Zephyr shook his head but smiled helplessly. I should've guessed that you'd want to fight. Hopefully that training with Harlequin-sama will pay off. In fact… He closed his eyes and tilted his head from side to side, focusing. It appears that the nearest battle includes Harlequin-sama and Diane-sama. But… He opened his eyes and looked to me in confusion. That can't be right…

I could barely hear those last words, and brushed them aside. Surely I'd figure it out when we got there. "Well, I guess that's where we're headed, then. Which way?"

The fox simply tilted his head. It appeared to be closer to the castle. I must have passed them in my rush to leave - though it was off to the side, so I wouldn't have been able to see them anyway.

"Got it."

As soon as Zephyr slid back into my shadow, I floated a little off the ground and hurried in the direction he had indicated. Normally, I would just fly over the buildings, but with all the fights going on, anyone would be able to see me that way. It was better to use the streets. So that left me zigzagging through alleyways, back and forth and back again. I ran into dead ends so many times that I was worried that the fight would be over before I even got there. Soon enough, though, I could hear the sounds of voices up ahead.

At first the sounds were muffled. It sounded like two people talking back and forth. Then, as I turned a corner, Harlequin's voice became clearer. "... I'm not asking you to understand how much she means to me."

"Ooooh~ Then you should wrap her up and keep her in your breast pocket. Which you can't~"

Whose voice is that? It sounds… familiar… It sounded like a voice I'd heard a long time ago, but I just couldn't place it. I sped up my pace.

"You, of all people, should understand the pain of losing something important to you!" Harlequin shouted at the unknown person.

They responded with a tsk! "Then do you understand the pain of witnessing something important to you being broken? Like this." I heard a whoosh, followed by the sound of something being hit. "Oooh! Nice save!" They were clapping. Whoever they were, they sounded weirdly playful. "How about this?"

I started to try to block out the sounds. I needed to focus on getting there. Whatever was going on, it didn't sound like it was going in Harlequin's favor. Even if I knew this person at some point in my life, they were fighting one of my friends now, and I would have to fight them. Harlequin was the Fairy King, after all; fairies had to side with him, didn't they?

I turned another corner and another. Finally, though, as the sounds of conversation died down, I found an opening to a swath of destruction. Buildings were crushed; the ground was torn apart in giant seams, where it looked like something had been ripped from the earth; blood was splattered here and there. But those weren't what I was looking at. What appeared to be giant roots were rearing up out of the ground lashing again and again at something I couldn't see through the combined dust and roots. Floating above it all, behind those flailing attacks, was a green-clad fairy with green hair to match. Even though he wasn't facing my way, I knew that his eyes were gold. In front of him, a singular root was wrapped around a limp Harlequin's throat.

"Were you able to see your precious giant being made into mince meat?" the green fairy asked the Fairy King. "Here - let me give you a front row seat." He flicked his wrist, causing the root to fling Harlequin right into where the other giant roots had been attacking, only the roots were now still. Clouds of dust covered the area, making it impossible to see where Harlequin landed.

But now I wasn't looking at Harlequin. I was worried, yes, but I was too focused on the other fairy. "H-Helbram…?"

Helbram twitched, but before he could look back, something else caught both of our attention. The dust had cleared, revealing Diane, who was beat up and nearly unconscious. She was surrounded by a giant green bubble that had ring-shaped markings all over it. Inside, Harlequin was starting to stand up from where he had been thrown to the ground.

"It can't be… My attack didn't touch her at all?!" Helbram looked worried.

I didn't really hear the rest of what he was saying, though. I was lost in the past. How could Helbram be in front of me now - and attacking his best friend at that?! I had thought he had died! When I had been living not far from the fairy king's forest, he would come to visit me now and then. He was the one that asked Harlequin to help make my dress. He was my only companion other than Zephyr for hundreds of years. But then he disappeared for 700 years. I had been worried, but I knew fairies to be forgetful and lose track of time. He had stopped coming for a hundred years a different time, so I was pretty certain that he would still come back. But then, when the forest burned down… that was when I lost hope. That was when I gave up on life. I had decided that if my life was determined to rip away everyone I cared about, there was no point in living it. First Onii-chan and everyone in the forest, then Kay, then Helbram, not to mention all the others in between, they all had been taken away from me. Zephyr was the only constant, and he'd be better off without me anyway; I always dragged him into things that he wanted nothing to do with.

I shook my head, trying to clear it. Helbram was right here in front of me! Had I been wrong? Had he really not been taken away? But…

He was attacking Harlequin and Diane…

And he seemed… off…

I jerked myself back to the present, only to realize that Harlequin was in the air again, speaking to Helbram.

"Helbram… Do you plan to go on? Even after 700 years… do you still wish to wipe out humanity?" Harlequin' face was mostly wiped of emotions, other than a light determination. But, for some reason, it seemed… sad…

Wipe out humanity?! What was he talking about? I thought I remembered Helbram loving humans? In fact, right before he disappeared, he had given me a gift of a green ribbon that he had gotten from a traveling merchant. He had also gotten a flute or a whistle or something - it was hard to remember - before saying that he was going to go back to the merchant the next day with some other fairies. But, he never returned.

I touched the new green ribbon that I had tied around my neck in remembrance. The old one had disintegrated over the 700 years.

"It's not about if I 'plan to go on…'" Helbram was saying, clenching his body in anger. "It's that I 'can't stop now!'" He unfurled himself, screaming into the air. "HOLY KNIGHTS! GRANT ME ALL YOUR POWER!" And then, in a quieter voice, "Blind Follow."

Zinnia, something's wrong with Helbram-san. I heard Zephyr whisper from my shadow.

"Well, that's pretty obvious," I murmured back. This must have been what he had been confused about earlier.

I could practically feel the fox shade shake his head. No, I mean past the obvious. I can feel it; he's being manipulated. It feels like… it feels like he should be dead, but something is holding him here and, whatever it is, it's making him like this.

"Oh…" I could feel a little bit of hope growing in me, only for it to sputter out. "But didn't you hear Harlequin-sama? Even before this, he wanted to wipe out humanity. Something must have happened when he disappeared. And… and if what you say is true, that means that he really died…"

I don't think that all this rage is completely his. Whatever is manipulating him appears to be amplifying his hatred.

"So what do you suppose I do about it?"

At this point, the two fairies were attacking in a flurry of movements. Even if I wanted to join in the fight, (Not that I could. I was pretty frozen to the spot right now.) I would be dead within heartbeats of entering the air.

I think that you might be able to save him. Zephyr's voice wavered for a moment, but it steadied instantly. Dyrnwyn should be able to-

Helbram and Harlequin had stopped moving, and were now talking to each other, but suddenly blood sprayed out of Helbram's shoulder. He fell through the air, landing with a dull thud.

I couldn't hold myself back. "Helbram!" I felt all eyes fall on me as I sped across the now-deserted battlefield. I didn't care, though. I only noticed that Harlequin was standing next to Helbram, holding an old helmet, when I dropped onto my knees next to the bloody fairy. My hair fell in my face in messy clumps, but I didn't even bother to brush it back.

Helbram was speaking quiet, broken words to Harlequin when I arrived. "I thought… you… if anybody… would… appreciate it… I got it… from a human… But… I really… am a… fool… I've got… no… common sense…" He seemed to be fading in and out.

"You're right." Tears were falling down Harlequin's angry face in streams. "You really are… a fool!"

"No no no no…" I grabbed Helbram's hand. I didn't care if it was disrespectful or something to interrupt them. This couldn't happen. I couldn't go through his death twice. I hadn't even witnessed the first time, but it was enough.

"Z… Zinnia… chan…?" Helbram looked up at me, his eyes clouded. The edges of his mouth curled upward in a tiny, weak smile. "You're wearing… the ribbon…"

I could only nod, as my throat was closed up. The tears on my face were just as bad as Harlequin's.

"I'm sorry… I didn't… come… back…" He seemed to be fading out, worse than before.

Zinnia! If you're going to do as I was saying, you need to do it now!

Nodding slightly, I focused back on the dying fairy in front of me. "Y-you…" I choked out the words. "You d-don't have to say sorry… b-because…" I couldn't even finish the thought, and instead took a deep breath, lifting my cloak from my shoulders.

"Z-Zinnia-san, what are you doing?!" Harlequin, face soaked with tears, stepped back. He still held that helmet in his hands, and now gripped it tighter.

"Fixing this," was all I could say, as I made my cloak float above me and Helbram. "Dyrnwyn Seventh Form: Trillium Grandiflorum."

Suddenly, there was a great flash of light, as Dyrnwyn took the form of a giant flower about the height of one of the nearby houses. It appeared to normally have three snow-white petals, but there were only two, leaving an odd blank space to one side of the remaining two. Thin thread-like roots of an infinite number of lighty-glowing colors spread out from its base in every direction, floating loftily through the air, before disappearing when they reached about twenty feet away from the flower.

Normally, I would gape in wonder at the beautiful flower looming over me, as I had never used this form before - my Onii-chan had told me that my mother had used it once and what she had used it for, but that was it - but my focus was on Helbram, whose skin was paling by the second. He didn't even seem to be aware of what was going on around him anymore, and had closed his eyes.

As I forced the focus of the giant trillium flower onto the dying fairy, the flower shrank down to about a foot tall, and most of its colorful roots disappeared, leaving only those that were leading to Helbram. Only, they didn't just go to him - they passed through him, before going in different directions. Many of them were grayed out, but at the moment there were three particularly bright roots. One was bright blue, and it led straight to Harlequin. Another, which led to me, was pinkish-purple. The final one was the brightest of all; it was a menacing deep red. This one led towards the castle, disappearing after a few feet. But that wasn't the worst part of this one - it seemed to be wrapped tightly around Helbram from top to bottom, and a broken thread that I somehow felt would normally shine gold but was now gray was visible underneath it, held tight to Helbram's body. As the fairy's life faded, so too did the brightness of the threads.

"What are those?" Harlequin's grief was briefly distracted by the strange sight in front of him. He tried to grab the blue thread that lead to him, but his hand passed right through it.

Zephyr stepped out of my shadow, his eyes wide. Th-They're the connections between all living things. Only… Zinnia's spirit spear has allowed them to be visible. He sniffed at a faint bluish thread that led to him. Being a fox shade, I can always feel them, but I never thought that I'd actually get to see them…

I tried to push away the sound of them talking and to focus on the task at hand. I had never done this before, nor had I been told how to do it, but I could almost feel the different threads whispering to me, telling me what needed to be done.

Reaching for the small flower, I plucked off one of its petals, causing a crescent-shaped blade to materialize and a pale green glow to encompass my hands. I then grabbed ahold of the red thread, which just felt wrong as soon as I touched it. Using the blade, I cut the tread, causing it to turn black at the cut before the blackness ran along it in both directions and the thread disappeared. As soon as that was cut, though, all the other threads started to darken - the red one had been forcefully holding his soul in place. I dropped the blade and grabbed the grayed out broken thread. I knew that I had to connect this to one that was still bright, but I couldn't decide whose to use - mine or Harlequin's. Seeing the colors waver again, I shook my head and yanked at my connection to Helbram - I would just use mine. I tied the purple thread to one side of the broken cord before connecting both halves. It instantly started to glow with a watery golden color, and wrapped tightly around Helbram's body. But…

"Why? Why isn't it getting brighter?" I fretted. "I know that this cord's supposed to be brighter than this! This is the one that keeps him alive!" I tried tying it in another knot, but all that did was tangle the threads, so I undid it.

Zephyr pressed into my side. Perhaps it's because… even if you return him to how he was, he's still dying right now. The only thing keeping him alive this second is the fact that you're physically holding his soul in place with that root. As soon as you let go…

"Then I won't let go! Not until we find a way to heal him." I grasped the roots tighter in my hand, my tears from moments before threatening to return.

"This isn't something that Pollen Garden can fix…" Harlequin told me dejectedly. At the same time, though, he seemed uncertain - but not about whether or not he could heal his best friend. "I'm not sure you should do this, Zinnia-san. You saw how he was. H-he'll probably just try to wipe out humanity again as soon as he's healed." His words made him sound like he was trying to sound reasonable, but he had started sobbing midway through the sentence.

I knew that he wanted his best friend back as much as I did, but I also knew his concern.

"If that happens…" I faltered before clenching the threads under my fingers tighter, feeling blood well up under my nails. "If that happens, I'll kill him myself. And if I fail at that, kill me. I used my connection to keep him here. As soon as I die, he dies, too."

Zinnia! You don't need to go that far! Zephyr recoiled from the idea. Couldn't you have used Harlequin-sama's? Or even both of yours?

I remained silent. Zephyr was right; I could have used both mine and Harlequin's. I could have made it to where Helbram's fate didn't hinge on a single other fairy's life, but two. But I didn't. In fact, I could probably change it now to where both Harlequin and I were keeping Helbram alive. But for some reason I just couldn't make myself do that. I didn't know if it was from the quiet instructions that I could feel guiding me telling me not to, or if it was something else. Perhaps, deep down, I was jealous of Harlequin and Helbram's friendship. But… how could that be? I'd never seen them interact until this day, when Harlequin had practically killed the other fairy.

I shook my head before looking back at the Fairy King. "If he starts rampaging again, kill me."

You know I'd do everything in my power to stop them from killing you, right? I don't care how many humans Helbram-san kills; I'll take you to the other side of the world if I have to. Zephyr was limping worriedly at my side.

"Wow… You sure do… care…" I huffed, giving the fox shade a weak smile. "I would do… the same for you." I could feel my energy draining out of me by the second as I continued moving forward at a snail's pace.

Then stop trying to kill yourself! First starving yourself in the forest and now this?! Though he sounded annoyed, concern edged his voice.

In my exhausted state, I could only chuckle at this.

Harlequin and the others were nowhere in sight; they had left soon after I had done what I could to save Helbram. There had been some sappy conversation between Harlequin and Diane, but I could barely remember it at the moment. It had barely even registered that Gowther had been with them. Before they could leave, though, someone they had called Dreyfus had attacked Harlequin, but after some serious discussion, they seemed to have put aside their differences. I didn't fully understand what was going on, but I really didn't care.

The reason I didn't care was due to the fact that I couldn't let my attention waver. I was moving through the warring city, dragging Helbram, whose unconscious face was ghostly pale. Helbram's blood soaked my arms and dress, and dried in clumps in my hair. There was a faint glowing around my blood-covered hands as I still gripped the connection between us tightly. It was the only thing keeping him alive, and as soon as I let go he would die. But the longer I kept Dyrnwyn in its Trillium form, the more exhausted I became; it was not meant to be kept up this long. The little flower that was balanced between Helbram's bloody shoulder and my chest only had one petal now, and wilted worryingly.

I needed to find someone that could heal him, and quickly. If I ran into a fight, I was pretty much doomed, as I had no weapon. Zephyranthes was dashing ahead everytime we had to round a corner to make sure it was safe. I knew that it wouldn't last, though; soon enough, a fight would come to us, and I wouldn't be able to do anything. In other circumstances, I would ask Zephyr to take us to safety, but that would immediately worsen Helbram's wounds and would probably kill him.

I looked up at the castle ahead of me. There's gotta be someone who can help there, right? Helbram has been on their side all this time, so they should help… I think… As I was moving, I noted that I could feel traces of demonic energy flashing from somewhere across the city. Making an educated guess, I assumed that that must be where Meliodas was. He must be fighting someone strong to be using that.

So many things had happened since I had started trudging through the city. There had been huge electric explosions, screaming, crumbling buildings, and, worst of all, people turning into monsters like the one that the sins had fought when Gowther joined us. I barely managed to come away unscathed from that before Harlequin had appeared and defeated the monsters, returning them to humans. As it was, Zephyr had hurt his leg trying to keep the things away from me.

At one point, I had even felt magic reaching towards Helbram, attempting to bring back the mysterious red thread that I had gotten rid of, but I used the small blade that I still had to cut it immediately. I worried about what that meant. Was Helbram so close to death that the dark resurrection magic could still work on him? Why had the user activated it?

Wait… Still keeping my focus halfway on my task, I narrowed my eyes and tried to feel the demonic energy I felt from Meliodas. Only… There were two energies. How could there be two? I had thought that Meliodas and I were the last demons around. And how could one just show up out of nowhere? Judging by its proximity to the Dragon Sin, they were probably fighting. And the magic powers around that area were growing stronger and stronger. They weren't the only ones fighting. Actually, now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen anyone in quite awhile. Had everyone gathered over there?

I shook my head. Whatever was going on, I couldn't help. I knew I had wanted to actually fight this time around, but I had given myself a job to do, and I was going to do it right.

I looked up again and sighed in relief. There were no more buildings between me and the castle, just a straight shot. I hobbled forwards, attempting to not jostle Helbram. He was too big and heavy for me to actually carry, so his lower half was dragging along the ground, and I was trying to not go through too rough of an area, which was difficult with how much had been destroyed over the last couple of hours.

As I made my way up the steps that led to the entrance with the last of my energy, I felt magic swelling from the direction of the fighting. What's that? I wondered faintly. The edges of my vision started to blur as I mounted the final step. It was just a little farther. Just a little farther and I could find someone to help. But it seemed like I wasn't going to make it. Darkness was threatening to overwhelm me and I felt a little nauseous. Just... a little… farther…

I was dimly aware of Zephyr saying my name, but it sounded so far away. I just wanted to sleep. Why did this have to be so hard? What was I even doing right now? I had forgotten. I could just take a nap right now, right? No one would mind. Onii-chan would surely wake me in time for dinner. Then we could eat good food and play plenty of games. Everyone would be there: Onii-chan and Onee-san, Meliodas and Elizabeth, Harlequin and Helbram. Maybe I could even ask Onii-chan if Kay could come - he didn't seem to have a problem with humans coming into the forest. It would be great. And when Zephyr was done with his lesson with Iris - Onii-chan's fox shade companion - he could join us. And when that was all over...

Wait… How could Harlequin and Helbram be in the same place as Onii-chan? They had never met…

I forced open my eyes to see Helbram still in my arms as I wavered on the top step in front of the castle. Still feeling like I wasn't fully there, I smiled. I tipped forward, no longer able to stay upright.

Just before I hit the ground, I felt the magic that I had felt in the distance a moment ago wash over me, washing away my pain and exhaustion. But I was still mentally tired, so I still felt myself losing consciousness. The last thing I saw, however, was the fading connection in my hands flaring bright gold before I let it go and it disappeared as Dyrnwyn returned to being a cloak. I could faintly feel Zephyr's soft fur around me before even that sensation faded into nothing.