A/N: So I've been gone. For 9 months. I don't want this A/N to go on too long, so my explanation will be below, but tl;dr Covid, mental health, schoolwork, lack of motivation, disinterest.

The clack of boots accompanied the crackling flames around us. I peeked from underneath Naofumi's cloak. Knights strode in carelessly, their swords still cold and clean in their sheaths.

"Looks like we'll all be getting raises today! We're gonna eat fine tonight, men!" The knight leading the group raised his sword, and most of those behind him cheered and raised their swords in agreement. "Ashes and…"

As they approached, they noticed Naofumi-sama. "Ah, you survived."

"Tch. They don't care about us or the village, huh?" Naofumi scowled.

A stream of pure, red rage flowed through me.

I burst from beneath Naofumi's cloak, sword in hand. The lead knight barely had time to draw his sword and parry my blow, before I slashed out at him. The second strike he blocked, the two metals resounding with a clang. I came in for a third slash, but it scraped against his sword and was caught in the handguard.

"Did you do this, did you destroy all of this, knowing that Naofumi-sama was here?" I spat out.

He looked at me with a face of pure contempt and disgust. "What gives you, a filthy demihuman, any right to speak to me like that?"

"I asked a question first-" I pulled my sword away, moving in for a thrust. Once again, he parried with firm strength in his sword, knocking it into the air. I spun, then brought it back down, clashing against steel. "But I'll answer. My right is in my weapon, and I am his sword!"

He made a "tsk" sound, then knocked away my sword. "Are you with the Shield 'Hero' then?"

I pulled back, righting myself into a fighting position a meter away. I glanced at the hill. Most of the wagons had seemed to be gathered there. "These villagers had barely escaped before your flames razed this town!"

"Raphtalia, leave it be."

"But, Naofumi-sama! They... they nearly-" They nearly killed us. They could have-

"Drop it."

"Ariete is still out there." I said in a flat tone with a serious look. He hesitated, picking his words carefully.

"She's fine, It's not worth it."

A moment passed, but then I conceded with a sigh, shooting the guard a dirty glare and sheathing my sword.

God please, let Ariete be okay.

My back ached, and my entire body felt wet. A dizzy feeling was heaped atop that, continuing to add to my confusion. Opening my eyes, all I saw was a curved mossy brick wall in front of me.

"Hey! You, are you okay?"

I turned my head. A small boy was behind me, much, much younger than me. He seemed to vibrate with fear.

"What? Who are you? Where are we?"

"Eh? you don't remember? You threw both of us into the well." His eyes, already filled with worry, began to scan me.

I... did that?

I remember... All I remember is that I was yelling... I was yelling at Raphtalia?

Wait, flames?

"What flames?"

The boy shook his head. "I don't know, I just saw all these lights gather in the sky and then start raining on us."

"That could only mean…" Covenant Fire magic. Only the guard's mages would have enough casters to make a spell burn an entire village.

"Well, I suppose you and me have to wait this out, don't we?" I said to the little boy. putting in a smile. He pulled himself to sit against the wall, clutching his knees to his chest.

My smile fell a tiny bit.

A silence fell in the well for a bit. Well, as silent as a well could be when the crackle of a town burning echoed off it's walls. I retreated to the opposite side of the well, curling up.

The situation reminded me of my time in the cages.

I decided to start a conversation. "What's your name?"

"Erm..." The boy hesitated, looking nervous. "Rainer."

"You live in this village, Rainer?"

"No, I came here from my village with my parents to sell their fruits."

A farm kid. "Once, I went with my parents to sell stuff too."

The boy relaxed a bit, loosening his grip on his knees. I tried my best to flash a comforting smile

"All the fishermen went out once a month to sell their catch. One day, me and my sister were able to hitch a ride with our father."

It was a burning summer day, the air sticking to my skin. I fanned my face with a loose hand, approaching the wagon. The filolials in front, stamping their feet in annoyance, and cawed.

"Don't be impatient." The driver snapped to them.

I rounded the wagon, moving to the back. My father loaded a crate onto the wagon, then held out a hand for me.

"Alright, time to go." he said.

I took it and wrenched myself onto the wagon, taking a seat atop a closed box of fresh fish. In contrast to the scorching air, the seawater seeping from the crate was cool.

"Why does summer have to be so hot!" I grumbled.

My father lifted Raphtalia to sit across from me, then pounded on the side of the wagon. The driver pulled on the reins, and the filolials took off.

Soon after we started moving, Raphtalia started to go pale.

"Raphtalia? You okay?" She nodded.

"Just feeling a little sick." She said, clutching her belly and covering her mouth. I moved next to her, putting an arm around her side.

"If you're going to throw up, tell us so we can stop the cart." Dad said from the front.

Raphtalia was always fine with being on even the shakiest of boats. I wonder what's different about carts. Glancing at the animals pulling us, I guess it could just be lively filolials. The oversized birds seemed to hum with excitement at pulling their weight.

If you think about it, It's not all that weird. They simply want to be useful, right?

As I spoke to the little boy, a warmth in my chest settled by my heart as the old memories embraced me.

"My sister had to stop twice, her face was green!" The little boy giggled.

"Once we got into town, I hopped off and went to see-"

You betrayed me. You kept stabbing me, over and over in the chest and you never-

I clutched my mouth, shudders running through my body. A sudden urge to vomit washed over me.

More sand, a sneering crowd. Red across your hands, your arms, your knife dripping with crimson, a face twisted between anger, betrayal, and-

Please, don't- no stop it; stop it STOP IT!

"I don't want to remember!" I screamed.

I slapped my hands over my ears to block them out. The voices, the goddamned voices. My vision blurred, hints of a sandy floor with walls rising around me appearing.

"Hey! Girlie! Snap out of it!"

I looked up, a red-eyed, sniffling Rainer holding onto my arm. Without thinking, I pulled the warm body in front of me close. Quickly, his already drenched shirt was stained further with my tears.

Two thin arms wrapped around my head, slowly stroking the back of my hair.

"Shh... It's okay. You're gonna be alright." His voice came out gentle, yet strained. Despite the frigid water surrounding us and the chaos above, the embrace was warm.

As soon as a larger monster had approached, most of the knights fled.

"Haaah!" I kicked back another skeleton, then closed the distance to slice off it's head. The scrape of iron rang out behind me. "Raphtalia!"

I slashed out at another monster approaching, then spun around, leaping over Naofumi and piecing the monster's skull. Crimson blood splattered onto my gloves.

Beside us, what guards hadn't ran away were in formation, slowly working their way through another crowd.

The buzzing of wasps alerted me to more monsters behind us.

"Naofumi-sama!" I called out. He looked to where I was pointing. Another horde.

He readied his shield, beginning to charge. Just as he clashed against the enemy, I noticed the red hue of the sky on the ground fading. I glanced upwards, to see the purplish rips in the sky start to contract, and the blue sky returning.

I charged forwards with Naofumi.

Slash. Cut. Stab. Jump. Thrust. Like clockwork, the crowd fell within a few minutes, and as the fighting ended, we looked up.

"Naofumi-sama! I think that's the last of them!" I called out.

The blue sky had returned.

Rainer and I crawled out of the well, using the stones of the wall. I pulled him up and onto the solid ground. The sky had returned to its normal color. A sigh of relief washed over me.

"Now we can find your parents, and then my sis, alright?"

He nodded, and I took his hand in mine.

Both of us found ourselves dumbfounded at the destruction in the town. Not a single building was left standing. They had either crumbled into ash, or collapsed into rubble. The path itself was covered with soot and bodies laid around, made unidentifiable with the fire.

I heard a roar behind us. I whipped around, pushing Rainer behind me and underneath my cloak. A skeleton raised his sword, his shield arm missing.

I pulled my dagger and readied myself to charge. I only need to strike at the neck, take off the head. Should be easy-

The tip of my dagger trembled. It might as well have been an earthquake. I gripped my right hand with my left, trying to steady it.

Come on, I can do this. I can-

"Ariete!"

I looked up. Too late. The skeleton's sword arm had raised, now falling towards us.

Instictively, I pushed myself back, moving my dagger in front of us. My arm would be wounded but I would be fine. I closed my eyes bracing for the blow.

Instead, we crashed to the dirt and I heard another sword drawn. I opened my eyes.

The skeleton's sword laid on the ground, a clean cut at the elbow severing the hand and forearm. A sword tip then slid through the skull of the skeleton, and it fell in front of me, dead.

"Ariete?"

I stood up immediately. "Raphtalia?"

She immediately rushed up and pulled me into a tight hug. I winced at the strength of it, but withstood. She soon pulled away, but kept her arms on my shoulders. "You're safe. That's all that matters."

My eyes shot to the ground beside me. "I… Raphtalia I'm…"

Once again, my hands seemed to tremble at my side.

She embraced me again, this time softer and she whispered into my ear. "You don't have to say it. I forgive you."

"But I… I was ye-"

"Shhh… It's okay, Ariete."

I sighed, then melted into her arms as well. She's not angry, she's not mad, and she doesn't hate me. That's a good enough win for today.

A cough interrupted us. Rainer was still on the ground. Raphtalia pulled away, offering a hand to the small boy. He took it, and she pulled him to his feet. "Who are you then?" She crouched down to meet his height.

While Rainer introduced himself, our Master approached. He glared at me. I looked down at the ground. He came closer, raising his hand. I took in a deep breath, I probably deserved this.

I braced myself, but the impact never came. Instead, I felt a warm hand on the top of my head, gently patting my hair. I looked at him in bewilderment.

"Don't run next time." His look was menacing, but softened into a light smile."Call me Naofumi."

My mouth fell open, and Raphtalia giggled beside me. I pouted, then organized myself.

"I can deal with the villagers, ensure that no straggles attack them on their way back, as well as find this kid's parents. Raphtalia and you can search the town for more survivors, although I doubt that there are many left after that spell." I said.

"Do you recognize the magic?" Naofumi asked.

"It's Covenant magic, many casters working on a single spell. It seems the effect was a literal rain of fire. As you can see, that much concentrated mana is quite devastating."

He nodded. "Go organize the villagers then, and bring them back.

I brought Rainer with me up the wagon circle that the villagers had formed had a few monster bodies laid around the circle, but otherwise the circle seemed mostly untouched and undisturbed.

"The wave is over, you all can return. I'll escort you with the help of anyone who's strong enough to help." I called out. A few people peeked out of the circle. I lowered the hood of my cloak.

It took about an hour, but we loaded everything they had saved from the town and we journeyed back to the town without event. They visited their devastated homes with grief. I moved forwards. Naofumi and Raphtalia had met in the town center, but Rainer still hadn't found his parents. The boy was now teary-eyed. I crouched down, wiping away his tears. "We'll find them, alright?"

He nodded, but still seemed troubled. Reassurance: failed.

Fate seemed to favor us, because then I heard the cry of a woman in the crowd. "Rainer!" A woman pushed through the many others, running towards the boy, and he ran back at her. The two collided in a hug. I smiled at the scene.

Raphtalia stood next to me, also looking at the scene. Her hand fell into mine.

"Raphtalia?" Tears welled up in her eyes.

"We… we stopped more kids from having to lose their family too, like we did, right?"

My smile expanded. "Of course. We did good, Raphtalia. No, you did." Ah, what the heck. Today is a hugging day, and she needs one. She began to cry into my arms.

I looked towards Naofumi, standing sheepishly to the side. Silently, we had a moment of understanding. Looking up, it seemed for a moment, everything was going to work out.

A/N: Yeah… I sort of died once covid hit, huh? It would take a long, long time to explain everything but long story short, I spent quarantine's first half being lonely sad and ignoring schoolwork, which led to me failing ecology and geometry, which led to more depression and general lack of motivation to do anything but sit at my desk vibe to music and think about my life.

Since quarantine basically ended in my state and schools reopened, the loneliness and depression's mostly fixed, the anxiety is not, but overall im doing better than quarantine.

Hopefully, I will be able to establish a reasonable update schedule now that my hiatus has ended. I also am possibly working on a SGDS rework with my newish style of writing.

I may go back and revise the last two chapters, as I realise reading back ym quality started to suffer.

As an apology, have an extra Omake!

Omake 5: Idol career

In the forest outside the village, there was a line, marked with notched trees that they'd set as a limit for the kids to play. If you traced it, it was an arc stretching about 100 feet away from each part of the town.

Even so, I learned early on kids went beyond often, chasing a rabbit or playing games. However, today, I found something else.

As I approached the side of the line near the ocean, the faint voice of a singer filled my ears. I traced it further into the forest. I debated risking crossing the line, but shrugged it off. Not like adults came around here anyways.

As I approached, the lyrics of the song became clearer.

"When I was alone in my bed~

Unhappy thoughts in my head…

And living silently inside~"

That voice… I slowed my pace, quieting my footsteps.

"Just keeping all to myself~"

I peeked from behind the tree, and I confirmed who it was. I kept myself hidden, just out of sight from the singing girl. She stood in the middle of a clearing in the forest, atop a small stone which acted as a stage for her.

"Wishing I could be someone else…"

As I leaned in closer to listen, I heard a crack beneath me. Looking down, a branch laid cracked in half.

I looked up, a very embarrassed and angry looking Raphtalia glaring at me.

"Hey… to be fair it was good singing…"

"You Dummy!" Raphtalia charged, and I ran, giggling.

The song I used (yes i know its OOC for raphtalia but hey lets just say she was an introvert as a kid and leave it at that or smth) is lilypichu's dreamy night. good song, absolutely relatable lyrics.

This is ByteOfBacon again, signing off.