"What!?" Clyde almost yelled out in surprise. "W-why would you do that?"

"Don't you see? We're supposedly left with the fiefs to ensure their safety, but it's obvious that wasn't the only aim of our mentors." Glade went on to explain.

"To put it simply, Jacob and Bryce want to protect you two." Ernest joined him.

"B-but that doesn't mean you can just go leave for Gallica on a whim!" Clyde argued. "Who will take care of Redmont?"

"I think we can convince a nearby ranger to cover for his fief as well. The Wargals are not that much of a problem when they are waltzing on their own." The black haired ranger spoke.

"Then... Why Gallica and not the Celtic Rift?" The persistent apprentice kept on arguing.

"Simple, because it seems more interesting!" Glade answered while grinning. "So, you won't go telling on anyone, right?" He asked jokingly.

"I won't." Clyde answered. "Because I'm coming too." His eyes glared at him with determination.

"Really? I thought ya were opposed to the idea." Ernest commented, smirking.

"I'm coming so that I can keep you safe." Clyde said, looking down at his feet. "I couldn't look straight at Jacob's face if something would happen to you over there."

"Clyde... Thank you!" Glade smiled with open eyes looking straight at him to show his gratitude.

"Well, well, well... And here I was, thinking I'd have to silence ya for being a snitch! You're a nice apprentice, Clyde." Ernest said approvingly.

"But... What will we do about Greenfield? Find another ranger to cover for it?" Asked the ginger haired apprentice.

"Exactly. Don't worry about it, I'll convince Lance and Archard to cover for you two. They are nearby Redmont and Greenfield, respectively." Ernest explained.

"That's a relief!" Glade snickered contently.

"Oh, and if anyone ends up catching ya on the act, just blame it all on me. I'll smooth things out." The seasoned ranger nodded to himself.

"This is... Too much..." Clyde said as if he was objecting. "Why are you doing all of this?"

"Why? Well, I simply want to carry the Ranger Corps to the next level. I want more independent and reliable apprentices such as yourselves. Capisce?" He smirked.

"Right... Okay, thank you!" Clyde smiled mildly. He was warming up to the ranger.

"Anything else you want to question before we go, Clyde?" Glade poked fun at the apprentice.

"I-I wasn't doing that, I just want things to go smoothly." Clyde replied, flustered.

"That makes two of us." Ernest said as he rummaged through his pockets. "Here, as a frequent visitor of Gallica, I've collected a list of suspicious royals from all around the country. I bet this will be helpful." He handed the paper over to Glade.

"W-wow... This information is quite something. You're truly a great ranger, Ernest!" The blond apprentice said in excitement as he held the list in his hands.

"Hang on... Did you give anything like this to Merlin and Darc?" Clyde questioned.

"Of course not. I trust ya enough to deliver that paper over there, or solve things by yourselves. Show me what ya got!" The pitch black haired ranger slapped the backs of the duo and sent them staggering forwards for a few steps.

"Well, I suppose we have no other choice." Clyde sighed. "Let's go!" He collected his spirits and faced Glade with an energetic smile on his face.

"Yup! We can do this. Let's show everyone our worth as rangers!" Glade smiled back.

Right then and right there, another journey was about to start.

######

"Whew... All the way to the Celtic Rift and then some more... Can't say I'm a big fan of climbing down rifts." Jacob uttered in complaint. Two seasoned rangers were riding their horses towards the large rift that separated the main land from the Plateau of Rain and Night.

"Well, don't be so down! We'll take a short rest in the first chance we get." Bryce comforted his friend.

"Meh. Doesn't feel enough." The blond ranger rolled his eyes.

"Okay, okay. The coffee's on me." Bryce snickered.

"Now you're talking." Jacob smirked in victory.

"Are we running out of money? You're so cheap, pal." Jacob's horse chimed in.

"Oh, shut up you rascal!" The ranger pet the golden mane of the horse roughly. "Hey Bryce, you think I can replace Thunder for a newer, more silent model?" He asked jokingly.

"Hey now, I'm not just a vehicle, you know!" Thunder said as if his feelings were hurt.

"Don't worry Thunder, they are just messing around." Pfeil comforted the horse.

After that, the group, surprisingly including the mounts, went silent as the topics to talk lessened hour by hour. As the sun slowly began to set, the thighs of the rangers were all sore from riding, and the horses were tired from walking as well. As per the tactic of rangers, the duo leapt off their horses to walk together for a while, but both of them sensed that they were near their limits.

"Is it me, or are we gettin' too old for this?" Jacob said whilst panting.

"I don't know about you, but I'll need more than just one cup to rest after this." Bryce replied, laughing.

"The first chance we get, you said?" Jacob uttered as he practically dragged himself along the road. "There's a town around here, right? They better have an inn."

"Well, we'll see." Bryce said back calmly, but he couldn't stop panting after a while, either. "Did we push ourselves a bit too hard?" He questioned while smiling.

"You're always pushing us too hard, it's divine retribution!" Thunder playfully looked at the tired men.

"You can ride us to the town, don't be so modest!" Said Pfeil conversely.

"Let's just keep going, we'll make it somehow." Jacob kept walking, ignoring the horses. "Don't forget, you're paying."

"Is everything ready?" Clyde asked, ready to climb on the saddle of his horse.

"We're all set! We need to reach Gallica as fast as possible now." Glade answered, preparing his own horse as he stroked her pure white coat.

"I hope guards won't make it harder for us." Clyde uttered, concerned.

"It will be fine, we're rangers! Besides, didn't Ernest say he'd handle everything?" The blond apprentice smiled brightly.

Riding on their horses, both of them were ready to ride towards their destination with newfound determination.

"Ahh... Slept like a log." Jacob woke up inside the inn room, immediately seeing Bryce tie up his hair in a ponytail, already up.

"Good morning." Bryce smiled. "I'm surprised you woke up this late after chugging down the entire coffee stock of the inn yesterday."

"Can't help it, your snores kept me awake for quite a while." The blond ranger said back as he rubbed his eyes. Getting up, he searched around for his ranger outfit and cloak.

"Snores? I didn't know that I snored." Bryce said with a sarcastically surprised face.

"How does that kid Clyde put up with you? It's like an elephant is sneezing beside you every single second." Jacob poked fun at the ranger as he donned his outfit on, adjusting the clasp of his cloak. "Ah, wait. He's probably just being nice. At least he'll have a good day's sleep now, right?" He smirked.

"Don't worry, he's not nearly as sensitive as you are, gramps." Bryce replied as he jokingly poked his friend in the chest.

"Gramps? You're older than I am." Jacob stated, confused.

"Not in the spirits!" Bryce hastily walked over to the door and opened it, releasing a really creaky sound. "Yeesh, they should really oil these sometime later."

"Let's just get on the road." Jacob said impatiently as both of them stopped kidding around.

After paying for the expenses and getting back the horses from the barn, the duo set out on the road again. As they rode faster towards the rift, the bored rangers ended up chattering again.

"So, how is your mother doing?" Bryce asked while his eyes were fixed on the road.

"My Ma? Eh, she's fine. Just as calm as ever." Jacob replied nonchalantly. "Now that you mention it, I guess I should visit her again later."

"That would be nice. We don't know when will be the last time we see each other." The ranger said, smiling melancholically.

"Er... You alright?" Jacob looked at him, concerned.

"Huh? Oh, it's fine. I just recently told Clyde about when I became a ranger and... It sort of brought back memories." Bryce explained shortly.

"You went on and told him all that? Well, it's nice you two can have a moment like that." Jacob said as he stared deep into the road ahead.

"Aren't you and Glade close too?" Asked Bryce curiously.

"Well, I didn't go adopt him or something, but I was thinking we were doing fine..." The blond ranger sighed. "I just don't get the way he acts anymore. Hell, I doubt I ever did in the first place."

"Why? He seemed just as cheerful as usual to me." Bryce said in surprise.

"Oh, he is cheerful alright." Jacob said almost furiously. "Ranger this, ranger that... I was used to it, until he started being weird about it. I don't get it, he told me why he acted like that, but..."

Bryce came closer with his horse and put his right hand on his friend's shoulder. "He's still a child, Jacob. He'll get over it by time. Until then..."

"We protect 'em... As usual." Jacob completed Bryce's sentence. The long haired ranger nodded in agreement.

The two of them kept riding towards the rift, which was clearly visible on the horizon now.

"We're climbing all the way down?" Asked Jacob.

"Yes, we have to. It's where the Wargals show up, anyway." Answered Bryce.

"Why don't they just build a bridge over the rift?" Jacob asked in retaliation.

"I've heard they tried, but... This place has that eerie kind of atmosphere for a reason. No matter how much they try, the bridge either burns or gets cut down almost instantly, by forces they can't even see." Bryce explained.

"Huh, sounds like a ghost story. I don't buy it." Jacob reacted grumpily.

"I would say so as well, but these are in the official records, so I don't know what to say." Bryce scratched his shaggy beard as he briefly eyed the map he took out of his pocket to confirm they are getting closer to the destination. "We just have to worry about climbing down there and finding the source to this ruckus, anyway." He said as he put the map away.

"Aha. Here's the rift." Jacob gazed over at the huge Celtic Rift, looking deep and bottomless.

Both rangers leapt off their horses, taking some climbing rope out of the pouches attached to the saddle.

"Now, let's bind these to something sturdy." Bryce looked around, but Jacob stopped him. "Wait, lemme go first! If we both go at the same time, we won't be able to help each other." He suggested.

"If you say so... Still, I could go first if you'd like." Bryce offered in return.

"Nope, not with that huge bruise on your stomach, doofus." The blond ranger said curtly. "Just hold the rope gently in case I slip... Not that it'll happen."

"We'll see about that." Bryce smiled sarcastically.

Jacob bound the rope properly around his body and bound the end of the rope to a sturdy rock. Bryce held onto the rope as he slowly descended down the gigantic rift.

The blond ranger was not afraid of the heights nor the climbing but was simply bored of the long time it was taking with each crevice to step in getting harder to find as he climbed down further. Normally, had he made the slightest mistake, it would be the end of him, but he trusted the long haired ranger up on the surface.

Taking one more step, he refused to look down. The rift was eerily quiet, almost as if it would drive Jacob crazy. Slowly but surely, he made it to the bottom of the rift. Looking up, he could see the strangest view he had ever seen in his life. It was as if the darkness cracked open to the sky itself. However, the ranger did not have any time to lose, as he had to discover where the monsters come from exactly. The rope tied to his waist, he approached the darkness, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the scenery, albeit very slowly.

It was as if he was the only man left on the world, taking careful steps in the noiseless bottom of the rift, seemingly inhabited by no one.

That is, until he took one more step forward, seeing a crowd of glittering, bright red eyes in the darkness.

Reacting quickly, he stepped back and used his cape to hide himself, but no matter how still he stood, the Wargals now knew he was there. Giving up from that plan, Jacob cursed on the ambiguous intelligence of the monsters. Unfortunately, with what looked like around three dozens of the furry warriors hunting him down, he had little choice but to run. As he ran as fast as he could, he pulled on the rope as hard as possible with a set frequency.

Up on the surface, Bryce felt the rope moving in his hands as he was waiting, tapping his foot on the ground in concern. Surprised, he began to pull the rope as fast as he could.

"Jacob, just what is happening down there?.." He pulled on the rope faster as he imagined.

Being pulled up slowly, the blond ranger held onto the crevices of the rock surface he was faced against. The Wargals were jumping up and down like feral dogs, clawing at him desperately.

"Back down you damned hounds, back down!" He kicked a Wargal hard on its head after it tried to climb up to him.

After getting high enough, he gave the rope signal to Bryce again, stopping his ascent. Now he had to carefully change his position to avoid another troop like that.

However, as he stepped on the next opening, he felt something loosen up. Looking up in confusion, he saw another, much larger monster jumping right onto him. Unable to identify the shadowy shape, Jacob was thrown into panic and jumped down with a nimble maneuver. He didn't hurt any of his limbs but now the monster was right in front of him, ready to charge. The blond ranger felt a brief, strange feeling of his body being stiffened as he eyed the monster in the dark, but that feeling disappeared as soon as the Wargal troop from before approached the larger monster, joining forces.

Fiercely tugging on the rope, Jacob looked up briefly, then ran away once more.

However, after a suspenseful moment of sprinting, he noticed that his waist strangely felt lighter than before.

"Crap... Don't tell me..." Tugging on the rope once more, the cut piece of rope came off and fell, leaving the ranger in despair.

Bryce was in an equal state of panic when he pulled the rope to find out it has been severed at the end.

"J-Jacob..." He felt something weighing in on his legs, as if something was dragging him down, but the adept ranger shook it off and approached the rift himself.

"Rope or no rope... I guess we're doing this."

Proceeding with absolute care, the long haired ranger started to climb down the rift as well.

"Don't you hairballs stop for a moment to rest!?" Jacob yelled out, panting as he lost count of how many minutes he was running for.

As he moved, he sensed movement other than the horde of monsters, but focusing on that was futile, he needed to survive first, then he could investigate for as long as he wanted to.

However, that time didn't seem to come for any time soon. After a long while, the tired ranger felt his legs give in, but falling down meant death and he could not risk it. As his knees and thighs ached, he wondered just how long this rift was.

Suddenly, he saw a small figure on the side of the rift. In fact, it was quite the familiar figure.

"Bryce!" He yelled out. The tall ranger didn't seem to hear him.

He used the last of his strength to push himself further and approach the ranger as he descended further.

As he stepped forwards, he noticed how rugged and strange the terrain had become, and upon taking a small gaze at the surroundings, he noticed that this part of the rift was split into large boulders.

"I got you damned puppies now!" He quickly rolled on the floor to distract the horde and immediately threw the throwing knife towards the edge with the boulders. Hitting just the farthest bit of the large mass, the heavy hilt of the throwing knife managed to start some kind of a landslide. With a loud, rumbling sound, the rangers were completely separated from the hideous monsters, and the few in-between were surely not strong enough to handle dozens of boulders raining on them.

Taking a sigh of relief, Jacob stared at the ranger slowly climbing down. He was still kind of far away, but the blond ranger couldn't make it out that well due to the dust raised up by the landslide.

Looking like he was startled by the rumbling sound of the boulders, Bryce was stuck on the spot, not sure where he would put his foot next, carefully eyeing the wall of rocks and dirt. The sharp pain from the recent bruise on his stomach still hurt a lot, but he refused to give in to it. The mission and Jacob were much more important.

Taking his next step down, Bryce released a breath of relief. Looking down momentarily, he found the previously empty surface of the rift filled with some shadowy figure. Just at that moment, a sharp pain on his stomach combined with a stiff feeling on his legs, and he felt himself losing balance. With nothing to hold on, Bryce couldn't even make a sound as he fell down into the darkness with the blond ranger watching in shock.