" Holly quickly slammed the end of her staff against the brand of the beast, and she ducked away when it reached out to claw and howl at her, even when Fang struck one of its back limbs, stabbing it against the floor. "How many of these are we going to have to kill?!"

Fang summoned a swift gout of fire from her other hand, burning the monster away as it writhed and screeched and bellowed at her, twisting beneath its own hardened crystal hide.

"You're... You're self-taught, aren't you?" Holly readied her staff again, just in case any more Cie'th were to appear. "You cast magic like... Like it's natural, not out of a book."

Fang slowly let the fire wane from between her fingertips, watching as the Cie'th crumpled down into a pile of scattered rocks and crystalline ash. "I've actually been reading a book about spells, but yeah... Basically self-taught." She glanced at Holly again, wishing that she could see beneath the surface of that avian mask. "What..? Never seen a self-taught mage?" But she knew it was futile to say anything else, even when Holly herself didn't seem quite the same as before, perhaps a bit more wary.

"You're right... We should find the others." Holly reached down to activate one of the charms on her wristband, before she started to move off in a certain direction. "Who knows how many Cie'th are down here... I'm glad you're here to help me."

Yet Fang could hear the hesitation in that voice, the slight fear from being in such a situation with her, alone in the darkness with only illusions and Cie'th for company.

The minutes stretched on within the twisted halls of metal, and Holly finally spoke again when the silence became too much to bear. "What kind of magic have you been learning?"

Fang felt her teeth tighten against each other, and she nearly wanted to just tell Holly to focus on wherever they were going, but she merely looked down at herself, and sighed. "Thaumaturgy."

"Ah." Holly used her staff to test the strength of the stairwell ahead. "Sounds, colors and lights... Basic influences." She slowly started to descend, gazing down at the stairway. "Let me know once you're ready to learn the greater powers."

Fang bit back a smile. "I'll probably be long gone from the city by then."

Holly kept very quiet for a while, just traveling down the stairs, until she reactivated one of her charms. "Oh... We're not alone."

Fang narrowed her eyes at the darkened staircase. "Who else is it?"

"Friendly, thank Etro!" Holly quickened her pace down the stairwell. "Noel and the others, unless it's just another illusion..."

Fang breathed out a soft sigh of relief, even though it felt as if the walls were slowly closing in around her, choking the very air from her lungs, yet none such thing was truly happening.

Lightning felt her vision swirl with a flash of light and the glint of her blade, the frenzied dance that erupted from an utter lack of movement, a lack of motion, but for every drop of blood she drew, for every clash of her sword against that glimmering, unearthly staff, it seemed as if her opponent hadn't lost even a mere scrap of his power. She felt her boots scrape against the metal floor, the shimmering tiles that were entirely pale, so very dizzying to look upon, and she forced herself to try and hone in upon her opponent, even when he moved too quickly for her to touch.

A single press of a charm, the blood of a mighty serpent, and she was just as fast, striking just as swiftly, and she felt a roaring sensation in her own veins, in her chest and ears, until she lashed out with a sharp battle cry.

"No amount of strength..." Galenth Dysley lifted his arms with a mighty strike, pushing something invisible into existence, which forced Lightning to stumble away. "You may fight well, but your attempts are simply futile."

Lightning felt the sweat dripping down from her hair, disheveled and tousled from beneath her silver hood, and her breath seemed so warm against the cloth of her mask, enough that her lungs began to ache with it.

"You must know that I could end you just as easily as your friend..." Dysley stepped across the glimmering floor, even when streams of blood dripped from his skin into great pools, slowly corroding the metal surface beneath his feet. "Why do you insist on testing my generosity?"

Lightning hissed beneath her mask, and she let her sword flash out with a promise of further bloodshed. "Generosity? You... These dreams, they've led me to whatever the hell you are... And you're not even trying to fight back!"

"Why destroy something before it has proved its usefulness?" His voice dripped like the blood of his wounds. "Flesh is simple... It breaks, and it heals." He tightened his fingertips into a fist, and his scattered injuries slowly began to fade. "The power of a God."

"You're no god..." Lightning kept her blade at the ready. "You're in league with a fal'Cie."

"Clever, child... But not quite." Dysley stood beneath the swirling light, a sun directly overhead, even when it was so very clear that they were still so far beneath the earth. "The people of this city are empty... Easy to change, to inspire such a transformation."

"Cie'th?" Lightning felt the urge to charge at him with her blade again, even when it was clear that the damage did no harm. "Why do you need Cie'th? What possible reason-"

"I fear that such a conversation is pointless... Mere wasted breath." Dysley's eyes darkened from beneath the silken veil, but his mouth twitched into an almost gleeful grin. "Your friends are searching for you... We shouldn't disappoint them."

Lightning didn't hesitate to lurch back into a run, to press the charm that she knew could summon such fire, perhaps enough to actually harm the man who taunted her, to strike at his flesh and render it as lifeless as it could be. She leapt, nearly weightless, a bird on the wind, talons outstretched, sword at the ready to stab at him, even as the steely point was swiftly wreathed in fire.

Yet when her blade struck true, when it pierced down into the very heart of the murderous Primarch, there it was, echoing off in the distance, the voice that called her away from her utter concentration for only a mere moment in time, made her gaze turn to see if it was truly Fang.

"Lightning!"

Lightning's eyes went so very bright within that instant, but then, when a sudden snap of magic swiftly tore in retaliation at her body, an attack she couldn't possibly anticipate, her gaze became utterly anguished, and then blank.

The blood of the Cie'th still poured without pause, thick and dark, tinged with clotted crystals, but the sudden crack of a warhammer shattered the glassy shards, scattering them out into the reddened cobblestone streets.

And within the boulevard itself, a woman in colorful robes slashed back at the swiftly encroaching monsters, and she called out with a war cry that rallied all of her fellow gladiators, those who fought nearby to her, while the rooftop archers worked so silently from above. They nocked their arrows swiftly, loosing them down upon the shambling hordes of Cie'th, ignoring the rabid screeches that came with the breaking of crystal.

A lone warhorse screamed into the heavy sunlight, a riderless steed, but a strong armored grip caught the reins before they could flutter out of control, and a gentle voice spoke out above the furious din of the Cie'th. "Easy, there." She peered at the wary beast from beneath her helmet. "Where is your rider? Another one, lost..?"

"Oi, city girl! We don't have time for this!" The rough-spoken leader of the gladiators kept slashing her blades into the fractured hides of the Cie'th. "Either let him go or put him to use, we need that hammer of yours to keep swinging!"

Heloise glanced back at the gladiator who had spoken, the one she remembered held the name of Zoe. "Right, but I'm less of a 'city girl' than you might think." She swiftly lifted herself with a boot to the stirrup, rising atop the back of the warhorse, before she spurred it into action. "And my hammer hasn't yet lost its touch..." Heloise held it aloft, charging out at the stumbling Cie'th, before she brought down the head of her maul against the shimmering brand of the nearest monstrosity, shattering it before it could even react.

"Not bad, ma'am!" Zoe laughed, breathing roughly to keep up with the frenzied pace of combat. "Just keep hitting them where it hurts!"

The eager warhorse screeched into the air again, fueled by the confidence of his rider, and he galloped back out into the fray, carrying her on into the clamorous din of battle.

"Lightning!"

Beside the frenzied storm of light and magic, Noel rushed on without words, drawing a great spray blood from beneath his sword, and he slammed his bladed shield at the flickering foe, all while he called out for his fellows to advance, until he realized what he was looking back upon.

In a world of utter sound, an uproar of energy and swirling fire, Fang felt her own teeth sharpen and extend, even when her arms clutched at the one who had fallen so very swiftly, had been thrown back against the walls of the illusion and shattered it, the one had gone so very silent and still.

"Lightning!" Fang felt her voice grow so very hoarse, yet the world around her just went louder and louder. She fought to keep the wild magic away, the energy that tore down at her own soul, yet when she caught sight of her enemy, Dysley himself, readying yet another burst of that terrible rending energy, she knew there was no possible way for her own two arms to block such a thing. "Lightning..."

Noel's eyes went so very wide from beneath the shelter of his mask, as did the eyes of the other hunters, still rushing out to attack their foe, yet they just couldn't help but suddenly, silently pause.

Beneath the onslaught of magic, desperately forcing it away, Fang curled her massive wing claws beneath Lightning's fallen form, the body that scarcely drew more than a whisper of breath. She wasn't bleeding much, but Fang could sense the sea of pain, the wound that cried out from within Lightning's very soul, linked back to her flesh in a way that made every moment an unending agony. It was so much that Fang herself began to stiffen and snarl, rising up to her hind talons as she covered Lightning's body in both of her wings.

There were no words to be said, not even a sound, just the eyes of the hunters that suddenly witnessed a fabled beast protecting one of their own, the sheer love in her eyes, shielding their fellow hunter from that feral snap of energy, the magic that darted around the cavern like wildfire.

Fang bore her teeth at anyone who looked at her, holding Lightning so very close, sheltering her within the strength of her wings and scales. "Not her... You won't take her!"

And the voice that echoed throughout the mighty tunnel was anything but displeased. "Finally..!"

Fang's great green eyes widened further than she thought possible, while her pupils narrowed down into mere slits, before she felt herself suddenly disappear within a single whisper of light.

In a blur of motion and sound, she felt herself start to fall away, toppling on down into nothingness. A flicker of panic crossed her heart when she realized that Lightning was no longer there with her. "Light..." Fang called out into the darkness, beating her wings against the air, while her tail thrashed back and forth beside her grasping talons. "Lightning!"

She felt as though an eternity passed within that empty realm, and her voice grew so raw and ragged from calling, before she finally managed to right herself and catch the very air beneath her wings, but not before the world around her suddenly erupted into a deep, velvet blue.

The stars glimmered in an endless swirl of illumination, and a spark of ethereal light began to shine from atop a certain staff, the chosen weapon of Galenth Dysley.

Fang felt it when her hind limbs hit the ground, or whatever stood beneath her. It didn't look much like any patch of ground she had ever seen, more like a solid, yet translucent layer of light, a world of soft colors and pastel starlight, all beneath the brilliant glow of the sun.

"I was rather surprised, you know." His voice drifted in from all angles, an utter master of that realm, a dimension forged from the sheer power of the endlessly shimmering crown. "To detect the presence of a cousin in Luxerion."

Fang slowly rose up to her hind feet, bracing her wing claws against the clear surface of the strange, glimmering dimension. "A... Cousin?" She narrowed her keen eyes, and the scales on her body grew hot with rage. "What the hell are you?! A fal'Cie? If you really are, then I hate to break it to you..." Fang's words grew even sharper with the sheer fury of her soul. "We're not cousins... You're just filth."

"Such arrogance, and from a fellow orphan, as well." Dysley smiled, bracing both of his hands against his walking staff, while the thin veil that once draped over his eyes slowly fluttered away in the unearthly wind. "Cast aside, perhaps an early experiment... Unpredictable, so immune to fate; I can see why your temper flares so swiftly." His teeth flashed with a sharper grin. "We may be the forgotten ones... Buy you are the abandoned."

Fang bore her teeth as well, standing so very tall above the human figure beneath her. "Big talk for someone so shriveled... Someone who hides behind the work of the gods." And she caught that faint flicker of anger in his eyes, letting it fuel her own, before she laughed at him, long and loud, flaring her wings out with a flash of that deep violet color. "What do you want, then? You can't show your face out there again; your own people must've seen what you did."

"Oh, the masses are already drunk upon their own fear of such a death... Of Etro's faithful." And at his voice, the starlight faded off beneath the brilliant sun, within that realm of swirling clouds and perpetual sky, boundless and unending. "Did you not see their own loyal captain turn to such heresy? Did you not see the crowds cry out in fear at his unspeakable witchcraft, at his pact with the very beasts?" He laughed louder than a strike of iron. "Galenth is dead, perhaps not by Etro's hands, this much is true... But his memory lives on in the heart of uncertainty, and they will blame her for such a tragedy."

"Galenth Dysley..." Fang's tail thrashed against the strange force of energy beneath her feet. "Why do I know that name?" She lowered her head to stare him right in the eye, gazing at the sight of a human, merely human, even with such powerful energy radiating from his presence. "What are you, really?"

"I am... Not Galenth." He smiled at the sight of her massive teeth. "Not anymore, not anymore."

And Fang swiftly released her next breath, the roaring fire that struck down with her own fueled emotions, the fury that she had seen Lightning get caught so unaware, cast aside to strike the illusion itself, the magic that had made her soul cry out in such terrible ways. Fang let her fire run wild, harnessing her own anger, that inner rage, the truth of the words that the old man had said, that she was merely a lost, abandoned soul.

Yet from the ashes, the pale crown glinted once, then twice, before that perfect ring of light, a shard of the gods, it all disappeared within an instant.

Fang only leapt ahead, running within the clouds of the sky, and she steadily flapped her wings to bring her aloft, far above the sudden spikes of metal that thrust right forth through the thick layer of vapor, the golden spokes of something far more massive than herself. And as she flew, soaring far above the shining back of a titanic serpent, the mighty coils that rose up from beneath the clouds, Fang realized what she was really gazing upon.

It truly was godlike, a beast too large to exist, more immense than any whale or mammoth she had ever seen. It was a titan in the sky, a creature of sheer boundless white and shining gold, with claws that pierced the heavenly realm, teeth that whistled from beyond the clouds and sang throughout the air, eyes that burned more brilliantly than any single ray of sun, nearly blinding Fang from where she flew.

"I... I am not Galenth Dysley." It was more than a thousand voices at once, so many thousands of eyes, peering out from beneath the metallic surface of the heavenly beast, a living god with that single, simple crown atop his head. "I am... Barthandelus." He coiled himself against the surface of the twisting realm, the clouds that faded off beneath the sheer heat of the sun, the rays of light that shone in the wake of his mighty crown. "Lord-Sovereign of this world... The very wyrm to unseat God!"

Fang flapped her wings to keep herself away from those mighty limbs, spokes of gold and rhythmic metal, an utterly angelic machine, so far from what she had ever seen and heard of the fal'Cie.

"An you... A dragon." His eyes, those glassy, rotating circles that betrayed his inner nature, the instruments of a mechanical design, mixed in so perfectly with the glossy flesh of his pale scales. "Your soul is that of fire... Not of flesh." His tremendous claws gripped the surface of the sky, and he slowly carried his colossal form even further above the clouds. "Flesh... I can read the flesh as easily as any human word, as any spoken language... But such fire is unceasingly elusive!" Barthandelus laughed in a thousand tones, from agony to sheer splendor. "The crown... It is fire, and it is light, but it is not the soul of a dragon!"

Fang forced herself to dive through the sky, trying to dodge a swipe from that enormous form, the scales that split the sky as if it was mere shimmering water, and she let her lungs roar out with another gout of flame, but even that wasn't enough to keep those massive claws from crashing down against her.

"A gift... From the Gods!" A thousand eyes peered down upon the very signature of that fire, the soul that burned beneath the barrier of scales and flesh. "She could not hide her own soul from the reach of my vision, much less the nature yours!"

And as she tried to stand back up again, Fang felt that same deep pain flaring through her body, and she slowly staggered to her feet, breathing with a slow mix of fire and sound. "Lightning..."

"A useful novelty." Barthandelus coiled himself up within the higher clouds, a thunderous serpent within the endless realm of the sky. "But such things, they soon grow out of their purpose... They are no longer needed."

Fang bore her teeth again, bristling, and both her wings and her deadly claws began to flare with an inner color, a deep violet, a fiery orange, while her eyes welled up with numerous bitter tears.

"Noel?" A lone voice called out from amid the rubble and whirling magic. "Noel!"

"Here..." Noel struggled to drag his sword out from beneath a crumbling block of stone, but with a hard kick of his boot, he managed to do so, before he rose up to his feet, peering out into the darkness. "One hell of a magic trick."

From where she was slumped against one of the tunnel walls, no longer residing within the mighty, glowing room, Lightning tried to stand up as well, but a thick swell of pain wracked her body from head to toe, and she just couldn't help but gasp from it.

"Lightning?" Noel called out at the sound. "Hell... Someone deal with the darkness, please!"

It was a moment or two before Holly's staff came aglow, illuminating the narrow tunnel that led on towards what was likely the room they'd been in before, but it was slowly starting to collapse beneath the swirl of wild, raging magic.

"Light?" Noel clambered over the fallen rocks and the wooden debris, the support beams that were creaking and falling down all around them. "Don't you dare die on me."

Lightning tried her very best to laugh wryly, despite the pain, and her grip on Overture tightened even further, before she felt her next few words fade out against her tongue.

"Reality... It changed." Noel looked back at the crumbling room as he tried to help hoist Lightning to her feet. "There's only one tunnel, look at it! He changed it to look like a maze..."

Lightning's eyes flashed with the pain from her entire body, and she nodded mutely, before she almost stumbled back towards the ground.

"Noel, hold on!" Holly rushed over, over the chunks of rock and fallen dust. "It's... A soul wound."

Lightning felt herself shiver from where Noel was helping her sit upright, but the words her companions were speaking, the calls of the other hunters, those who hadn't yet been crushed beneath the falling stones, it all began to blur together within her mind.

"Soul wound?" Noel started to grit his teeth, and he gently tried to help Lightning stand back up to her feet again. "What did the bastard hit her with?!"

"You can feel it." Holly's hands were glowing with her own magic, slowly tracing over the point where the first bolt of energy had struck Lightning in the center of her chest. "Noel... This much is fatal if left untreated."

And from beneath his mask, Noel's eyes went very dark. "How? How do we fix it?" He swore sharply under his breath. "And where the hell is Fang..? Lost like the others?! If that bastard-"

Holly knelt down to help lift Lightning to her feet. "You don't think that was natural?"

"You do?" Noel moved to hoist up Lightning's other shoulder, using his own arm to keep her upright. "You think he didn't make her look like... Like a wyrm, to fool us?"

"I... I don't know." Holly breathed a sigh of relief when one of the Yusnaan gladiators moved over to lift Lightning up in his arms. "But we've got a life on the line, and no sign of the crown... And this tunnel isn't going to stay intact for much longer."

Noel swore under his breath again, and he turned to stare at the massive swirl of magic, the energy that was growing stronger and stronger with every passing moment, before he signaled for an immediate retreat.

And from the arms of a fellow hunter, within the depths of her own mind, Lightning felt her soul slowly start to detach.

Fang knew it was merely a game of cat and mouse, a deadly duel of claws and fire, talons and burning flame, even if her own heated breath did little else than to keep herself flying, just to keep evading those massive limbs of the flying serpent, digits that looked far longer than even her own pair of wings.

There was no possible way that Barthandelus could be keeping himself aloft, and yet he did, even with a wingspan that looked far too minuscule for such a massive beast to fly with. Fang knew it was impossible, and even so, she couldn't deny that such an illusion was truly influencing the realm around her, for she could feel the rush of mighty air and the unceasing heat of such a machine, so smooth and lithe, like flesh itself.

She twisted back in midair to send out her own mighty spray of fire, but it was almost as if she was merely breathing at him, just air. Perhaps nothing could touch such a beast, not when he himself held the very bounds of reality within his grasp, the power to influence whatever he could possibly reach. She could not let him reach her.

"Barthandelus!" Fang's voice roared into the air, and she kept flaring her own wings to bring her higher and higher, before she whirled back around to strike at that mighty forehead, curved like the dome of a building, and she felt her hind talons scrape against those massive scales, and then finally, against the crown itself. "You're nothing but a trick, not even real... Nothing but what you've made up in your own mind!"

His own bellow pierced the sky, and perhaps the heavens beyond, and Fang felt it rattling in her bones, in her own fire, though no matter how much she herself tried scorch that glimmering crown, the ring did little more than tilt from where it hovered. And then, when she flapped away again, she felt it hit her like a mountainside, like she had flown right into the face of solid rock or steel, enough that she toppled limply in midair, watching the world spin around and around. She struck the surface of the realm, the edge of the illusion, bleeding and gasping from such exertion, watching as the mighty wyrm coiled to travel down from up above.

"It's..." Fang's teeth clicked together when she tasted the thick blood on her own tongue, hot as molten steel. "It's not ending like this!" She struggled to stand upright, even when one of her own wings sagged and buckled beneath her, aching and tender from the fall. "Won't let it end like this..."

Yet that heavenly beast merely swirled off in the distance, a titan in the air, perhaps toying with her for just a moment longer, enough that Fang chose to squeeze her eyes shut in defiance. There had been a time, she remembered, when it felt like the entire world was bearing down on her, a time when another wyrm had taught her how to survive.

Whenever I'm afraid... She'd once blinked with that inquisitive gaze of hers, a fellow dragon from atop the mountainsides. Whenever it hurts too much for me to bear, I just close my eyes and think of happier times... Times when all of us were around.

And within a haze of blood and hopelessness, when her tail began to curl itself against one of her bleeding feet, Fang squeezed her eyes shut even tighter. She let her mind drift back to the image of them all, a life when Vanille had once tried to make Lightning smile by braiding her hair with flowers, when Serah and Snow joined them there in such a happy place, and then even when Hope let Vanille try to weave flowers into his own hair. Fang remembered it, she remembered the fatherly touch at her shoulder, the pride in Sazh's eyes, how he spoke to her of such things, of her own cleverness and wit.

So Fang opened her eyes, gazing up at the beast who threatened to take such a future away, to crush it down between those mighty jaws, the teeth that glimmered among such fire, and she let the memories take her away. It was on instinct, she would realize later, just a single breath with the intent of flame, yet she'd unknowingly channeled it into something else, a long, keening sound, a war cry for her entire family, the love she kept close for those who she held so dearly, enough to echo all across that impossible, unearthly realm.

It was sound, waves of invisible force that struck like battering claws, forcing the fire of her foe even deeper into himself, to grow far hotter than he had ever intended, keeping it there until it began to flare up with sheer heat and crushing air, to suddenly fracture the inner mechanisms of the machine. Perhaps Barthandelus never anticipated such a thing, believing that Fang could never even breach the outer hide of glimmering scales, or perhaps his perfect design wasn't all that it appeared to be.

With a sly, yet weary look in her eyes, she could see it flickering beneath the seams as Barthandelus coiled and slammed back down towards the surface, within the cracks of the illusion, even as the wounds started to mend themselves with the sheer power of the crown.

"Clever... That Etro, the clever one... Found herself a clever wyrm!" Barthandelus sneered at her with his mighty teeth and his thousand eyes, rearing up from where he had fallen, standing with tall arms that flared out with smaller golden wings, seraphic and utterly intricate. "She... Waits for our deaths, plays with the very strands of fate... Cowardly."

Fang stood there, gazing up at the pale, shining artifact. "Then why do you have her crown?"

Barthandelus seethed again, bristling and bellowing from the very depths of his mighty, yet fractured form. "A mistake! The creator... She knew what she did, and yet still committed such a sin!" He clawed at the translucent surface of the realm, forcing himself upright again, breathing such fire from his unending jaws. "Impure... You are a beast of darkness, yet you command the fire... Such things are opposite to what they should be!"

Fang felt one of her limbs cry out protest when she launched herself up yet again, kicking off into the sky with a great flap of her wings, but she merely flew onward, barely dodging another gout of that molten flame.

"I am fal'Cie..." His voice rumbled with the strength of a thousand fires. "A child of the gods, the very being to correct the wrongs that they have made... Bhunivelze himself seeks to placate me!" Barthandelus laughed, and his voice shook the very foundation of his own dimensional state. "He believes we seek the same... The same, the same goals... But we are more different than he can ever imagine!"

Fang snarled through the roar of her own flame. "So, what? You think there's something wrong with the universe, so you decide to start killing Etro's followers?!" She called out again, bellowing that same focused sound within the force of her bright burning fire. "You nearly killed her... Not directly, but your Order... You almost killed them all!"

Barthandelus shuddered with the power of that second gust of sound, buckling, burning, melting his inner mechanisms, before he howled in rage, and perhaps what scarcely sounded like agony.

"You're just a sad, broken machine, making everyone else suffer around you..." Fang flew higher and higher, closer and closer, trying to chase down the whirling crown upon his head, mercilessly hunting it with her talons. "Your own pain isn't an excuse!"

And the beast bellowed, a long, trumpeting call, enough that Fang felt sorely numb of it, gripping down at the ring of light with her own claws, scratching and tearing at those pale white scales with the strength of her frenzied wings, and she roared out as well, calling with every inch of her lungs.

It was only when they both fell, toppling from the very height of such heavens, a beast of black and a beast of white, with a single pale crown tumbling between them, only then did Fang flare her wings out to soften her fall. She heard the crash, the resounding echo of the shattered ground, the shards of a translucent illusion that jutted out into the air like mighty icebergs, and she simply lingered there, bleeding from atop the flat surface of a broken shard.

Barthandelus tried to beat his wings against the air, to lift his colossal form again, but when his mighty golden eyes caught sight of the crown itself, it was no longer resting atop his head.

And Fang laughed, a breathless, gasping laugh, moving to rest there in her human form, a form that wasn't in such terrible pain.

"You..." Barthandelus could scarcely summon the strength to move his massive jaws. "...No."

Fang rose up, standing there on her own two limbs, a mere speck beside such a enormous presence, a fallen titan of a wyrm.

"My birthright..." Barthandelus reached out with one of his twisted, draconic limbs. "It is not for any other!"

Fang could hear the illusion creaking all around her, and she slowly moved to walk across the jagged shards, gazing down at her own blood, the liquid that glimmered beneath the soles of her shoes. "Time to finish this." She approached the fallen crown, all while changing back into her dragon form, no matter how much it ached and bled. "Nobody else gets hurt... You won't kill anyone else."

Barthandelus bellowed yet again, and his scales began to sharpen, shedding off a great deal of his mighty form, perhaps in an attempt to move without the power of the crown. But Fang was far swifter, and when she hooked one of her wing claws right through the center of that heavenly ring, the crown of endless white, she scarcely had to leap out of the way to avoid another gout of fire.

"I don't take kindly to fal'Cie." Fang lowered her to voice to a deep, chilling rumble. "You could even say it's personal..." She approached those massive eyes, still rotating like the spokes of an immense machine. "Tell me this, and I'll make the pain end... How does one go about getting a l'Cie out of crystal stasis?"

Yet it was almost as if a flicker of confusion crossed those massive eyes, before they went so very dull.

Fang felt a low growl echoing in her throat, and she slowly cursed through her teeth. "You're smarter than any of them... Not just a mindless waste of space." Her words began to snap like a snarling wolf. "You're not dead... Not yet."

It began in a great rumble of that mechanical hide, in metal scales and the loss of glowing blood, oily and slick. In the time it took for Fang to back away, to grip the crown even tighter with her wing claw, she could only watch as the inner workings of the fal'Cie detached themselves, grotesque and primitive, a smaller beast, yet still so powerful and fierce. And there was the fire, Fang felt it on her scales, trying to rip at her soul, but she lashed back at it with every inch of her strength, every muscle in her limbs, every spark of rippling flame in her breath, every strike of her own talons against such a resilient, mechanical beast.

And yet she fell again, gripping at the crown, even when it tumbled from her grasp, spinning and whistling in the open air. She fell beneath the shards of reality, watching the outline of a fal'Cie fall above her, before she lunged out to catch the artifact between her teeth.

It was only later, perhaps beyond another eternity, only then did they fall within another world of endless starlight, within the shimmering darkness, crashing against the outer layer of such a realm, an utterly impossible space. There was still no ground other than that strange translucent energy, and Fang felt the pain as it throbbed through every muscle in her body, so much that she swiftly changed forms to escape it again. She watched him fall, watched Barthandelus crash to the ground in such a smaller form, yet still larger than a dragon. But when he seemed to recover from the sudden shock, he slowly began to rise up, before he started to creep towards her yet again, snarling and spitting that same molten fire from between his slavering teeth.

Fang gripped it in her hands, the ring of light that was no larger than a dinner plate, and she felt her own fear start to swell again. Her foe was simply too resilient, and her own strength was fading fast, enough that when she tried to stand, she nearly staggered right back down to her feet.

"No..." His thousands of voices all called out as one. "No! It is mine-"

Fang could still feel the pain of her dragon form, and she cursed so quietly under her breath. "Damn it all..." She watched those claws as they scratched the glassy surface of the night, watched them scrape against the stars, before she closed her eyes as tightly as she could, and let the first thought that came to mind consume her.

It was a memory she felt, the feeling of soft feathers and a small smile, the warmth of friendship, eventually love, even if it wasn't yet fully realized. There she was, the image of the who one Fang had searched so many years for, the woman of another life, another world... A bird of pale, speckled white.

"No!"

Fang's eyes snapped open despite the pain, and when her gaze caught on what was standing there before her, she nearly felt her breath seize up within her throat.

And there, within that realm of impossible space, a rift in the very fabric of reality, stood a single, confused phoenix.

"Gods..." Noel tried to shield his eyes from the crackling energy, the swell of magic that was rapidly seeping up from beneath the ground, all throughout the gardens of the churchyard. "That stuff isn't stopping!"

The one who was carrying Lightning, he turned his gaze towards the rest of the city. "Where are we taking her?"

Noel lifted his fingertips to his mouth, and he whistled with a keening call, a signal to any other hunters who were near to their own little group. "Somewhere safe, somewhere we can try to treat this..." He turned to look at Holly. "How do you heal a soul would?"

And from beneath her mask, Holly's gaze flickered to the ground. "I... I'm not a physician, I can only tell you what I've read-"

"How, Holly?" Noel tried to keep his voice calm, signaling for the rest of his group to move away from the gathering magic. "We can't let a sister die on us."

Holly took a very deep breath. "We'll need the clerics."

Fang peered at the glimmering shades of black and white, the way those long feathers reflected the lights of the stars, and she felt her breath catch in her throat again.

Lightning, another Lightning, one from another world, still standing there in the darkness, she slowly began to back away from the approaching fal'Cie.

"Light!" Fang struggled to try and stand up, and she gripped the crown even tighter than before. "What... What happened?"

Lightning simply tilted her head at the sight of the massive, bleeding wyrm, the fal'Cie that was trying to reach them, before she spoke in a language that Fang couldn't even begin to understand.

"No..." Fang reached up to pull Lightning even further away from the advancing beast. "Why are you here? You can't... You don't exist here."

And almost as if she wasn't aware of such a reality, Lightning suddenly turned to look down at Fang with more than a hint of fondness in her gaze. "Fang..." Her feathers were longer, and she stood a bit taller, clearly quite older than what Fang's memories had shown.

Fang swallowed back a small glimmer of fear. "That's right, guess you're from later on in that life, eh?" She glanced at the clear muscular strength of Lightning's arms. "You'd better fly away; he's not in the mood to play around."

Lightning almost seemed to jump when Barthandelus bellowed again, charging out at them with every ounce of his remaining strength, yet in a gleam of color and motion, it wasn't a woman who took to the air, it was a mighty, flapping falcon.

"What did I do..?" Fang almost hissed at the crown in her hands, and she hurried to stumble away from the enraged fal'Cie, even when it felt as if her own strength was starting to wane even further. "Was it-" She barely even realized her own next action, an instinctual sort of test, just the mere notion of another life. It was a person she hadn't thought of in many, many years, yet it was a world that held someone who could surely aid her in such a situation.

And there, as soon as she felt the memory grow strong, there stood a proud, mighty figure on horseback, a dark knight clad in the gleaming armor of warfare.

"Holy hell..." Fang wasn't sure whether to laugh out loud or to sink even further against her knees. "I did this, the crown..."

The warhorse suddenly squealed at the sight of the massive monster, and without hesitation, the knight called out as well, though she did seem a bit confused at the sight of her apparent doppelganger on the ground, crouching there without much armor at all. She spoke in yet another language, something that sounded like a sharp, definitive order, before she shouted out loud and spurred her massive horse, calling for him to charge at the fal'Cie.

Fang reached out with another instinct, trying to warn her past life of the flame, but the mounted knight simply galloped on without pause, lifting her shield up to ward off as much of the fire as she possibly could. And with that, and with the phoenix who suddenly screeched out into the air and began to claw at Barthandelus as well, Fang herself lifted crown up before herself, thinking of those who could fight such beast, those could aid her in breaking the bounds of the illusory realm.

A woman with a strange weapon stepped forth, looking around in slight confusion, before another moved forward with such pale wings at her back, one who didn't even hesitate to launch herself into the air, a version of Lightning who swiftly summoned a gleaming sword to slash at the metallic scales of the fal'Cie, even when he roared and reared up to strike at her.

And from where Fang knelt within that starry realm, wondering if there was a way to heal herself, to fight back alongside them, she found herself thinking of even more, of a version of herself who wielded a dark spear, and then one who once hunted the wilds as a shapeshifting beast, as if the woods were her own home, and she thought of the Lightning who once fought as a solider in the sprawling forces of an empire, a woman with sharp instincts and an even sharper glaive, before Fang thought of one final life.

From the surface of the heavenly realm, dark spines rose in sheer agitation, while an unmoving mouth parted to reveal such deadly teeth, before those eyes, those deep green eyes, they shone with twin rings of fiery orange.

And with the crown, the relic that could rend apart reality itself, Fang willed for one final thing, just the strength to stand up and fight again, to heal her wounds away, magic that had never even existed in her own world, but with the power of an utterly godlike relic...

She rose as a dragon, a legend of that world, with teeth that snapped the very promise of death and the roaring blood of a fire, she flew on with the pale crown hovering between her silver horns, flanked by those she had summoned to fight alongside her. Her wings flared violet, and her claws burned with the orange hue of flame, rending and clashing at the twisted scales of the fal'Cie, before she flapped away to avoid a fearsome gout of fire.

A lycanthrope roared into the night, howling as it clawed down against those metal scales, finding the unearthly flesh beneath, while the phoenix veiled herself in crackling magic, within the brilliance of electricity, yet below, far below, a mighty knight struck true against the limbs of the fal'Cie, atop the back of her bravely galloping horse.

Yet the dragon, Fang herself, gazing down from so far above, she summoned her own fire into the shape of sound once more, calling out to reassure them all, to tell them that she was no threat.

Pointed ears pricked at the sound of such things, and the wary beast, a figure of hard carapace and watchful eyes, of spikes that kept bristling at the sight of a strange realm, she started to click back at the sound of the song, before she leapt out right into the fray.

Fang felt the cold wind on her scales, the air against her eyes, and she dove back down like a falling star, wreathed in fire and song, facing the very visage of her foe, the vicious beast who snarled right back at her with teeth of bladed metal and a breath of fiery rust. She could see them, her past lives, Lightning's past lives, and she swiftly tucked her wings in and struck.

Beneath the howling din of the beast, a figure from below, a past life of Fang with a rather advanced weapon, she fired upon the softer material beneath the scales of the fal'Cie, though she stepped aside when the massive lycanthrope came barreling forward again, leaping up to bite at the exposed flesh. Yet the other beast, a creature without fur, she turned to rip at the metal itself, even when a clawed limb struck down at her own carapace, rending deep enough beneath it to draw blood, so much that she dropped away without a sound.

From her desperate grapple with the very face of the fal'Cie, the lionlike visage that bore such deadly teeth, flaring those wide metallic wings, Fang channeled her own soul into the strength of her fire, struggling to burn the metal away. She saw the spiny beast fall from the corner of her vision, but there was little she could do to help her, not when Barthandelus swiftly sank his own front claws into the scales of Fang's chest, drawing such blood, the waves of crimson that dripped down across the heavenly metal of his own hide.

Yet below, the beast slowly righted herself from the ground, and in the low, rumbling clicks that almost sounded like laughter, she forced her carapace to jut right out again from where it had been torn away, regenerating it back into existence.

"You're still-" Fang's teeth snapped together when a desperate blow rattled the edge of her jaw. "Still not dying easily, are you?!"

"This is my realm!" Barthandelus roared back into the force of Fang's fire, summoning his own crackling flame, before he kicked out with his hind limbs, still so very serpentine, struggling to keep his ground against her. "That is my crown, you defiler..."

And Fang knew in that moment that she was at a disadvantage; no matter how much influence she held over the crown itself, the realm of the sky was still not her own, and without the knowledge of how to properly use the artifact, what possible way could she win against him?

Smoke and mirrors. Fang narrowed her eyes at the massive foe she grappled against. That's all you are... This place isn't even real.

Perhaps the realization came too quickly, for just as soon as the carapace creature had leapt back up to strike at the fal'Cie, both the ground beneath their feet and the upper realm of so many glittering stars, it all suddenly ceased to be.

Fang felt her eyes sting with the sudden sunlight, the blaze that was still directly overhead, the day of the solstice, almost akin to the crown above her horns, which suddenly fell away with the absence of impossible gravity.

And they were falling, dragon and fal'Cie, yet when Fang looked back at him, gazing at the sheer horror of Barthandelus himself, she realized what else the crown had done. She'd seen it once, of course, the way the fal'Cie were chained to their earthly prisons, a monster that spanned an entire vestige itself, but she never expected to see him so... Tattered.

Blood scattered out in the sky, dark and oily, a creature who had torn himself out from the very depths of the earth, wheezing flesh mixed with the terrible fixtures of a mechanical beast, scarcely even a wyrm. It was his true form, Fang realized, not the celestial creature that she had seen before, one who was merely a product of his imagination made reality... And this beast, this fal'Cie, the very thing that put him apart from his cousins up above, it was his simple lack of wings.

Fang let her claws detach from the pallid hide, the flesh that looked so sickly, hidden from sunlight for so many years, a forgotten beast. The sight of it was enough to make her feel the slightest shred of pity, even if the realization that she was swiftly falling as well, that the realm had truly been somewhere up in the sky, it all suddenly took the forefront of her mind. But even as Barthandelus fell, wheezing and wailing into the light of the sun, blinded, ripped away from his illusions, bereft of the crown, he simply fell further and further, until the ground so far below, the city of Luxerion itself, the buildings became close enough to count.

And Fang realized, while she flapped her wings against the rushing air, she realized that the crown was still whistling down through the sky, as well as the ones she had summoned.

The phoenix of course, she was flying, as was the winged seraphim, but the others were growing close to the verge of panic, fighting against the air itself as they toppled down, even when Fang herself dove in to try and catch them. With a dawning sort of panic, she realized that she couldn't possibly hold them all, and without the crown... She felt her talons close around the most resilient of the group, the creature she had once been, but Fang knew that to spare the pain of the others crashing down to earth, that she needed to send them back to wherever they'd came from in the first place, back into her own memories.

The crown kept spinning in the air, twirling and singing there beneath the steady sunlight, and when Fang dove down to catch it between her claws, she realized that they were all nearly upon the ground of the city. So with a single thought, a mere glimmer in her mind, she willed most of them away, the ones who could not save themselves.

It was in that moment that a howl pierced the very air of Luxerion, when a blooded beast suddenly crashed straight into the height of the chapel spire, impaled at the very top of the hall, far above the crackling magic that threatened to erupt from underneath.

Fang felt the swell of pain as she less than gracefully dropped against the edge of a rooftop, still clutching her past life in her talons, yet she couldn't help but drag herself upright to gaze at the sight of the Hall of Devotion itself. There was something far below, something so strong, enough that she quickly released her grip on the carapace creature to let her see as well. Yet the beast simply hissed and clicked at the sight of it, backing away along the rooftop, even when a certain falcon landed there as well.

"Damn..." Fang tightened her grip against the shimmering crown. "This place is set to go, isn't it?" She looked up at the sight of the fallen fal'Cie, the one who had once named himself Barthandelus, one had somehow ripped himself from the depths of a forgotten vestige, and Fang narrowed her eyes when a certain black and white creature began to run right through the crackling magic. "Not a smart move." She watched it for a moment, before she turned her gaze towards the phantoms, towards the thunderous sounds of the battles within the streets, the Cie'th that wailed on without pause. "He'd better not get himself killed..."

Yet the mighty lion leapt high atop the hall, larger and swifter by the gathered strength of his city, nearly as large as the Fal'Cie, for he was seeking out the source of the pain, the corruption, until his eyes looked upon the very monster itself.

Barthandelus simply waited, perhaps resigned to his own fate, already bleeding so quickly without the power of the heavenly crown. Yet as soon as the lion roared out in victory, there was a deep, deafening rumble, an eruption from far below.

Had the fal'Cie truly succeeded, then, Fang wondered, had Barthandelus sundered the very house of the sun god himself? She watched the rubble fly, the fire that rose so swiftly from the earth in great clouds of sparkling ash, magically fueled by something so deep beneath the ground itself. The tunnels, she remembered, perhaps they were simply a fail-safe, just in case those 'impervious' plans were to fail, to cut off at least one of his creators from his greatest source of prayer.

The rippling blast razed the closest buildings, crumpling them to the ground like mere twigs or scattered paper, and the hot air that roared up through the streets broke the glass of a thousand windows and blew open every door that wasn't bolted down, and a certain shudder echoed out from the wandering hordes of Cie'th, before they slowly started to fall.

Yet even amid the destruction, Fang looked away, far more concerned with the location of her own people, and of Lightning herself, but she paused when she realized that all but one of her summoned companions was gone.

The phoenix was steadily fading away, though she still had the strength to fly up and perch herself between Fang's shoulders, seeking shelter there. Fang closed her eyes for a moment, and she prayed that her own Lightning was somewhere close, somewhere that stood far enough away from the explosion, but when she felt that familiar stirring sensation in her blood... She was off in a single leap, for it was close, likely not far from the ruins of the hall itself, yet when she suddenly caught sight of the fallen Cie'th on the ground below, within a street that faced the fallen chapel itself, and at the masked figures who had likely witnessed the full eruption, she suddenly realized her own mistake.

Lightning, who was touching a charm from her leather wristband, holding Fang's own fire within her fingertips, she was protected by none other than the hunters of Etro's faith, sworn to the deaths of the creatures who stood beyond the balance, to those who posed a threat towards mankind.

Fang lowered her head slightly, still perched atop the edge of the roof. She held the crown between her teeth, yet it clattered down to the tiles when she moved to call out with her remaining strength. "Lightning!"

The hunters watched her, and they waited, circled all around their injured kin, but not even Noel drew his sword upon the wyrm who stood so far above.

"Lightning..." Fang felt her voice grow softer, almost desperate. "Please."

Lightning's gaze slowly turned, and she stared blearily up at Fang, still touching that single charm upon her wrist.

"I'm sorry." Fang leaned over from the rooftop, even when one of the hunters gripped at the hilt of his blade. "Don't die, Light... I'm sorry."

"Fang." Lightning's voice was just as soft, just as weary. "I can... Deal with a little pain." She closed her eyes when a figure on horseback approached, likely to carry her somewhere safer. "I won't die on you, I'm tougher than that..." Lightning tried not to gasp on her own ragged breath. "And you know it."

Fang glanced at the crown that stood between her wing claws, and then at the faces of the city itself, those who had wandered out in the wake of the fallen Cie'th, into the silent, winding streets, gazing up at the dragon who perched there upon a rooftop. And the phoenix, the massive bird on her back, her pointed ears perked at the very sounds of pain, before she fluttered down, landing right beside where a few of the hunters were helping Lightning back to her feet.

"Huh..." Lightning tried to smile wryly. "You're one weird-looking falcon."

The phoenix said nothing, still slowly fading away, yet she leapt up and disappeared straight into Lightning herself, even though a ragged swear crossed her lips when it was over with.

"What..?" Lightning shivered, gripping at herself as if a phantom itself had entered her body, though it almost felt as if nothing had changed, only something warm, something that dulled the pain, enough that she felt comforted enough to close her eyes, to allow herself to be carried up on horseback.

And when Fang moved to step across the roof, even with the wary gazes of the hunters, she suddenly paused when she felt her wing touch against the fallen crown. "Oh." She let her gaze drift towards Noel, who stood bereft of the avian mask, before she swiftly tensed at the sound of rushing air.

Yet it wasn't even a shade of the threat she had faced, not a vengeful phantom out for her very soul; it was something far different that suddenly landed upon the opposite rooftop, someone who stared right back at her with a rather majestic set of eyes.

"There is work to be done." She spoke without much more than a hint of emotion, only wistfulness. "Bring the crown... We must see that it never inflicts such terror again."

Fang took one last glance at the rider on horseback, the armored figure and the tall warhorse, and at the way Lightning looked so weakened from the magical wound, yet when they rode off into the city streets, the urge to follow them grew even greater.

"Please." The beast of steel blue, so much smaller than Fang, she leaned forward from her rooftop perch. "There is nothing we can do for her now... We are not beasts of nurture." She watched the way that Fang slowly picked up the crown once again. "At least... Not naturally."

Fang felt her gaze travel back again towards those on the ground, to the way Noel stared at the second dragon, perhaps trying to hide that little hint of affection in his gaze... But Fang's eyes were keen enough to catch it.

She could still feel the same sense of detachment in her soul, the sensation of floating away, even when the thrum of heavy hoofbeats echoed in her ears, within the streets that stretched on beneath mountains of dead Cie'th, no longer actively plaguing the city.

"Hold on, Lightning." She recognized the voice as Heloise's, even if it was rather muffled. "That sort of wound... I won't lie to you, you're in for a rough time."

Lightning felt her eyes slip shut of their own accord. "Where are you taking me?"

"To Poltae... To the healers." Heloise spurred the horse on into an even faster gallop. "Just be glad there aren't any more Cie'th here to crush."

Lightning could smell the sharp tang of blood from that warhammer, though she could barely find the strength to open her eyes again. "Healers?"

"Medicine, the clerics." Heloise's armor creaked and jingled with every swift step the warhorse took. "A soul wound... That's work for the clerics."

And Lightning closed her eyes once more, resting back against the surface of that armor, almost solid enough to remind her of dragon scales. Would the other hunters try to hurt Fang if she returned? The thought of it made Lightning's stomach turn, and she felt those deep pains swell up again, even with the lingering effects of that strange, ghostly presence, the speckled white bird that Fang had brought with her...

Lightning's mind drifted away from the sounds of mourning in the streets, far from the embers that floated on from the explosion, far from the feeling of wind on her face. She knew that her eyes were still closed, but for some reason, it didn't seem to stop the world around her from turning utterly white.

I must offer my concessions.

Lightning almost wanted to jump at the sound of that inner voice, or even just open her eyes again, but all she could see was an endless realm of brightness, along with a single, glowing focal point.

Your wound is that of the sun... Inflicted by a force who spun so fatefully out of control. Such things are unforgivable. His voice, if it was even a 'he', echoed out into the swirling realm of light. But as we are formal combatants... You have earned a certain degree of my respect.

Lightning felt her soul moving through the distant place, through the light that burned so brightly. You...

Your people call me by many names. He descended in the visage of twin burning eyes, of a face that was far too unworldly to be real. I am merely here to offer... As I said, concessions. You fought well for a mortal soul.

Lightning could scarcely muster up the strength to reply. It doesn't feel like I did.

As humble as you are strong... His smile twitched with the swirling rays of the sun. Such fire, and not even of this world... Your friend has given you a great gift on this day.

What are you talking about..? Lightning tried not to make her inner voice sound too irritated or snappy. Are you really the god of fire, or am I just hallucinating?

His gaze turned to the upper heights of the brilliant realm. Ah. To put it simple terms, your soul was struck by the power of the sun... And I can sense that you've traveled to the earthen realms. Bhunivelze smiled at her with that toothy, almost draconic grin. Fire, daylight... Electricity, perhaps, all are within my domain... It does not matter which patron you might settle with, you, like the dragons, are mine by your very nature.

Lightning would have sworn that she felt a chill in her soul if the realm wasn't so arid and warm. Yours...

A woman of light, in service of darkness. His inner voice grew a bit less pleased. A shame that Etro's claws have hooked themselves so very deeply... But that is of no matter, and neither is that of my crown.

Lightning's mind flashed back to the way Fang had held such an ethereal thing between her teeth. The White Crown..? Etro's crown.

His tone rose even further, almost to the point of inflicting pain. No... A mistake in the ways of our creator. Bhunivelze's form suddenly extended into that of brilliant wings, and of a bright, heavenly light that shone within his watchful eyes. The fal'Cie may be fools, rather gullible fools... But their logic is occasionally on point. He leaned in, gazing deep into Lightning's soul. You see, I could not have my crown, my crown falling into the wrong hands... Even my own followers could have learned to gain such power.

Lightning felt a glimmer of faint, weary amusement cross her mind. And what would they have done? Usurp you?

You jest, but such things... Bhunivelze sank his talons down into the pale depths of the sunlight realm. This is my solstice, my holy day... Not a day of men, but of a God! He rose up with those shimmering wings, sharply metallic, utterly without flaw. You may already know that our powers wane... That Etro's cursed influence keeps us far within those bounds, that we can never achieve pure perfection with such a blemish. He peered straight at Lightning again. The White Crown is mine... It was destined to be mine, it is a piece of myself! Such things... It is a blessing and a chain upon me, drawing on my power in order to keep me from my right as God, ruler of the very sun, of life itself! His eyes seethed with scarcely contained rage. But now... The dragons will either destroy it, or it will slip away into the world again... The fal'Cie was far too arrogant to deliver it to me, too bloated with greed to destroy it himself; he held my very power at his command, you see.

Lightning didn't reply for a very long while, waiting for that great anger to fade. And is that why we're speaking right now?

I believe you might have already gathered what it takes to commune with a god. Bhunivelze's voice grew softer again, a pleased, almost crooning tone. As I said, I sense that you've been to the earthen realms... And I assume that you used the earth itself to do so.

Lightning wanted to nod, but her soul had no such features. So, to meet with the god of light... I had to get hit with his magic?

Those are not the exact words I would use, but they are suitable enough... Bhunivelze lowered himself, gazing even deeper into her soul. And you, a woman of both fire and light... It is even more strange to me that you would choose death over life as your guide.

My parents were hunters... Lightning wanted to shrug. And don't you think it balances itself out? She almost recoiled when a deep, rumbling hiss echoed deep into the brightness of the realm, enough to cause her further pain. Without contrast... Without it, we'd be-

You merely limit yourself! Bhunivelze rose up again, flaring his mighty wings. You deny power itself... You, so much like the others, so promising, yet so... So disappointing, you deny your own brilliance in lieu of stability! His metallic wings bristled with the sheer furor of his unearthly voice. What is fire without shadow? It is perfect! Perfection incarnate! Yet for every step it takes, every surface it strikes upon... There is always that cursed darkness. He turned away to reveal his second, darker face, still seething with the power of a thousand smoldering stars. My crown... My White Crown, with it, I was perfect.

Lightning watched fire swell all around her, and she swore that no earthly heat could ever burn so brightly.

The world is changing... Our powers may yet grow again. Bhunivelze's gaze turned towards the sky of his realm. I sense you have questions to ask.

Lightning wanted to nod again. Were the dragons truly abandoned?

No... No. Bhunivelze's claws scraped the realm again. My gift to them, their fire, their wings... Their burning souls. His voice almost grew mournful. They were nearly perfect! Even Etro, dear sister, cursed sister... Her gift almost truly perfected them.

Lightning's soul wandered further into the realm of light, a drifting, injured wisp. What if perfection can't exist for us?

Bhunivelze almost seemed to ponder such a thing. No... That cannot be true, all things may exist if they are given enough will to do so.

But the dragons, they're still human underneath. Lightning paused when she felt a slight call from her own body, a further source of pain, but her soul was still detached enough to ignore it. Humans are flawed by nature.

You do not have to be. Bhunivelze's voice grew rather fond again, almost jesting. Such a shame that you are one of Etro's path... I rather enjoy your sense of wit. He turned to directly address her again. Do not die today, or any other day, or I shall be rather disappointed.

Lightning almost wanted to scoff at him. It's not like I asked to get hit with the power of a magical artifact... If you really want me to stick around, how about fixing what happened?

Alas, such influence is lost... Bhunivelze's visage peered at her from afar, yet his presence remained rather close. And the art of healing does not quite exist as it once did, so many world ago. His eyes, scarcely 'eyes' in the traditional sense, more akin to spheres of light, they peered right into her soul, and they soon moved to linger beside her. Though, the power of the crown...

No, no one on earth should wield it. Lightning wanted to sigh. Even if it would save me from one royal headache...

His chuckle shook the realm to its very depths. As I said, do not die... And I will expect an even more sporting duel should our blades ever cross again, perhaps as fated by past events.

Lightning wanted to narrow her eyes at him, or at least convey that thought. What are you talking about? Dysley attacked me, not you.

Indeed, he was simply a rogue pawn, but there are still two sides upon the board. Bhunivelze's gaze glimmered with the promise of sunlight. Perhaps you might find yourself better suited to a coat of your own colors... Or perhaps your usefulness will prove to be a hindrance towards me. His mighty wings almost seemed to shrug, before his presence faded into the world of light itself. Either case, do not linger here; your soul will find little healing in my realm, and likely no respite.

And Lightning soon moved away, retreating back into her own place of being, the home of her own soul, even when it felt like a bit of the flickering fire still lingered on inside her.

Despite the circumstances, despite the solid fact that she could still see the smoke of the city from so far above, despite everything else, Fang knew that it was so good to truly fly again. She had the air beneath her wings, blustering against her scales, and her lungs felt absolutely free to breathe again, drawing on the fresh winds of the sunlit ocean.

Though there was still the question of the unusual stranger, the dragon who looked even more diminutive than Vanille; how exactly could she fit into the events that had occurred? Fang knew it was futile to ponder such things while they were flying so very high above the city, so far from the rubble and the fallen Cie'th, from both sides of the conflict, yet she couldn't help but wish that she was still back at Lightning's side. What sort of wound could make her looked so pained, even without the threat of bloodshed? It tugged at Fang's heartstrings, making her want to simply dive back down and find her again, but the crown between her teeth held much greater urgency for the world itself, she knew that much for a fact.

And as the day drew further and further into afternoon, beyond the height of the solstice, when the chill air of the mountain nipped at Fang's open wounds, she realized exactly where the strange dragon was leading her.

A light layer of snowfall drifted down around the mountainside, coating it beneath a soft, frigid white. It was only a matter of minutes before the wyrm of such steely blue color landed atop one of the stone peaks, perched there with her head held high. Fang flared her wings to land as well, a speck of darkness within the mighty fields of white, and she felt her talons sink down against the snow.

"It's finally drawn to this." The other wyrm gazed up at the sky, and her golden horns almost seemed to glint in the heavy sunlight, while the snowfall slowly melted against her scales. "The outcome was always uncertain, that much was clear... But to have killed him so swiftly-" Her green eyes caught upon Fang's gaze. "You used it, did you not?"

Fang dropped the crown against a patch of rocky snow. "Yeah, he would've whooped my sorry ass if I didn't."

"I suppose the deed was necessary..." She lowered her gaze towards the crown itself, to the swirls of gold and silver, the inner facets of that glinting shard of sun. "Now, our work may truly begin... My name is Yeul."

Fang's eyes suddenly widened in recognition, but she didn't comment on such things, not when Yeul herself seemed so very at peace with their place upon the mountainside, steeped in some other form of inner balance, the kind that radiated as thickly as the heat of a fire.

"What do your keen eyes see, my friend?" Yeul slowly stepped down from the peak of the mountainside, moving out into the steady snowfall. "As dragons, we are quite gifted with the power of sight."

Fang tried not to snort at that. "Feels like my gifts haven't ever helped... I've never 'seen' as much as everyone else."

"Perhaps you must only learn how to look." Yeul stood beside the crown, directly opposite to Fang. She gazed back into those dark eyes, almost a mirror to her own shade of green. "But it is not always as simple as it sounds."

Fang paused to sniff at one of the wounds on her wings, one that wasn't quite healed by the power of the crown, and she started to lick the blood away. "So, we've got work to do?"

"Indeed." Yeul's gaze turned to the crown itself. "Do you see why it cannot fall into any hands, not even those with the best intentions? The chaos... Even the kindest heart can inflict great devastation."

Fang winced at the pain in her wing. "Yeah, I get it, kiddo." She caught a subtle flash of indignation in Yeul's eyes, but Fang merely chuckled at it, leaning off to the side. "Sorry, you just remind of a friend... You're little, like her."

Yeul looked at Fang's wings. "You're injured."

"Oh, really?" Fang smirked right through the twisting aches in her body, the twinges that began to grow even stronger as the adrenaline faded. "Hadn't noticed it through the whole 'getting tossed around like a rag doll' thing..."

"Are you well enough to help me?" Yeul moved one of her own wing claws to gesture at the crown. "We must see this through to the end."

Fang slowly stood upright, despite the pain in her limbs. "Just as long as you tell me exactly what stake you have in this... And why you want it destroyed."

Yeul began to move to the side, circling around the fallen crown. "I suppose my presence has proved rather elusive lately." She watched as Fang copied the motion, easily walking throughout the heavy snowdrifts. "I do not often interfere in such things... Not unless there is no other option."

Fang watched the snowflakes melt against the heat of her scaly hide. "Who are you, Yeul? Why did the Shadow Hunter look so happy to see you?"

Yeul almost seemed to smile. "Noel is one who can keep a secret... Why do you think Caius chose him as a successor?" Her voice, no matter how emotionless it was, it almost started to sound wistful again. "The love of a dragon spreads as a rift, uncontrollable... There is a reason he is the only one who knows." Yeul held her head up high again. "Etro's faith requires the eyes of a seer... And what better eyes could they possess than a dragon's?"

Fang kept walking through the snow, pacing around the crown. "You work for Etro?"

"She he;d just as much of an influence in our creation as any other." Yeul stared at the slight confusion in Fang's eyes. "We are children of the gods... We have a duty to uphold that same balance between the four." She rose up again, slowly flaring her wings, readying the fire within her soul. "And an object like this... I've seen much of the sheer terror it can unleash."

Fang stood on her hind limbs as well, curling her wings aloft, before she joined in with the deep rumble of gathering fire, readying her own flame, and it was only moments before twin gouts burned off into the deep whirl of the snow, into the silvery shine of the crown, down into the golden core of the heavenly ring itself.

"No..." Yeul spoke between breaths, between bursts of her blazing fire. "Not even a fracture..."

"Keep at it." Fang readied another bout of her own flame. "If you're a seeress, can't you see how this'll turn out? If we can break it or not?"

Yeul slowly shook her head. "This object is... Not of the material world." She released another roaring blaze, a fire that burned so brightly, before her mouth grew very empty again. "If the old legends are correct, it is a shard taken from Bhunivelze himself... Given to Etro to keep the balance between them."

Fang stared at the glimmering crown. "And Bhunivelze got a piece of Etro?"

"The Black Crown." Yeul nodded, before she started to gather up another burst of flame. "They have always existed... Drifting between worlds without regard for whether or not they should even exist." She breathed out yet again, sending her fire to scorch the heavenly shard, but it still would not react. "They are beyond everything that we are, much like the gods, and the fal'Cie themselves... I can scarcely see them in the flow of time, even now, other than what they could inflict."

Fang paused again, gazing out at the horizon, at the sun above Luxerion, before she moved to peer at the world below. "It could destroy everything, couldn't it?" She gripped her wing claws against the mountain rocks, trying to solidify her hold upon the world. "Something like that... Noel was right, nobody can have it, not the Order, not Etro's faith." Fang peered out over the Wildlands, towards Yusnaan, glimmering on beside the sea. "Nobody..." She turned around on the mountain peak, so high above the world, enough that she could see the entire expanse the lush forests and the sprawling wastelands that loomed beyond the mountain itself, the Dead Dunes, and then the deep, shimmering ocean that stretched to the south, the palest of any sea. "Nova Chrysalia... A new chrysalis, the land of new beginnings."

Yeul moved to gaze down at the island as well. "Now home to a force of destruction, unless we can break it."

"I don't think that's possible." Fang felt her tail sweep slowly against the mountainside, and she sank her hind talons been deeper into the rocky snow. "It's like trying to break a god, you can't do it without something just as strong." She suddenly turned, still perched atop the peaks. "Just as strong..."

"What is it?" Yeul visibly straightened her stance at the gleam of hope in Fang's tone. "What do you have in mind?"

"Something crazy... From a crazy bunch of people." Fang moved across the snow, stepping just as softly as a sheet of silk. "But there's nobody else who knows how to win better than they do, nobody knows better than the hunters."

Yeul's eyes went very wide when Fang reached for the crown. "You know what it can-"

"Relax, I've used it before... I think I can do this without causing anything catastrophic." Fang felt as her claws touched the ethereal surface, something that she knew could never have occurred naturally, a shard from the very heart of a god, sheer power incarnate. "If you can't solve a problem in the way you're supposed to solve it..."

Fang could sense the deep warmth of the fire itself, a brother to her own soul, the scorching heat of the dragons, the White Crown, prized to the greater wyrm. And Yeul merely watched, gazing down at the way the lines of light suddenly unraveled between Fang's pair of wing claws, the magic of a god undone by its very own strength.

"It's... Over." Fang soon sank her folded wings back down against the snow, and she watched as the light began to fade out from existence, slowly dimming itself against the dark scales of her wings and chest. "It's gone."

Yeul's voice sounded so much softer than before. "How did you know?"

Fang closed her eyes to try and dull the pain, before she walked off towards the peak of the mountain again, where she slowly spread her wings beneath the light of the sun. "It's simple... We just had to cut the knot."

Hushed voices echoed out into her ears. "Where did her soul go? What happened, exactly?"

"I... I don't know, but you can feel the damage; something strange flew right into her after it, like a ghost." The voice paused. "Gods..."

Lightning could tell that her own eyes were open, but beneath the haze of blurry lights and faded colors, the faint outlines of faces and distant shapes, she could scarcely even tell where she was, much less who was holding her.

"What did this?" It was a voice she had never heard before. "Magic of the soul, it's nearly non-existent..."

"That's not important now." The kindly voice of Heloise spoke yet again, though her tone was completely tinged with urgency. "I could see her fading off on horseback; she needs medical attention, now."

Lightning tried to move or to speak, but when she shakily lifted herself up into a sitting position, a strong set of arms kept her from toppling over.

"Lightning?" The voice was so soft and gentle. "Please, stay still."

"Where-" Lightning felt her senses fill with the aroma of stone dust and medical salve, and she forced herself to stay upright, even though her entire body was shivering without control. "What's happening?"

"Do you remember what happened?" Heloise held Lightning steady while one of the clerics took hold of those shaking hands, trying to stabilize the wounds in her soul. "I wasn't there, too many Cie'th to fend off in the streets... But they all fell when that monster died."

Lightning felt her eyes well up when the pain increased tenfold, rippling right through her soul. "I was... Bloodying the old man."

"They said you fought well." Heloise kept holding Lightning from where she was sitting behind her, keeping her still. "But when you were struck down..."

Lightning's mind flickered back to the image of Fang, to the feeling of those dark wings holding her close, keeping the wild magic at bay.

"Perhaps we should focus on mending." Heloise glanced down at her helmet, which was resting on the floor of the little stone outpost. "Just breathe, Lightning... Let the clerics work."

Lightning tried not to hiss in pain or tug her hands away, for the attempts of the clerics seemed almost rudimentary, simple probing of her soul, not in any way comfortable or soothing, but she knew better than to spurn their help. The minutes passed by with that same sort of pain, deep within the rending of her soul, even with the way they tried to mend the damage there, but it felt like almost nothing had changed by the time a knock echoed from the door.

One of the clerics rose up to his feet, yet when he moved to see who was standing outside, he quickly made room for them to pass.

"Professor?" Heloise glanced up from where she was sitting on the floor. "Professor Lathom, please, we're tending to the wounds of-"

"A soul wound, they said? Most interesting." Lathom knelt down beside Lightning. "You won't find the power to mend that here, no... I've read of such things, you know, the art of manipulating the human soul, a rather lost technique, in fact-"

Heloise took a deep breath. "Professor."

"Yes, yes, time is of the essence..." Professor Lathom rose back up to his feet. "Such a wound requires a great source of energy, enough to mend her ills away."

"And where would we find that?" Heloise kept Lightning steady for the clerics. "I swear to Etro, professor, if you drag us on another wild chase at the cost of-"

"No, no! No wild chases." Lathom held up his hands and shook his head. "It's not a golden goose we're after, just the power to mend such wounds... We're lucky to be so close to the temple."

Far atop the mountainside, Fang nearly turned to face Luxerion again, but a few soft words from Yeul made her pause.

"What?" Fang gripped at the rocks with her talons, gazing down upon the mighty plumes of smoke that rose up from the distant city. "Then where is she?"

"The village of Poltae." Yeul almost seemed to be peering at something even further away, a look that suddenly made Fang remember the visions that Vanille herself would often suffer from, images of the past, present and future. "They've taken her to the temple for healing."

But Fang was off before Yeul could even utter another word, flying on down across the mountainside, yet when she looked over her shoulder, it became clear that she would be traveling alone. Yeul stood vigil over the peak, over the frigid grave of a mighty crown, and her golden horns, tipped with silver, they almost seemed invisible within the sunlight.

Fang dove down into the cold, misty air, a dragon on the wing, a wyrm with a purpose in her heart, seeking the little village out in the Wildlands, one that was sheltered by so many jungle trees. She could see the fields off in the distance, the wild grass that stretched on beneath the mountains, and when she looked back up into the full width of the great blue sky, seemingly endless, an entire, swirling world...

They would be flying again soon, she knew it for a fact; Lightning had that strength, the sheer resilience to pull through, even without Fang at her side, such things wouldn't stop her from trying. There had been great power at Fang's whims, enough to inflict her own will upon the world, to mend Lightning's wounds, or perhaps enough to take Vanille out of stasis, or maybe even enough to make sure they were never harmed again... But it was a trap that Fang had no intention of falling into. She narrowed her eyes against the wind, thinking of the sheer power that had been unleashed upon Luxerion, the crazed madness of a fal'Cie. Such things came from immense hatred, from being locked in such a state, far too strong to exist without pain and suffering, so much that they had been sealed away from the world.

Fang drifted down through the sky, tucking her wings against herself, free to use her own strength. It was that choice, she realized, the gift that the gods had once given her, the boon of a caring soul... It was the knowledge to spurn the simpler choice of an easy way out, to instead seek the hardship and pain of a more daunting journey, the natural balance of the world.

The temple loomed off in the distance, beneath the shadows of the craggy mountainside. As she soared down from far above the rocky cliffs, Fang realized that she didn't quite care if her own secret had been revealed. Since the crown had been destroyed by her own hands, her own wings, there was no reason to linger there, even if their own answers were still only half-realized.

She landed with a dull thump, and the sounds of her talons touching against the stony crags echoed out into the afternoon, until she made her way down into the familiar canyon beside the temple itself. Fang could see the way that it stretched up into the mountainside, but she only had eyes for the entrance. She slipped down into the darkness like yet another whispering sheet of silk, intent on searching for the one who stood so very close to her heart.

It wasn't long before she caught the sound of voices, the echoing noise of those massive halls, the tunnels that wound deep beneath the earth, yet Fang didn't even pause when a few humans rose in alarm, brandishing weapons that could likely rend the softer parts of her hide.

"Lightning!" Fang rushed on into the main chambers, the altars with so many winged figures, and she quickly knelt there, nudging at one of Lightning's arms with the end of her snout. "Light, come on."

And Lightning, scarcely mended of the great wound within her soul, yet stabilized enough to keep her alive, she slowly reached up to caress the elegant curve of Fang's face.

"There you are." Fang's tail twitched back and forth despite the weapons aimed in her direction. "It's over, Light... We can leave."

Lightning tried to sit up from beside the stone altars, beside the glowing incense that had been lit to soothe her pains, and she gradually began to rest herself against the edge of Fang's dragon face, near her left eye, still dozing off throughout those waking moments.

"She... Needs rest." Professor Lathom was standing behind a few of the armed hunters. "Such a wound affects the body as well as the soul."

Fang closed her eyes, letting Lightning sleep against her cheek.

"Hmm." It was Heloise who spoke, and she slowly lowered her warhammer back down against the stony ground. "Some of your questions make more sense now."

Fang opened her left eye again, gazing out in the form of a wyrm, one of the very last dragons in the world, before she slowly closed it again.

"What a secret." Heloise leaned some of her weight against the pommel of her hammer, clearly a bit winded from the whole ordeal. "I've got a question for you, then."

Fang almost purred at the way Lightning's heartbeat grew a bit more steady than before. "Shoot."

"How does a wyrm hide herself as a human?" Heloise slowly knelt down beside them. "How does she come to befriend... A hunter, of all things?"

Fang listened to the sounds of the ancient temple, from the quietly falling dust to the scrabbling little footsteps of the canyon lizards, and to the sound of Lightning's own weary breathing, still so worn from the abuse she'd been put through. "That's... A very long story."

The rubble still smoldered on beneath the magical aftereffects, even when Noel kicked at a bit of it with the toe of his boot.

A rider on horseback trotted up among the ruins, within the smoke that still filled the streets, amid the scattered refugees. "What of the crown?"

Noel slowly shook his head, where his face was masked again beneath the visage of the Shadow Hunter. "It's already in good hands... It's over." He looked to the survivors, the people of the city who spoke in such hushed tones about the dragons, and of those they had seen falling from the sky. "But we're far from done here."

Another rider approached from afar, and when she drew near enough, she spoke in a very soft tone. "The phantoms are gone... Like the lion." Beryl turned her gaze towards the massive pit that loomed where the chapel had once been, those crumbling remains of the Hall of Devotion. "But the spirit's not dead... Far from it."

Noel looked out at the eyes of those who approached, at the curious apprehension that flickered there, no longer as hollow as before. No, even while the people were filled with such fear, with the loss of the day, the sheer tragedy, there was a low flame left in the wake of the void. The spirit of the city itself, the heart of the people, it was rekindled in the fires of death. As the ruins of a razed forest would someday grow within the nutrients of the ash, even with the loss of their homes, crushed and broken by the utter blast, the sacrifice of their very people... Perhaps the absence would bring even greater meaning to the act of mending.

"They'll need help to rebuild." Noel sheathed his weapons against his belt and back. "And we've got our own answers to find."

No sooner had the words left his mouth that yet another rider made himself known within the ashen haze, though it was more than a single horseman who approached. They bore the golden armor of the Order itself, the faithful guardsmen of Luxerion.

Yet Noel merely stood there, gazing up from beneath the mask of mirth, and his arms didn't even twitch towards his weapons.

"Shadow Hunter!" The one who rode ahead wore a similar crested helmet to those of the lost Lion Guard. "It was only last night that I called my own brother a madman... He confessed to seeking out those of Etro's faith."

Noel turned to address the rider, who swiftly dismounted from his horse. "You mean Captain Aland?"

The soldier nodded. "I was... Deceived, I see that now." He slowly gestured at the ruins of the grand hall. "The beast who fell from the very heavens, his presence... Do you know the anecdote of the gradually boiling frog?" The soldier slowly leaned his weight against his ivory spear, gazing out at the rubble from beneath his polished metal helmet. "The priests spoke of the corruption as if it was the influence of Etro herself, but this... This was not the work of Etro."

Noel almost smirked from beneath his mask, imagining the humbled lion pride who stood there before a pack of ragged wolves, both blooded and seeking respite. "It already feels easier to breathe... But the smoke isn't helping much."

The guardsman allowed himself a low laugh. "Perhaps you should bring your people back to your Warren... Our own home is suddenly inhospitable." He turned to the side, gazing up at his fellow soldiers of the mounted guard. "Our people... Betrayed by the ones we trusted most; the clerics may not yet see it, but we of the blade, our minds are sharp enough."

"Right... Who holds command, now?" Noel glanced at his own fellow hunters, those who were approaching from the shadows of the rubble. "We're only out for answers; I'd like to know how this whole thing started in the first place."

The solder swiftly mounted his proud steed again, urging the warhorse to turn aside. "I can only hope our ranks will remain as they were before; this 'Primarch' was the only king to try and rule in this day and age, and one can see how that ended." His helmet glinted beneath the sunlight, the glow that peered in through the ashen fog. "As for answers, I doubt the bureaucrats will have themselves in order before a certain... Group, could sift through the rubble." He urged his horse to walk ahead. "Perhaps you'll find your answers elsewhere."

Noel watched that sudden flash of movement, the charge of the mounted guard, yet they were of no threat to the assembled hunters, merely a display of power and force, riding off into the city to establish order once again.

"The palaces..." Holly spoke from where she was tending to the wounds of a fellow hunter. "We should search the palaces, see if Tipur received a proper burial."

Noel moved to stand just a single pace away from the ruins of the hall. "While the guards are away from it? They'll be out in full damage-control... We'll have time to really delve into those documents."

Beryl spoke up from horseback. "If the place isn't already destroyed... Just look what happened here." She gestured at the mighty pit in the earth, still crackling and hissing with the force of residual magic. "Imagine the knowledge that's been lost! It might have been the very reason he left no trace."

"We still have to try." Noel looked back at his assembled kin, at his wolf pack, his band of owls in the darkness. "For those we've lost... For those who've flocked to Etro's side, we have to try and make sense of this."

Holly helped the injured hunter up into a standing position, and she walked with her towards one of the riderless horses. "For the fallen."

"For the dead." Noel took another step, leading his people out into the world that stood beyond the crumbling ruins, the toppled house of prayer. "It's time to act."

There was a murmuring sound in her ears, and a pair of footsteps brushed lightly against the floor.

Lightning's mind was quite awash with fuzzy memories, with the same feeling that had swept over her once the clerics tended to her wounds with the power of the temple. She knew, in the back of her mind, that she once considered such a position to be rather useless, though a part of her always knew that the pursuit of knowledge and practical magic could certainly find its time to shine.

Yet from back there in the temple, within a room that smelled of dust and an ancient atmosphere, a time when priests gathered there to pay homage to the goddess of death, she just couldn't remember what else had happened once they began to mend her soul. Fang had been there, she remembered that much, but the rest of it was merely a blur.

And the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes, it was the curtain drawn around a solitary bed, and then the tiny cabinet off in the corner, one that held several different bottles of medicinal salves. Lightning's eyes traveled rather slowly, and her breath scarcely brushed against her lips, but when she caught sight of a single flower resting there upon the sheets beside her, she soon found the strength to reach out and pick it up.

A bit of sunlight was drifting down from over the curtains, and Lightning watched the way it danced and played against the red petals of the hibiscus flower, or whatever subspecies it was. Her eyes drifted shut for a while, and she began to truly feel the aches in her limbs, where the armor had taken the full force of several blows, especially on her spine.

She wondered for a moment if she had truly made it out that place alive, if she had really lived throughout the utter pain of that first burst of magic. If she was to be perfectly honest with herself, it almost felt like she'd been dying; it was as if her strength was simply sapped away, burned by the force of that crackling energy, but ever since it faded down to a much duller roar, she could feel her very soul as it gradually tried to heal.

The stem of the lone flower felt pleasant between her fingertips. Lightning thought back to her own little garden beside the house, those vines and flowers that she used for incense, even the little herb garden out in that cave in the woods, so perfect for mushrooms and plants that needed the moisture and shade. She felt her mouth grow dry at the very thought of it, and she suddenly realized just how thirsty she was. The pangs were twinging in her throat and stomach, calling out for water, and it took her more than a moment to reach over and find a small canteen.

"Hello?" A familiar voice drifted in from beyond the curtain. "Lightning?"

Lightning took a tiny sip of water, before she hummed in affirmation.

"They don't know I'm here." Something was quickly pushed beneath the curtains, before a certain person crawled her way under as well. "They don't really guard this place, you know! Not like anywhere fun."

Lightning nearly rolled her eyes at the sight of the young teen, the very same girl who seemed rather determined about something, perhaps further knowledge of sparring. "Sure... Where are we?"

Sibyl lifted up the box that she had pushed through the curtain, and she set it down on the edge of the bed. "The infirmary, don't you remember?"

"I think I was unconscious." Lightning took another small sip of water. "I was... Hurt pretty badly."

"You look really pale." Sibyl sat down upon the bedside, dangling her feet over the edge. "Paler than usual."

Lightning glanced down at her own hands. "It feels strange to be awake."

"Better than asleep!" Sibyl smiled brightly, and she tapped at the box beside her. "Like I said, they don't ever notice when I sneak in here... You hungry?"

Lightning shrugged. "I'm not sure if I should eat."

"But that's boring." Sibyl opened the box, and the thick scent of cinnamon wafted out. "These are better than medicine... It's bitter and gross, and it doesn't make you feel any better at all."

Lightning fought back the smallest of smiles. "Sometimes pain brings better healing than comfort."

Sibyl gave her a rather disparaging look. "It's no wonder you're so cranky." Though even as she said it, a smile of her own went wide across her face. "You give my big sister a run for her money in that department."

Lightning's gaze drifted back into focus. "What happened after..? Did she make it out okay? What about the others?"

"Yeah, and I heard it from here!" Sibyl's eyes went very wide at the memory. "They say the church just... Sank into the earth! All I heard was a big explosion, but I wasn't afraid." She sat up straight, putting on the fiercest face she could muster, before she reached for a cookie from the box. "Most of the other girls are huge sissies... I had to keep telling them not to cry, that we're safe here, but they act like a bunch of chickens whenever something scares them!"

Lightning glanced at the box of cookies. "Some people just don't handle fear in the same way... But that doesn't make them any less of a person."

"I know." Sibyl tried not to sigh. "But girls have to be as tough as anyone else to be hunters, we can't be afraid."

Lightning slowly shook her head. "No... We're always afraid." She watched the way Sibyl's eyes looked so inquisitive again. "You can't really be brave without being scared first, you just have to learn to control it." Lightning closed her own eyes, thinking back to those words she'd said so many times before, in countess different ways. "There are some things you just have to do, even when you're scared... Witless."

Sibyl bit back a giggle at that. "You were going to say something dirty instead..."

Lightning opened her eyes to roll them at her young companion, before she reached out for one of the cookies. "Clever little demon, aren't you?"

Fang knew that it was rather pointless to act as if her secret was still in place, for word traveled around the compound far faster than wildfire. Yet even with such a thing out in the open, with those wary glances and the occasional open stare, none of the hunters seemed to question the fact that she had indeed slain a great danger within the city, and it seemed as if it was enough for her to remain welcome within their home.

And as the dust settled, before she left to help with a salvaging mission, she'd approached the infirmary again, only to find that Lightning was still asleep. With a soft, brief kiss against her forehead and a flower left on the sheets, Fang left her there to rest beside the safety of her fellow hunters, along with those who had been gravely injured in the battle against so many raging Cie'th.

It was on the same day that Noel asked for her to help aid his search party, leaving the compound in an attempt to finally find their answers, it was only then that Fang came across the wealth of information that was hidden there within the palaces, in a room that held so many towering bookshelves.

There were runic circles carved into what looked like every available surface of the walls and floor, even a few on the ceiling, transmutation symbols and sigils of power, yet it was only when Fang found a certain journal that she learned what they were truly for.

Beneath Galenth Dysley's own name, there was a date at the top of the first page, which she assumed was likely false. It stated that the very first entry had been written at least a few hundred years ago from the current day, far too long for any human lifespan, but perhaps that had only been an illusion as well.

As my first duty in service to the Order of Salvation, they have put me in charge of preparations for the summer solstice, which is the very reason that I've deigned it worthwhile to keep such a journal in the first place.

It is a simple task, not one that I was particularly interested in, but the celebrations should prove a welcome respite from my travels... And I'm not nearly as young as I once was. I pray that Luxerion can become my home during these final years, and that my soul will be enriched in the ways of Bhunivelze, in our promotion of the path of the sun.

The next entry was dated several weeks later.

The life and joy of this city is infectious! So many youthful spirits all gathered in honor of our Lord, dancing and praying to their God, drinking and feasting upon the gifts that the Order has brought to them. Such a beautiful old city, richly tended to by the people here... It's enough to make even a weary heart feel so young again.

I do hope that next year's solstice is just as enlightening.

Fang turned the page, wondering if the old man was merely taunting her from beyond the grave, posing as such a gentle soul... She narrowed her eyes at the next journal page, before she began to read it again.

It's proved far more difficult than I first believed to spread the word of our Lord... We are compelled to respect the wishes of those who do not wish to be taught in His ways, but the people here are just as fickle as they are lively. They care not for sermons or prayer, only for the debauchery of grand celebration... Should they not go to Yusnaan for such indulgence? This is the city of Gods, not of base whims and desires! My peers tell me to be patient, that such youthfulness is merely a branch in the wind, ignorant of the entire tree beneath it, but I cannot help but think that there must be a better way to spread His word than to merely preach the ways of the sun.

Fang glanced away from the journal, and she looked up at the jars of alchemical ingredients that lined the shelves of the walls, as well as the books there on higher magics. She felt her nose twitch at the scent of such things, but she slowly looked back down at the journal in her hands.

The next entry was dated a year later than the last.

There was a terrible accident in the industrial quarter; a faulty silo of grain collapsed beneath the water-weight of a storm. I was sent there to tend to the wounded and the frightened, the families of the deceased, to ease their pains in prayer, but what I did not expect... It was, for lack of a better word, astounding. We sat there within the candlelight vigil, praying for those who had departed from the living realm, those lost to the world, and the sheer numbers of those who attended, it was far greater than any weekend sermon I have ever seen. Such a tragedy... The people here truly unite in times of loss and hardship.

Fang could feel a twinge of uncertainty in her heart. She slowly turned the page, and she found that there was only half of a year between the previous entry and the next one.

My friends speak of an expedition into something that the seers have seen... I cannot say this venture strikes me as anything other than pointless, but if it pleases the head priest, then I will accompany him overseas. Such a journey at my age! I daresay whoever reads this journal might not take my words as truth, but with God as my witness, this old man may just see one more adventure yet.

Fang felt her lip curl with something that felt quite like bitterness. She looked down at the next dated entry, which was dated only a few months forward in time.

The unworthy have been purged from this holy soil. The child of the Lord speaks to me.

Barthandelus. He says his name is Barthandelus.

Lightning closed her eyes while her young friend chattered on throughout the day. As much as she felt fond of such company, children always became so very tiring after a while, even with the best of intentions.

"And they say we won't get in fights anymore, but I don't believe that at all." Sibyl swung her legs back and forth against the edge of the bed. "You can't just make friends like that, not with jerks like the Order."

Lightning mumbled something under her breath, before she rolled over to rest on her side.

"Hey, don't tell me you're going to sleep again!" Sibyl almost started to pout. "They were saying you slept all day yesterday..."

"Sibyl." Lightning tried her best to keep her voice calm and soft. "Do you know where the nearest bathroom is?"

Sibyl's face went very blank for a moment. "Oh." She suddenly skipped away from the bedside, pointing at the front hall of the infirmary, beyond the curtains. "Over there, you must need to pee real bad!"

Lightning nearly covered her face in her hands, before she slowly moved to sit up against the bedside. "Thank you, Sibyl..."

"No problem!" Sibyl watched the way Lightning kept herself upright, bracing one arm against the bed to balance herself. "I'm supposed to be in classes, you know... Thanks for talking with me."

Lightning almost wanted to respond with the fact that Sibyl herself had done nearly all of the talking, but she simply nodded, walking off into the clinic hallway. She soon found the door that was labeled as such, a smaller room near the front of the infirmary, and she slowly closed the door behind her, just taking a mere moment to breathe.

The washing basin waited near the door. After a few seconds of silence, Lightning moved to draw out a bit of water from the metal pump, before she lifted an entire handful of the clear liquid against her face. Just the feeling of the cool water, the way it calmed her nerves again, she almost wanted to stay there for far longer than she needed to.

There was a bar of solid soap on the counter, and Lightning began to wash her skin even further, before she leaned away to rinse it off, gazing out at her face within the mirror. She could see the darkness beneath her eyes, shadows from a lack of restful sleep, plagued with so many dreams that she couldn't quite remember. They were fearful, she knew that much, chipping away at the hold she placed over her own emotions, the control she held so tightly.

She moved to grip the lever beside the pump, caught between letting the water drain away or simply washing her face all over again, just to try and feel cleansed of it all. Lightning slowly squeezed her eyes shut, but she still felt the pain same hovering there in her inner vision.

And later, after she was finished with the bathroom, Lightning slowly made her way back into the infirmary. She glanced around to see if her young acquaintance was still waiting there for her, but it was a pair of people who she suddenly looked upon.

"I told you to quit bugging people..."

"I'm not bugging anyone! Lightning's just as cool as you are, and she doesn't have anyone here to keep her company right now!"

Lightning almost felt a smile tug at her lips, yet she simply walked past the sisters without a word, even when they finally noticed her presence through the noisy squabble.

"Is she bothering you?" Beryl still didn't quite meet Lightning's gaze, preferring to glance at the wall, or even to glare at her little sister. "Kids... They can never tell when someone wants them to buzz off."

"I'm not a kid!" Sibyl seemed to be fighting the urge to stamp her feet at the ground, and she struggled to keep her voice down in respect for the clinic patients. "And I didn't even get the chance to ask her about the dragons yet!"

Lightning slowly settled herself back on the edge of the bed, sitting there with a rather conflicted look on her face. "...What do you want to know about that?"

Yet Beryl intervened, gently shoving her sister back through the open curtain while pointing at the clinic doors. "Back to class."

Sibyl opened her mouth to protest, but Beryl merely yanked the curtain shut, before the sounds of scuffled stomping echoed quietly from beyond.

"She just doesn't know what not to ask." Beryl slowly shook her head as the footsteps faded off into the distance. "You want to be alone? I'll leave too."

Lightning glanced at the avian mask on Beryl's belt, hooked there with a small length of colorful string. "I'm sorry for keeping her from class."

"Not your fault, she's just too adventurous for her own good." Beryl sighed, before she took a seat on the chair near the curtain. "Kids that age... They just don't understand certain things."

Lightning looked down at the stray flower on the bed sheets. "She will, just give it time."

Beryl quirked an eyebrow at that, still gazing at anything else but her face. "You sound like you say it from experience; I saw you showing her how to spar, you know, Noel and I hadn't left for the crypt by then."

Lightning moved to sit down on the center of the bed. "I taught her the same way I taught Serah... My sister."

"I figured you had one." Beryl crossed her legs, lounging on the chair. "More into swordplay than magic, are you?"

"Not unless I can use it with charms." Lightning glanced over at where her clothes and the leather bracer were resting against the counter, likely removed to check beneath her armor for injuries. Even so, she was wearing a rather lengthy nightgown, and she had little worry of the physicians doing anything uncouth, especially under Fang's watchful gaze. Yet that very thought made her wonder where exactly Fang had gone off to...

"I've never been very good with a blade." Beryl glanced down at her hands. "Magic is... It's simple, it just happens."

"You and Fang almost sound alike." Lightning glanced at where her charms were resting within the leather bracer. "Her magic-"

Beryl scoffed very quietly. "Dragon fire is hardly the same." She ignored the look in Lightning's eyes. "Yeah, be sure to tell her she's not great at keeping that a secret; magic is different between everyone, sure, but I had her pegged as something special... Maybe not a dragon, but not a damn human, that's for sure."

Lightning tried not to let her eyes widen at that. "You knew? And you didn't say anything."

"Not my business to say." Beryl seemed to be biting back a rather smug smirk; perhaps that was why she finally seemed less formal than before, for if she was to hold such leverage over someone, even in good nature, perhaps it made her feel as if she could speak easily. "You trust her, and Noel trusts you... It was good enough for me."

Lightning slowly moved to lean against the wall beside the bed. "She's human, though... She was human before, and she still is."

"Maybe so, but her magic sure isn't." Beryl looked back at the curtains again. "I think even Holly got a little freaked out by it... Don't get me wrong, there's nobody better than her at what she does, but she's never been good at reading her own people."

Lightning kept quiet for a long while, feeling that same lingering pain within her body, the wounds deep inside her soul. "But it's over now, isn't it? Fang found the crown."

"And killed a fal'Cie to boot..." Beryl rose back up to her feet. "You should think about getting those dreams of yours checked out, they could truly be prophetic."

"No, it was Fang." Lightning glanced at the deep red flower again. "She has this influence around her, dreams, visions, feelings." She slowly picked it up by the stem. "I get them whenever I'm around her... Almost like a gift."

The pages were stained with dark, speckled ink, and the date at the top of the paragraph stated that it occurred two decades beyond Dysley's last entry.

I have been given a boon for my service. At the moment in which I am writing this, my one hundredth and twenty fifth day of birth has just come and gone. The child of God is more than generous, and promises even greater miracles for Luxerion and for our own Lord above. We speak through the process of dreaming, as from such a distance, he is still cursed by the chains of those who bound him there, within the vestige... There must be conflict, he says, before the dawn can truly rise above the city, above the very world, and that great bloodshed will befall those without such unerring faith. They've had their chance... They will submit to the glory of our people, of our great God, or they may find themselves in the company of the defiler herself, lost within the realm of death.

Fang fought the urge to set the pages alight, or to just rend it apart in one swift motion, yet she needed the truth, needed the answers that she had worked so very hard for, and the sound of gentle footsteps helped to calm such an impulse.

"Found anything?" Noel was wearing his mask again, and he carried an armful of various documents. "We've been going over all of those trade deals, the paperwork."

"Yeah, this one looks promising." Fang looked up at the stairwell the led up from the underground room, where Noel was stepping down from. "He kept a journal."

Noel soon set the documents against on a nearby counter, before he moved to glance at the book in Fang's grip. "Think you can summarize?"

"Sure... The fal'Cie are bad news, and have always been bad news." Fang leaned back against the wooden chair at the desk. "Galenth Dysley found a fal'Cie called Barthandelus and promptly went nuts from it, probably harming Etro's people in favor of Bhunivelze; I haven't gotten past that, but I think I can guess what happened next."

"Just keep at it..." Noel walked over to examine some of the alchemical equipment. "We're bound to get to the bottom of this thing before long."

"Right." After a moment or two, Fang glanced over to see what Noel was doing. "You don't seem weird about this."

Noel didn't look away from the various bottles and pouches of strange powder. "About what?"

Fang nearly rolled her eyes. "Don't play dumb with me."

Noel slowly braced his hands against the countertop. "Why would it be weird?"

"Because your people hunt monsters for a living?" Fang leaned back in her chair again, resting her feet against the wall beneath the desk. "And strictly speaking, by definition, dragons..."

Noel's voice sounded a bit more strained than before. "I know you've met Yeul."

"Friends, are you?" Fang tried her best not to smirk. "You know, I never asked how old you were, Noel."

Noel took a very deep breath. "Twenty three... But Caius was somewhere around three hundred years old when he was killed."

"Interesting." Fang thought back to the elderly dragon she had met within the seaside cave, Aubergine. "It really does work like that..."

Noel looked away, still leaning against the alchemy counter. "The Shadow Hunter never existed before Yeul approached Etro's people." His voice almost sounded distant. "The first... It was after the great purges, the very first Shadow Hunter made a pact with her, an exchange of foresight for her own protection, and she's been with us ever since."

Fang kept gazing at the walls of so many bottles and jars. "I'd never sensed her here before it all happened."

"For good reason." Noel lowered his voice again. "She keeps to herself, only ever meets with me... She can't know anyone else, and none of my people can know about her, even the other seers." He turned to face Fang directly. "It's immortality, a living legend... Caius would have lived indefinitely if he hadn't been killed, and I never would've become the Shadow Hunter."

Fang took a moment to think that over. "And you didn't know Yeul before then?"

Noel shook his head. "It's customary for us to meet on the night that I take the vows, at least from what she's told me... There's nothing written about this kind of arrangement, I can tell you that much."

"So it's one big secret." Fang glanced down at herself. "And someone like me... They don't even know they've already got another dragon among them."

"We'd be out of balance if we did, out of line." Noel slowly walked towards the other bookshelves. "Imagine that, a group of immortal hunters... That's pushing it too far."

Fang shrugged, before she looked back down at the journal. "I suppose Caius picked you for your steady temperament."

"Suppose so..." Noel's voice drifted out from behind the bookshelves. "Didn't go on a rampage, did I? The Order's still intact."

And as much as Fang wanted to smile at that, when she looked back at the words on the page, they brought a certain darkness back to her mind, realizations that she almost wished she hadn't found.

I have overstepped my boundaries. I have not yet succeed in our plans. The child is displeased, but He has ordered me to retreat for the time being, to wait for many years, to wait for such an... 'Incident' to be forgotten within the hearts and minds of Luxerion's people. I merely intended to test the process we spoke of, the alchemical bond of two souls, to free my master from His chains, but such things have drawn far too much attention, to the point where I must flee. The people must not have a single trace of doubt in me when the final dawn approaches, and I fear that it will take many long years.

But I am nothing if not patient... The time will come when our Lord rises up from His slumber, when the crown is well within our capable hands, when my own soul will be given as tribute to the child of God. We need only to wait.

The next entry, which was written in what looked like far fresher ink, not quite as aged and cracked as the rest, it was dated several dozen years beyond the last one.

That fool of a hunter thinks the master cannot see him... Thinks his own plans are beyond my grasp. His tricks and barriers only delay the inevitable; I shall have the crown from his own grasp, he will find it for me. I will pry it from his own bleeding hands if I have to. I have waited far too long for this moment for such things to be foiled by Etro's ilk.

The next entry was dated less than a year beyond that.

IT IS HERE.

And the next one, it was only days after.

The bonding agent has proved just as fickle as the power within the artifact... As the sermons fluctuate, so does the power of the crown. I can only assume that it feeds upon Bhunivelze's own power, the strength of the prayers, so we may need to stir up such terror again. The fools are utterly blind, intoxicated on the word of death itself, and they come in droves to escape Etro's influence. And the hunters... They play right along with that narrative, for their own tools are that of fear and manipulation. I need only to spark the flame.

We will be one and the same, before long... I have been chosen since the day I stepped foot in that holy place, so deep beneath the sea, and the transmutation process, along with the crown, it is all nearly complete. We will begin soon.

Fang tried not to curse under her breath. "The bastard was playing us from the beginning..."

Noel looked up from the book he was reading, but he didn't reply.

The next date was only weeks, perhaps a month before Fang herself had arrived to Luxerion.

We are... One. Galenth, Barthandelus, the very power of the crown has brought Him, brought me here, to the very depths of the hall... The child of God has returned to the house of His birthright.

My predecessors will loathe the day he ever abandoned me in that cursed tomb. The others may cry out for pity, but I will commit no such groveling... He will perish for what he has done. I will become God.

The Shadow Hunter chose another to lead on in his stead, it seems, and his mind is just as elusive to reach, even from the power of dream searching. No matter, he will serve me just the same as his predecessor. They are almost disappointingly easy to provoke, and the fear that they spread... The crown has never felt more powerful.

The Cie'th experiments have proved rather fruitful, but it seems as if I can no longer inflict a true focus upon the mortals. The process is instantaneous, a Cie'th of deadly strength, but when it is attempted upon the more stalwart of the test subjects... At least they can be used as untouched fodder for other such experimentation.

I will soon take my true form, no longer lost within the depths as a forgotten one... Bleeding and broken, imperfect in every way, yet still the bearer of such potential. I feel the power coursing through my veins, through this capable human form, and we will soon begin anew.

The next entry made Fang's grip tighten against the journal.

A dragon, in Luxerion! What fortune, what fate... The one the human described was surprisingly easy to seek out, and her mind, as stubborn as it was, it could not hold its secrets for long, including that of the wyrm! The memories call to me, my own whispers of the past... Revenge will be sought, and I will have even greater strength, further power, all for the life of a dragon.

Fang slowly turned the page, gazing upon the very last entry, before a quiet sigh left her lungs.

And so the day dawns, the final step of this very first dance... My tools are in place, and the Cie'th, no matter if my branding cannot reach those without such influence in their hearts, the Cie'th will be born of the hopeless, the lost, the blundering fools of this city, those who cannot comprehend the greatness of our new Lord.

Primarch... That title, it will suit me within the coming centuries. My Godly reign begins.

And Fang grit her teeth together, closing the book just as slowly as her tensing hands would allow. "Not likely."

Lightning slept long into the hours of the day. The voices of those in the infirmary grew quieter and quieter as the sun slipped closer to the city walls, and by the time when she finally woke again, the room was nearly silent. She could see the faint sunlight on the opposite side of the curtain, and she guessed that it meant the hour was nearly evening.

Steady sounds brushed against the floor from somewhere near the front of the clinic, and a few muffled voices began to speak, before Lightning heard a single set of footsteps approach. While she didn't feel much of anything for whoever was there, she knew that she was in no state for a formal visit, though at the sudden sight of who it was...

"Light!" Fang slowly moved in from beyond the curtain, stepping over to rest upon the bedside chair. "You're awake."

Lightning hummed under her breath. "Barely."

Fang smiled at that, though the gesture wasn't quite as confident as it often was, tinged with the worries of the entire ordeal. "How are you feeling?"

"Just peachy..." Lightning reached out to rest one of her hands near the edge of the bed. "You want the truth?"

Fang nodded, and she slowly twined their fingertips together.

Lightning closed her eyes again. It's awful.

Light... Fang tried to keep her rage from prickling. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have called out back there.

It's not your fault. Lightning gently squeezed Fang's hand. You did everything you could do... You kept it from getting worse; I would have died if you didn't.

You're still hurt... It feels like I broke my promise. Fang closed her eyes as well. Do you really think you can travel like this? No offense, but you don't look like you're up for it.

None taken. Lightning tried to smile at the warmth of Fang's fingertips, resting so softly beside her own. I can heal up for a while... Try to get back into shape.

It was a long moment before Fang spoke with her inner voice again. Can I try something? She was already taking the first few steps into peering within Lightning's soul. You remember when I altered your signature? So you'd be immune to my fire.

Lightning nodded. I remember.

I can try to heal it, maybe even better than the clerics. Fang slowly began to breathe deeper. Will you let me try?

Of course. Lightning let herself relax again, easing into the same sense of darkness and utter detachment. Fang, you know I trust you... We've trusted each other in so many lives, it feels like a second nature now.

Fang nearly felt her mind wander back towards the image of the realm in the sky, to those she had summoned beside her. Just relax as much as you can... I'm sorry if it hurts.

Lightning felt those first few tears prickling at her eyelids, though the pain was that of her own, the sudden swell of those wounds inside herself, within her very being. The familiar touch of Fang's soul, no matter how gentle it was, it was akin to opening up an injury to examine it.

Fang's mind was soon flooded with the same pain, sensing exactly what Lightning felt, yet she still bridged the gap between their souls, into the realm of Lightning's being, where the wounds became all the more apparent. Light...

Lightning didn't even try to respond; she was far too busy with keeping her own composure at its strongest, just to keep the pain at bay.

I'll try to heal it. Fang could feel the terrible rends within Lightning's soul, the work that the crown's magic had done, yet she also felt the makeshift bonds that the clerics had tried to establish, though such things seemed nearly as futile as pressing thin cloth against a gaping wound. Just hold on, Lightning.

And it began with a measure of her own power, with an attempt to close up those tattered shreds and make them stop crying out in pain. Fang worked with what Vanille had once taught her, the art of manipulating a soul for the better. She remembered the time when she herself had been subject to such things, to the grief of loss and utter abandonment, and how Vanille had tried to mend such ills, altering the pain in her soul to feel relief from the years it had persisted. It wasn't the same as Lightning's condition, which seemed almost more like a physical type of affliction rather than an ache, but the process was similar enough. The damage had been done, and nothing could speed up the growth of healing, but Fang could soothe the process by closing the gaps, and she could leave an imprint of herself against the wounds, enough to make it much more bearable.

Fang? Lightning's inner voice finally spoke. What happened when you disappeared? Was it really a fal'Cie? They all say it was.

It's a little hard to explain. Fang kept trying to seal up those wounds, working to chase the aches away. It'd take a while to say out loud... But I could show you, if you really wanted.

Lightning's soul drifted back against Fang's own presence, caressing it, bridging the distance between them, and the signature of her own inner heart became all the more clear and prominent. Please show me.

Fang almost hesitated, but from the warmth beside her own soul, from the lines that swirled on between her and Lightning, she slowly began to think, and to share the memory between them.

The day dawned with a soft, hushing whisper from the ocean breeze. And in the daylight, after she woke up from her slumber, Lightning found herself able to walk far enough towards the dining hall, just enough to spend at least one last breakfast there. And that same kindly face that she saw near the kitchen counters, she sought it out more than any other.

"Up and about so soon..?" Heloise looked up from a bit of bread dough that she'd been kneading. "Don't push yourself now, Lightning."

Lightning walked up towards the kitchen counters. "Call me Light."

"Light..." Heloise gave her a warm smile. "Such a pretty name."

"It... It was Claire, once." Lightning moved to wash her hands in a nearby water basin. "But she was killed by a dragon; Lightning took her place to avenge it."

"A dragon?" Heloise started to knead the bread dough again. "Then it seems rather strange that she'd make friends with another one..."

Lightning walked over to pick up her own portion of the spare bread dough. "Yeah, it didn't make much sense to her, either." She glanced around to make sure that they were out of earshot from the other women, those who were preparing breakfast within the kitchens. "Especially when the dragon turned out to be more human than she'd ever thought possible... And it was even more confusing when it started to feel like they were in love."

"The heart works in unusual ways." Heloise dusted off a bit of flour from her apron. "I assume this dragon was rather kind to her, to earn her affections..?"

"She was." Lightning kept kneading the bread, trying to ignore the residual pain in her limbs, though it was much easier to endure than before. "She even asked for her help to save her sister... Her sister was cursed by a fal'Cie."

Heloise hummed in thought. "I do hope her sister didn't turn into a Cie'th."

"She didn't." Lightning slowly rolled the bread into a rather unusual shape, just as flat and pointed as the scale of a mighty dragon. "She completed her focus... She turned to crystal."

"Far better than the fate of a Cie'th." Heloise's eyes went quite distant at the thought of such a battle. "But how do they plan to save her sister?"

Lightning felt that sudden doubt, the same kind she could only stifle with her own source of confidence. "They plan to kill the fal'Cie who branded her in the first place."

"Ah." Heloise soon lifted the loaf of raw dough in her hands, gesturing for Lightning to follow suit with her own. "I can only hope that works... But I don't doubt that they can do it." She used a long wooden peel to push the unbaked loaf into the heat of the brick oven. "We've all seen that a fal'Cie can be slain, after all."

Lightning felt that same memory as it flickered in her mind again, the mighty beast within the clouds, the fight that Fang had endured, and she slowly held up her own loaf of bread dough.

"You're a good sort, Lightning." Heloise helped move the raw bread beside the flames, within the gentle roar of the fire. "You've got a good heart, I could tell right when I met you."

Lightning peered deep into the heat of the furnace, the energy she knew so very well. "Thank you."

"You've got my faith." Heloise smiled, and the silver pendant at her neck glimmered slightly in the light of the flame. "Just don't push yourself, now... A wound of the soul is nothing to scoff at."

Lightning knew the that physicians would soon realize that she'd wandered off, and that either one of them would come to fetch her back, or they would send Fang out to do it. She'd been ordered quite a bit of bed rest, but just sitting there while Fang slept in the bedside chair wasn't quite her idea of a productive morning, even if she had to admit that Fang looked rather cute whenever she was sleeping so soundly.

"Light..." Heloise smiled at the way Lightning already looked halfway there to dozing off again. "Are you supposed to be out of the infirmary?"

Lightning swallowed back the dry feeling from her throat, and she slowly glanced away. "Would you be offended if I said you reminded me of my mother?"

And Heloise smiled, before she laughed so quietly, and yet so deeply, mirth that shook her from head to toe. "No... No, dear, that's perfectly fine."

"I lost her when I was younger." Lightning leaned one of her arms against the kitchen counters. "My sister and I were alone, so I had to step up, I had to take that role... It's almost strange to meet someone who feels the same." Her gaze drifted off to the side when she caught right of a familiar face near the kitchen doorway. "But I guess you can find family even in the strangest places."

"Sleep."

Lightning just rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Wounds heal much better when you sleep." Fang sat there on the edge of the bed, gazing out at the gap between the curtains. "The same should work for your soul, right?"

Lightning tried to close her eyes, to relax, for it had indeed been a rather sleepless night, but her mind just wouldn't stop racing, forcibly thinking of so many things.

"Hey." Fang leaned over to brush a gentle hand across Lightning's nearest shoulder. "The sooner you heal up, the sooner we'll get going again."

Lightning turned to look at Fang, and she slowly moved to rest a bit closer to where she was sitting. "How far away is the vestige?"

Fang glanced over at the open windows again, beyond where the curtains fluttered within the ocean breeze. "Not far... Less than a week if the wind is still on our side."

Lightning sat up to rest her chin against Fang's shoulder. "And then we'll go home."

"Yeah." Fang reached over to hold Lightning's hand. "It's weird, I've gotten so used to this place..."

"I know what you mean." Lightning closed her eyes again, breathing deep. "It almost reminds me of Bodhum."

"Your old village?" Fang slowly twined their fingertips together. "I bet it was pretty great."

"It was." Lightning's voice grew softer and softer, and she leaned more of her weight against Fang's shoulder, gently resting there. "But everything has to end."

Fang felt a strange sensation in her heart, one that wasn't quite as welcoming as she might have liked, if only for the truth of such a statement. "I don't want this to end."

"I know." Lightning held Fang's hand a bit tighter than before. "But we'll be alright... I have faith in it."

The days passed within a blur of soft conversations and rest, and Lightning soon felt more than well enough to walk around the compound without much fear of pain. Fang had already brought all of their belongings out to the clinic, and due to their lack of any personal foods besides crackers and a bit of nearly stale chocolate, Lightning suggested that they should venture out to buy supplies for the rest of their journey.

"You think it's safe enough out there?" Fang peered up at the high walls of the compound. "Those Cie'th really did a number on the place..."

Lightning shrugged. She was wearing her silvery clothes again, the garb of dark leather and silky fabric, yet she wore her hood down beside her shoulders. "We could ask what the scouting parties saw."

And with that, they soon found their way towards the other end of the compound, near the mounted training yards, where none other than Noel spotted them from atop horseback.

"Hey, look at you." Noel soon approached the edge of the paddock, and he dismounted from the back of the huge horse. "I was just thinking, Sarga's probably missed you..."

Lightning held out her hand to let the normally ferocious warhorse sniff at her scent, and she almost smiled when he nuzzled at her wrist.

"Already up and about..." Noel slowly leaned against the paddock fence. "I suppose you'll be off to finish what you started out for?"

Lightning glanced over at Fang. "We have another fal'Cie to hunt."

Fang nodded, leaning one arm against the fence as well. "We wanted to ask if you think it's safe enough to go out and buy supplies."

Noel almost seemed a bit taken aback at such a statement. "We have more than we need in supply reserves... Poltae and the other farms supply the majority of the food here, you can always take what you need."

"Serious?" Fang almost grimaced when Sarga leaned over to sniff at her hair. "There goes our day of shopping..."

Lightning gently elbowed Fang in the ribs. "Be polite."

Fang only smirked, still leaning away from the curious warhorse.

"Also, uh..." Noel's gaze turned towards the narrow tower that stood higher than even the walls of the city, a vantage point over the sea. "Our seeress wanted to speak with you."

Fang's expression quickly sobered. "What for?"

"I'm not sure." Noel adjusted his grip on Sarga's reins. "But before you leave... Have a word with her, if you will."

"We will." Lightning had her own curiosity of the woman that Fang had shown her in a memory, one who held a tone of voice that she swore she recognized. "Thank you, Noel... We'll say goodbye again before we go."

"You'd better." Noel quickly winked at them both, leading Sarga back out into the training grounds. "Not to ruin the surprise, but... Stick around for dinner, Heloise has something planned."

And with that, both Fang and Lightning approached the seaside tower, making their up way to meet with the seeress herself.

Sunlight spilled down throughout the rounded room, and a few sticks of incense burned faintly into the daylight hours. A trio of figures rested there upon the cushioned floor, speaking in low tones.

"It is a difficult outcome to see." Yeul's face, without her mask, it revealed that her features were rather youthful, yet still very wise. "I sensed one of my own kind... But my own presence is cloaked out of necessity."

Fang spoke up from where she was sitting. "I'm guessing you don't intervene much in whatever the hunters decide to do."

"Never... Ah, hardly ever." Yeul's gaze flickered back to Fang. "The crown was enough to require more than mere advice."

Lightning began to speak. "And you can communicate in dreams, like Fang can?"

"You are not one of this place." Yeul looked over at Lightning. "I knew you were a hunter, as they are, but your fate is more akin to that of a wanderer... I knew if my secret was to be revealed, you were the one to share it with."

Lightning took a moment to peer at the golden circlet atop Yeul's head, likely a ceremonial piece. "So none of them know you're a dragon?"

"None but the Shadow Hunter." Yeul sat shorter than either of them, a rather diminutive figure. "And now, the two of you... But I trust we can keep such a secret to ourselves?" She looked back into the depths of Fang's eyes. "I am loyal to those of Etro's faith, and to the goddess Etro herself."

Fang paused, almost as if she wasn't sure of what to say. "You're... Really one of Etro's?"

"Our blood is different." Yeul slowly reached up to lower her headdress, revealing the twin silver circles on either side of the decorative horns. "We are beings of life and fire, not of death and shadow... But she welcomes those who are willing to protect her way of being."

Fang nodded to herself. "The balance, you mean."

"Yes... We can overcome our base natures." Yeul looked at Fang with a memory in her eyes, visions of the great purges, of those who once slayed so many dragons, and of her own pact with the goddess of death. "We can learn to live as they do."

Fang kept her tone to a low murmur. "Yeah, and I'm glad of that... It's just hard to turn back to the gods after everything that's happened."

"It is understandable." Yeul lifted her headdress again. "The pain of their departure, the loss of the voices inside... They simply cannot reach us, not unless we meet them at least half of the way."

Lightning spoke up. "When I was taken from the city-" She almost seemed to doubt herself for a split second, before that steely sense of confidence forced itself back into her words. "I was either hallucinating, or I spoke with Bhunivelze."

Yeul's gaze seemed to drift off into the distance again, far away from the room they were in. "Our world is changing... We will all have our parts to play." She slowly rose to her feet, stepping silently towards the small windows of the tower. "The ocean once rose upon this very shore... The walls kept it at bay."

"The Pale Sea." Lightning felt her own voice darken at the memory. "You think it means something?"

Yeul slowly turned back to face them. "It all means something... We need only to try and reach it."