Welcome to the village of Lienea, the hometown of Stahn and Kyle Aileron! Now they have to brace themselves for Lilith, their middle sister! How bad could she POSSIBLY be?

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Kiryll was able to catch up with the group before they started hunting him down. Before anyone began to question him, Stahn found himself staring at a figure standing at the wooden fence a few feet away. Kiryll peeked over his shoulder and saw that she was wearing a pink dress and an apron while keeping her long hair in a ponytail.

So this is Stahn's sister… He blinked. She looks innocent enough…

Before he questioned Stahn on what they should be doing, he saw the blond warrior walk up slowly toward her. The others slowly walked in as they watched Stahn reach out and touch her shoulder. When she turned to him, Kiryll noticed the same blue eyes that he saw in Stahn and Kyle. She was definitely his sister.

"Onii-san?" She gasped.

"Hey…imouto-san." Stahn responded, a nervous grin on his face. "I'm home."

"Imouto-san…so they're siblings…" Arche blinked. "They don't seem alike."

"Oh my god, you're actually home!" She grabbed his shoulders with a really mad look on her face. "You will NOT believe this! Kyle's missing too!"

"What, Kyle?" Stahn blinked. "Yeah, I know that, and-"

"WHAAT? You knew that he's missing?" Lilith was panicking even more. "What happened to him? Oh my god…is he dead?"

"Is WHO dead?"

Everyone turned their heads around to see a hooded figure standing just a few feet away from them (for some odd reason, there was a breeze blowing, making the scene a lot more dramatic). Kiryll rolled his eyes and shrugged with a smile as Kyle threw off the robe and smiled at his older sister.

So that's what he meant by a dramatic entrance… He chuckled.

"Kyle, you're OK!" She sobbed. "I was so worried about you!"

"You didn't have to worry about me! I wasn't alone when I left." He answered with a growing grin. "Plus, he wasn't hard to track down."

"Yeah, but still…why didn't you come home and TELL me that you two were OK?" She yelled.

"Because we were working them to the bone." Yuri answered with a grin on his face.

"Uh, Yuri…?" Kyle leaned over to him. "You should probably stop-"

"Working them to the BONE?" Lilith froze.

"Yeah…let's just say that their eating habits are the only things that are keeping the meat on their bones-"

Let's just say that this will be the only documented moment where Yuri gets beaten half to death by a woman.

The creepy part was that no one knew that he was being beaten down until a) they saw Lilith holding a random ladle and frying pan, and b) they heard his body crashing a few feet away a few seconds later. Well, we can't say that Kyle didn't warn him, nor did anyone know that Lilith was capable of such violence.

"L-Lilith! He was joking!" Stahn panicked.

"What? He was?" She blinked.

"No, he wasn't. Keep going." Arche answered with a huge grin on her face. Was she calling for more blood?

"He's joking. That's just how he is." Kiryll interfered. "I'm Kiryll Nightroad, a friend of your brother."

"So you're…what, a guild member?" She gasped. "Oh, so you guys are here for my mission posting, right?"

"Uh…right." That took a while to clear up. "And he was with us. The guy you knocked out?"

"Oh, is he? Oh…OK." She turned around. "Get him and meet up at my house. I'll tell you what's going on there."

"" "" ""

For some reason, Kiryll was expecting torture devices in the house. Instead, the small cottage consisted of nothing more than a simple kitchen, dining room and bedroom (aka nothing out of the ordinary). After awakening Yuri out of his "somewhat" coma, they were led into the dining room, where an old man was sitting down. Kyle sat right across from him before anyone had a chance to react.

"We're back, Grandpa!" He stated with a grin.

"We're both back." Stahn added.

"Ah, it's you two! I've been wondering where you've been running off with." The man looked up, catching eye contact with Kiryll. "Are these friends of yours?"

"Yeah. We met up with them while we were travelling." Stahn gestured toward them. "This is Kiryll. The girl is Arche, and the other one is Yuri."

"Oh…how strange." He stood up and looked at Yuri. "You don't look like an Arche to me."

*Ohh~~~! PWNED!*

"Sir? I'm Yuri." He corrected. "That's Arche."

"Oh…is that so?" He turned to Arche. "My apologies."

Kiryll didn't know how to react to that, only taking a seat next to Kyle with a blank look on his face. Everyone followed suit, and almost as if it was on cue, Lilith entered the room with the ladle and the frying pan (like it was fused to her hands or something). She stood next to her sitting grandfather.

"OK, so you're probably wondering where I want you to lead me." She said. "I want to go to Keterburg."

"Keterburg? Oh yeah, I've heard of that place…" Kiryll said. "That's a city on Auldrant."

"Why are we going there?" Yuri asked. "Something that you need to get?"

"Sorta…but that's not the only problem. The Star Order's clogging up most of the pathways there, so I can't even go there if I tried!" Lilith grumbled. "I was wondering if any of you guys had a ride I can take there."

"…seems simple enough. We'll just wait for Ad Libitum to come back." Arche sighed. "I'll call for them."

"Well, we might as well get the fresh air while she's at it." Stahn tapped Kyle's shoulder. "You wanna come with?"

"Of course, onii-san!" Kyle turned to Lilith. "We'll just be outside."

"Sure, just don't wander too far off." Lilith seemed to mutter that under her breath.

"Hey, Kiryll." Yuri looked at him. "You're staying here?"

"I'll join you guys later."

He nodded as he followed the others out of the house. Around that time, Lilith turned toward the brick stove a few feet away, and Kiryll could smell something that reminded him of beef stew. So she was the cook around this place…wonder if she was the cause of the brothers' obsessive eating?

"So…Kiryll, was it?" The grandfather looked at him. "How did you get acquainted with those two?"

"Oh, well…Stahn was working under the guild Ad Libitum when I joined it." He answered. "Kyle joined us soon after."

"So they're both working for a guild…like those other two with you?"

"Yes. The four of us usually do jobs together…" Kiryll noticed that he worded that statement strangely. "Kyle has his own little group, but they're all tough too. And Stahn's protective of him as well."

"They're watching over each other. Hah! I expect that kind of behavior between those two! They're stuck to each other like white on rice!"

"Yeah, I've noticed. I could tell that they were brothers just by the way they were bickering at each other. Though…most of the bickering was because of me…"

"You?" Lilith turned to him. "What did you do?"

"Well, at that time, Stahn was hanging out with Arche and another one of our female companions and Kyle called him a pimp." He laughed a little. "And I had no idea what a pimp was. They were arguing over whether I was born underneath a rock or something."

"That's good. At least the both of them are getting along!" Lilith laughed. "I remember this one time back when we went on a trip to one of the nearby villages...this guy thought that Kyle was Stahn's son! It was really funny."

"Yeah…" Kiryll was too afraid to admit that was what he thought of them as well, until he realized that Stahn was nineteen and Kyle was too old to be his son. Them being brothers was his second choice. "So…is there something important that you needed in Keterburg?"

"Nothing too important…" Lilith continued to stir the stew. "Really."

"It's a small thing, so you may not find it interesting." Her grandfather smiled. "But she's always wanted to see a snow-covered city and walk on the lands of Auldrant."

"Is that so?" Kiryll chuckled. "Let me state that in the small time that I've been in Ad Libitum, I must've touched that place at least twice."

"Are you saying that I should join Ad Libitum?" Lilith looked confused. "I'm not like my brothers, you know."

"I'm just saying that no matter what you do, you'll never tie the both of them to home no matter how much you beg." He answered. "I think there's a saying: if they don't come to you, go to them or something like that."

Lilith stayed quiet as she continued to stir the beef stew in front of her. After a few long minutes, she started cleaning around the pot and moving it around to the table like he hadn't said a word. He turned to the grandfather, who gestured that he shouldn't speak another word. Confused, he felt a hand land on his shoulder.

"Ad Libitum is going to be here in about half an hour." Arche stated. "You ready, Lilith?"

"Yeah, I'm ready." Lilith grabbed the same ladle and frying pan she used to beat Yuri over the head. "Let's have something to eat before we go."

"" "" ""

Kiryll stayed with Lilith when the ship flew them to Keterburg. They stood perfectly in the lobby as the ship flew in complete silence over the continents, dropping and picking up fellow guild members. Lilith couldn't help but watch them come and go through the lobby.

"Wow…so many of them…" She blinked.

"Yeah…that's Ad Libitum." Kiryll chuckled. "It takes a while to learn all of their names, but it's not totally impossible."

It was around that time that Lilith turned around and saw that Stahn and Kyle were sleeping on one of the tables (completely out), while Arche started braiding Stahn's hair with Yuri laughing a few feet away from them. Then the ship landed again, and Kiryll watched as Veigue and Cless ran down to the hallway in a panic.

"I think we're in Keterburg." Yuri looked up.

"All right, time to wake up the sleepyheads." Arche shook the both of them. "Hey! Wake up! Come on, we're here!"

While Arche was trying to wake them up, Kiryll was watching as the elevator door opened again and someone else came in with a panicked look. It was then that he realized what was going on: Flynn was holding onto an unconscious and bloody Pascal.

"Do you need help?" Kiryll stepped forward.

"We need to get her conscious first." Flynn said as he tried to catch his breath in a fast trot. "Once she's conscious, we're going to have Mint use her healing artes. Hopefully, we aren't too late."

"I can use one of my Persona right now, if we need to." He started to follow them.

"OK, that's it. They're not waking up." Arche threw Stahn's braid down. "We can ditch them here, if you want."

"No, no, no. We can't do that." Lilith gestured them. "Step aside."

Arche and Yuri watched as Lilith grabbed her ladle and frying pan and started banging them together so loudly that Kiryll could feel the very core of his being shaking rapidly. That alone was able to wake up the blonds, and was even able to get Pascal awake.

"Ah, Pascal!" Flynn grinned as he charged through the hallway. "Great! Don't worry, we're getting help for you!"

"Wow…that was LOUD." Yuri lowered his hands.

"It's one of the only things that can wake them up." Lilith smiled. "I call that technique 'Waking the Dead'."

Yeah…waking the dead… Kiryll shivered.

"" "" ""

When they landed in Keterburg, Kiryll couldn't help but notice that the place looked like a resort. As the ship flew overhead, he noticed that Kyle was running in front of them with excited eyes. In fact, he seemed so fast that he almost knocked Yuri over.

"Hey, calm down!" He panicked. "What's up with you?"

"Reala had a mission around this area! I'm just wondering if she's still here!" Kyle turned to the group. "I mean, this place is a snowy resort, don't you think?"

"Sure looks like it…" Kiryll looked around.

"Geez dude…why are you so anxious on seeing her now?" Stahn asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"Stahn! I thought I told you about it!" He didn't look happy.

"…eh? Wah?" Stahn was taken aback. "You were serious?"

"What? What about this Reala?" Lilith asked with a stern look on her face.

"Oh, I'm sure that he'll tell you later." Arche got her shoulders. "We should go complete that mission that you wanted to do here."

"Yeah…the mission."

Arche pushed Lilith through the streets, leaving the men alone. Kyle was looking around like an excited child, leaving Stahn to try following him around (much to everyone's dismay). After a while, Kyle paused in his search and pouted to himself.

"Aw man…I guess I missed her." He sighed.

"OK…good…now we can…relax…" Stahn sighed. "Cause this place…is a…resort, right?"

"Yeah, that's true." Yuri chuckled. "With casinos and everything."

"Oh yeah, the hot springs!" Kyle jumped. "I forgot about them!"

"Bloody hell…we have to run AGAIN?"Stahn asked.

"I'll watch over him. Yuri, make sure Stahn doesn't pass out."

"You got it, Captain Kiryll." Yuri chuckled.

"…Captain?"

"What? We're at a beautiful place with a pirate-themed casino. Might as well."

"" "Kiryll earned the title Captain!" ""

After a few seconds, Kiryll finally found Kyle standing in place, pouting yet again and muttering something to himself. He couldn't help but laugh at it, catching Kyle off guard and almost making him fall into the snow-covered ground, making him laugh even more.

"Geez! Don't come up behind me like that!" He stood up.

"Sorry. I just…didn't know how funny it is to...see something like that…" Kiryll wiped a tear from his eye. "OK, I'm done. Did you see Reala?"

"No…I guess I missed her. Oh well." He frowned. "This would've been a great first date."

"First date? What do you mean?" Kiryll blinked. "Like you two just hooked up?"

"Yeah. When you were in the Temple of Ice, actually." Kyle sighed. "I thought that if we're both here, we might as well make the most of our time, you know?"

Kiryll chuckled. He never knew that Kyle was one to be considerate on a first date. Before he was able to say anything, an explosion echoed a few feet in front of them. They looked up and saw Astrid's unconscious body fly into the wall across from the explosion. Through the dust, they saw Jade jumping back and casting a Splash spell at a cloud that spat back out Leon.

"Jade! Leon!" Kiryll jumped forward.

Suddenly, the cloud started to scream in a familiar voice. Before Kyle could scream out anything, the cloud spat out a bloodied young girl, who landed in the pure snow right in front of him…

"REALA!"

Kyle leaned over to her and was relieved to see that she was still alive, breathing and conscious. As she slowly rose to a sitting position, Kiryll turned his head and saw a muscular man walking toward them. He sort of looked like Garr, only with more muscles and a meaner look on his face. From behind, he could hear Kyle gasp.

"You…" He muttered.

"Who are you?" Kiryll screamed.

"…I am Barbatos Goetia…better known as Goetia the Forgotten…"

A God-General?

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I wasn't really paying much attention to this chapter, so…