Attention: For some reason my beta reader hasn't responded for a while, so I need to request another one until the person returns. I hope the person will come back once she has more time^_^. Because judging from some of the new reviews I got some things mixed up. I'll fix those later then. Thank-you. I appreciate any reviews whether its good or bad. I know my writing is horrible and I probably got some facts mixed up.

References:

Tai Ho: sailor from Suikoden 1+2.

Yam Koo: younger brother of Tai Ho.

Templton: First appears in Suikoden1 + 2, he gives the map of the country you're in. His goal is to make a map of the entire world.

Jormangand: World serpent. A mythical creature from Norse Mythology.

Kamandol and Sergei are from Suikoden1. Kamandol was the one who builds an engine so you can visit the doctor of Suikdoen1. Sergei was the man who made the elevator.

World of Emptiness: Where all the monsters that were summon in Suikoden 1 and 3 live. It is also theorized that Yuber and Persmerge are from there.

Zodiac sword: Also known as Star Dragon Sword.

A leader's burden 10

As soon as the ship had sailed, Sasarai held a private meeting with Dios, Yuber, Albert and the ninja girl. He sat behind a table on a chair, and awaited for everyone to gather around. "You all know what happened."

"Lord Hikusaak's true rune was stolen." Albert said flatly.

"Yes. The thieves used the Sovereign rune to cancel out any effect that the Circle rune had."

"How did they get to Hikusaak?" Dios asked.

"We're not really sure. The guards think that it was a rune of invisibility."

"Is there such a rune."

"Not that I know of. We also suspect the work of a Silverberg."

Everyone looked at Albert who calmly shook his head. "I wouldn't know. I'm not that close to my family."

"It's hard to imagine a group of thieves are able to capture a rune, especially from someone like Hikusaak." Dios said regrettably.

"Did they use the same crystal balls that Luc used during the Elemental wars?"

"Similar, but not the same, or so Lord Hikusaak believes." Sasarai replied.

"A new way to capture the True Runes?"

"Most likely. I am curious where these thieves got the technology to capture the runes."

"Indeed. Making such a device is nothing an ordinary man can do."

"In any case I think we should keep an eye on Thomas."

"Thomas?"

"He was wearing a glove this morning. When we were working together with him during the Elemental wars, he never wore gloves. It maybe just a coincidence, but at the moment we should consider him as a suspect."

"I see."

"That is fine with me." Yuber smirked. "I don't mind destroying little rats like him."

Sasarai shook his head. "Let's keep our suspicion of him low until we have proof. I don't want to falsely accuse someone."

Yuber grumbled. "You're too soft."

Sasarai replied with a kind smile and stood up. "You can have your fun later. For now, we wait."

Cradling the boat from side to side, Tai Ho's boat moved across the ocean water. Ace began to feel his breakfast coming up. Queen and Aila kept a look out at the port of the boat, while Jacques was in the crow's nest keeping lookout. Joker and Geddoe were at the head of the boat waiting for something to come in sight. Yam Koo was at the end of the boat trying to catch some lunch.

"A fine day for sailing." Tai Ho grinned. "We'll be at the top of the world in no time."

"Where is the top anyway?" Aila asked.

Tai Ho shrugged. "According to Lord Templton's map and this compass we should keep heading north. Lord Mcdohl has informed me it's very cold there, so once we get there we should wear heavier clothing."

"Heavier clothing?"

"Yeah, but don't worry, Lord Mcdohl thought ahead and already packed you proper clothing for your journey."

"Mr. Tai-Ho." Aila asked tilting her head. "Why are we going to the top of the world?"

Tai Ho smiled. "I'm not sure myself. I just know we should trust Lord Mcdohl."

"You trust him this much without reason?"

"It's not a matter of trust Aila, I just believe in him."

"Believe? Sort of like with chief Lucia and Geddoe then?"

Queen smiled lazily. "Yeah, something like that."

"I can't wait to get there." Aila said happily. "I wonder if it'll be as beautiful as the grasslands."

Ace groaned. "I hope we get there soon, my meals keep coming up, and all this salty air making me sick."

As Geddoe and his team continued to sail to the top of the world, Chris and her ship was getting closer. The knights were preparing their weapons to attack the ship and capture it. Chris directed everyone in which places they should go and what they should do. Roland was in charge of the gunners naturally, the rest were on stand by. None of the knights like battling on water. They weren't navy men, but because Chris wanted to capture Tir herself, there as no choice but to go along with her. They could never leave her side, no matter what.

Meanwhile, Yuber, Albert and the ninja girl were at the head of the ship. Yuber was getting anxious, he gritted his teeth as he watched Tai Ho's ship continued at the speed it was going. "This is stupid." he muttered. "Why should we stay at this speed? Can't we go any faster?"

Albert shook his head. "With this kind of boat we can't move any faster. What do you accept? These people don't have technology like we do back at Harmonia."

"What did you say?" Chris snarled as she walked towards them. "We are trying our best."

"Lady Chris, may I make a suggestion? If we use a harpoon and fire it far enough at the ship we can merely reel it in like a fishing pole. And even if they do cut it, we'll be close enough to catch up to them without pushing the men."

"I suppose."

"Something wrong?"

"I'm not sure if we have a powerful enough weapon to launch a harpoon that far."

Yuber frowned and raised his right hand. "Then we'll make one." Yuber started to chant some sort of summoning spell. "Come to me, servant of the darkness, World Serpent, Jormangand!"

The ship began to shake and a dark shadow began to spread from the bottom of the ship. The water bubbled furiously and splashing from the sides of the ship. The men scattered around the ship, wondering what was below them. Was it a monster? The archers armed themselves with arrows while the swordsmen got into fight position incase the creature tried to come on board. Yuber smiled to himself, finding it amusing how humans were scattering like rats in a sinking ship.

Meanwhile on the cargo ship, Tir suddenly felt a strange presence. Tir and Hugo were currently in the storage area, tending to Fubar. Hugo was worried about Fubar and asked to be stationed in the storage area. Tir decided to stay with Hugo to make sure Fubar didn't make a sound. Anything that could blow their cover would jeopardize the plan.

"Is something wrong Tir?" Hugo asked.

"Do you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Hugo asked looking around.

"You don't feel that presence?"

"Presence?"

Hugo closed his eyes and began to concentrated, just as he felt the new presence, a pillar of water crashed through the surface, sprinkling little droplets on to the nearby ships. As the water began to descend, a large blue scaly monster stood before them. It's head was of a combination of a snake and a fish, it's long thin body drifted back and forth as it was standing on solid ground.

Yuber turned his head at the gawking knights. "Get a harpoon with a rope attached to it." he growled.

One of the knights nodded and went to get some rope to attach to a harpoon. Just then, Tir went outside to check what was happening. Thomas, Cecil, Juan and Emily were all gawking at the serpent that had just appeared. It looked similar to the monster in the Sindar runes under Great Hollow, but larger.

"How on earth did that man summon such a thing?" Thomas said shaking his head.

"Thomas." Tir called.

"Yes?"

"We both know where that creature's target is, we must act now. Otherwise Tai Ho's ship could be sunk by that monster."

"Oh uh right. We'll get ready then." Thomas smiled.

"Hey you!" One of the knights shouted.

Tir turned around to face one of the knights in charge of the ship. "Sir!" Tir immediately addressed the man.

"What are you doing here? We have to help Lady Chris with that serpent, get the harpoons ready so we can back up the creature when it attack's Geddoe's ship.

"Yes sir!" Tir said and ran to the lower deck.

"And you." the knight said turning towards Thomas and the others. "Make sure to be ready for anything. Those thieves may do something out of the ordinary."

"Uh yes, we'll stand by if Lady Chris needs our help, we'll be ready."

The knight nodded and tended to the other men. Thomas wiped a bit of sweat off his face and looked upon the serpent. A harpoon was in it's mouth attached to a long rope with Yuber holding the other end. Was this man insane? Was he really going to pull a boat towards them alone? The boat was small enough for him to perform such a task.

"Jormangand, go after the ship that has the man with the True Lightening Rune." Yuber smiled as he jumped on to the serpent's head.

Chris mouth dropped open. "Yuber, what are you doing?" She was about to go after him when the ninja girl rose her arm in front of Chris. The girl didn't say anything, she just continued to hold still. "Why are you…"

"She's saying that we should let Yuber handle it." Albert said turning his focus onto Jormangand and Yuber.

The serpent began swimming towards the boat and moved as quickly as a snake finding it's prey. Jacques, with his keen eyesight, saw the serpent ripping through the waters. He yelled down at Tai Ho. "Tai Ho Watch out! There's a serpent coming at us from the south."

Geddoe frowned as soon as he saw who was riding the serpent. "Yuber."

"Damn, hold on!" Tai Ho steered the ship left, dodging Jormangand. As the creature cut through the water, waves began to rock the boat heavily.

Everyone screamed as the boat began to tip over. The creature gave out a battle cry and began to charge for the boat again. It was too much, Tai Ho couldn't control the ship to dodge the waves and the serpent at the same time. Geddoe ran to the head of the ship and aimed his right hand at the serpent whispering, "Hammer of Raijin." A roar of thunderclaps came from the heavens, gray clouds gathered from the clear blue sky. Rumbles echoing in the mist, and a loud roar of thunder came from the clouds. Blue dragons poked their heads from the clouds and looked down at their target. With another trembling roar, the dragons all launched themselves as one and struck the large serpent.

Jormangand screamed as the combination of electricity and water were burning it's body. Yuber left his servant and jumped from the serpent's head, landing on to the boat. "You dirty little cheaters." Yuber growled.

"Get off our ship demon!" Aila yelled as she pulled one of her arrows out.

Ace and the others quickly got ready in a fighting position to take on Yuber. Yuber merely smirked and fixed his hat. "I was anxious to get a dose of blood shed today. I'll take whatever I can get from you." With a flick of his wrist, two swords shot out from his hands. Yuber raised his right arm to his shoulder and his left across, then charged towards the group. Ace first attack but kept missing due to his speed of evasion. Yuber shifted from left and right dodging each attack. Joker used his fire rune, while Aila and Jacques fired their arrows at him.

Geddoe was about to go help when Jormangand poked it's head of the water again. It squalled at Geddoe angrily and tried to attack the boat again. "Damn. Why now?" Once again, Geddoe used his rune to fight off the furious beast.

Meanwhile, Sasarai, Dios and Chris were watching the battle from afar. Witnessing the powerful rune taking on the giant serpent. Chris closed her eyes and shook her head. "Isn't he going a little bit too far?"

Sasarai looked kindly at her and shrugged. "It's what he does best, we should things leave to him."

"Yes, but what if we lose the True Runes because of his actions, wouldn't our efforts be for nothing?"

"Do not worry, the runes have a way to go back to the place they need to be."

"Yes, I suppose you know more of this then I do…"

Just as Sasarai was about to open his mouth, the cargo suddenly exploded. "What was that?"

"The cargo ship in flames? Was it carelessness." Chris wondered.

"Hugo?" Sasarai said in a wondering voice.

Chris froze for a bit and looked ahead. Hugo was riding on Fubar using the fire rune to burn his enemies. The cannons on the ship exploded, the knights tried to seize Hugo but he'd use his Fire rune to burn them in their trail.

"Men! Aid the cargo ship! Quickly!" Chris cried.

Sasarai's eyes narrowed as he saw the other boy rising from the flames. "Tir Mcdohl." he whispered. As if he heard his name, Tir's gaze slowly focused on to Sasarai. The boys looked at each other with challenging eyes. A smirk came across Tir's face as he went back to fighting the soldiers.

"Lord Mcdohl, stop this at once!" Thomas yelled. Tir slowly turned around, eyes stiffened and cold, he faced Thomas with a careless, but serious look. Thomas nearly shuttered, the flames near him were giving Tir such an eerie look. Thomas gulped and continued to pretend to be Tir's enemy. "You can't be serious. Is the leader of the Liberation Army a murder too?"

Tir closed his eyes and shrugged. "I've killed my best friend, my father and the most important in my life. I will have no regrets to kill you as well."

"I won't let you have him." Cecil growled as she stood in front of Thomas.

"You'll have to go through me too." Juan said as he cracked his knuckles.

"Me too." Emily said joining in. "My mother looked up to you. How could you."

Tir shook his head. "You wouldn't understand? You wouldn't be able to since you don't bear a true rune like Hugo and I."

"I won't let you have your way." Thomas shouted.

The group charged at Tir, raising their swords and fists. Tir merely lifted his right hand and said, "Soul eater, Hell…"

A black shadow circled underneath them and white souls shot out from the ground. Everyone screamed and collapsed to the ground. Chris and Sasarai witness this and were shocked to what Tir had done to them.

Chris gritted her teeth, "He won't get away with that. Charge!" Chris shouted to her men. The men hoisted the sails and steered the ship towards the cargo ship. The other three ships followed and began to go towards the Cargo ship..

Albert shook his head. "This is obviously a trap."

"A trap?" Sasarai asked.

"Most likely Thomas is helping them. How else would those two sneak aboard without anyone knowing. The griffon is too large to bring aboard without anyone seeing it."

"And Thomas, he's wearing gloves. He must have the True Wind Rune then."

"Yes. Now we have figured that out, we should make a plan of our own."

Dios shrugged. "Even though we know that now, how are we going to defeat Tir."

"Simple, we use a hostage." Albert looked over where Chris was standing and giving commands to her soldiers. "She'll do for now. We can use her as bait for Tir. Once we capture Tir and Hugo, we will can finally track down the other runes."

"And Yuber?"

"He'll be able to take care of those dogs by himself. The serpent won't be defeated so easily either."

"Is that so, we'll have to move quickly, the two ships are almost touching each other."

The soldiers fired grappling hooks on to the ship of the cargo ship. The archers were aiming their arrows at Hugo and Fubar, who were constantly dodging every attack, or repelling it. As soon as the grappler struck the ship, Tir jumped on the rope and ran across it. The soldiers waiting for him all swung their swords violently at him. Using his rune again, Tir drained the energy out of the soldiers in his way.

"Sasarai. Where is he?" Tir asked himself. He looked around the ship, swerving his head and swinging his staff at anyone who got in way. "Sasarai!" He shouted.

"Are you looking for me?" Sasarai asked. Sasarai stood on the upper floor of the ship, and looked down at Tir with a clam smile.

Tir turned around to see Chris being held by the a woman dressed in black clothing. Chris was knocked out and her loyal soldiers were all crying for Sasarai to let her go.

"What are you doing?" Borus yelled.

"Let Lady Chris go!" Louis snarled.

Sasarai looked at them and smiled. "If you want her to live, stand back." The knights reluctantly took a few steps back, unsure if this would actually make her safer. Sasarai then looked back at Tir who was standing there with a hateful glare. "If you want this woman to live, hand over the runes you've stolen and give us the names of the ones who stole the Circle rune."

"You better do as he says." Said a voice behind Tir. He didn't even bother to turn around to see the face of the red knight holding his sword against his neck.

"Lord Mcdohl." Miklotov said holding his sword on the other side of Tir's neck.

"You two…" Tir knew them a bit. They fought for the Dunan army years ago. "Why? I didn't think you'd go so low as to allow someone being taken as hostage."

"Lord Mcdohl, we can't you let bring this world into chaos. So please…" Camus asked nicely.

Back with Tai Ho's ship, the battle was still continuing. Yuber was a lot faster then before and slashing everyone. Geddoe in the meantime, was keeping Jormangand busy. If there was ever a better time to use the engine the boat had, now would be the time. "Everyone, hold on!" Tai Ho yelled. The engine on the back of the boat started to roar and like a rocket, the boat blasted off. Tai Ho turned the boat towards the cargo ship, which was now in flames. The serpent tried to follow, but thanks to the engine Kamandol and Sergei made, they could out run the creature. Yuber couldn't keep his balance and thought it was best to leave. He jumped off the boat and called Jormangand to pick him up. Tai Ho grinned as he could see they were going much faster then the serpent. Everyone else, was holding on to the side of the boat for dear life.

Tir was in a stand hold, he couldn't give up his runes, but to lose the life of someone just because of it? Was it really fair. He took away so many lives before, why should this matter? "Damn." Tir swore.

"So you'll cooperate?" Sasarai asked.

Tir shook his head. "I have no choice."

Sasarai smirked. "You have a lot of nerve doing what you did."

Just as they were about to go down the stairs, an eagle call roared from behind them.

"Soldiers! Fire at the griffon!" Dios yelled.

The archers aimed their arrows at Fubar and fired. Fubar dodged them and Hugo repelled any that couldn't be dodged. "Tir! Use your rune on Sasarai! We'll capture it once he's weak!"

"Alright!" Tir pushed Camus and Miklotov away from him as he made his break to use soul eater on Sasarai. "Soul Eater. Judgment!" Tir shouted.

When Sasarai heard the words soul eater, he used his own True rune to counter attack. "Earth rune - clay guardian." A clear piece of the earth appeared from the floor, like a wall coming from the ground, and absorbed the magic hit.

Tir growled, he can't touch Sasarai with the Earth rune protecting him. What could Tir do? Just as he was thinking, Miklotov slashed Tir in the back, mking him fall forward. "Stop this at once, if you continue, I'll have to kill you."

Tir turned around to meet the blue knight's eyes, and frowned. "I won't give up. Not when people are depending on me."

Just then Geddoe and his group got on board on the ship. "Sorry to crash the party bishop, but we have plans in mind for that rune of yours."

Jormangand rammed the side of the ship and Yuber jumped back on it to meet with the thieves. Fixing his hat, he looked at them and smirked. "I'll finish you off here."

Camus finished chanting a fire spell and sent Fubar and Hugo to the ground. The knights began to attack and everyone charged. Tir, Hugo and Geddoe were outnumbered. There were too many soldiers.

Tir shook his head. "We can't be defeated now. Not now."

"Hungry Friend." Just then, thousands of swords pieced the serpent and sent it screaming into the bottom of the sea.

Everyone turned to the place the attack came from, it was another ship that had just appeared over the horizon. Tir took this as a sign to get what he came for. He used judgment again while Sasarai wasn't looking, followed by Hugo's Final flame and last, Geddoe's Hammer of Raijin. Sasarai screamed and fainted onto the ground.

"Lord Sasarai!" Dios yelled.

Hugo then used the rune crystal and took Sasarai's earth rune "Tir! I got it, lets go!" Hugo jumped on to Fubar as they flew back to the ship, Tir and Geddoe, along with his crew ran back to the cargo boat. Camus and Miklotov ran after them, but another blast struck the ship.

Geddoe and his crew quickly cut the ropes, while Tai Ho got in control of the ship. They steered away while the other three ships tried to follow them. Hugo them used his fire rune one last time to burn parts of the other ships.

Albert looked ahead, he wasn't counting on the thieves to get help so soon, who was on the other boat? "Give some medicine to Sasarai quickly. Ninja girl, wake Chris up."

The ninja girl held Chris close to her and pressed on Chris's neck with two fingertips. Chris moaned and held her head. "What? What happened?"

Borus was still stirred with anger with what they did to Chris. "What were you thinking?" Borus yelled. "I should chop your head off for doing that to Lady Chris."

"We weren't going to actually hurt her. We were using her as bait for Lord Mcdohl."

Chris shook her head. "Me? As bait? Why?"

"Tir seems to have a fondness towards you for some reason, so using you as bait would have increased our chances of capturing him since Thomas was far away."

"Thomas? What do you mean?"

"Thoams is working for Tir."

"What?"

"We don't know the reason either, just that he's working for Tir now."

"I see." Chris sighed. Thomas too? Why did Tir recruit him?

"Now that the plan has failed, it means we're at a greater risk of losing this battle. Yuber, do you know where they are going?"

"Most likely my world?"

"Your world?" Chris asked.

"Yes, the world of emptiness. The temple of Messiah is there. Mcdohl is probably trying to go there."

"Can you transport us there?" Chris asked.

"No. The place with Messiah's temple is off limits, even to me."

"Is there anyway we can get there?"

"Top of the world." Sasarai whispered. Dios was holding Sasarai in his arms, and Sasarai's body was shaking. "The legend of messiah is that on top of the world, there will be the temple. The top of the world is also known as the edge of the world."

Albert nodded. "So that is where we'll go then."

Chris nodded and told the men their new location. "Lets hope we make it before they perform the ceremony."

Yuber smiled. "Don't be stupid, they need all 27 true runes."

"But they took Sasarai's."

"Yes, but they haven't taken mine yet." Yuber said showing his eightfold rune on his right hand.

"You bear a True Rune?" Albert asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, and so does another like me. That man probably already joined them though."

"I see, then we still have a chance to stop them." Chris nodded.

They set sails and started to head north.

Tir and the others greeted their saviors. Thomas and the others gawked as they meet with the people. On the far left, was a white haired woman with blue clothing. Next was Futch, a bit older looking now, with his dragon friend Bright. Beside him was a blonde woman with similar clothing, and had a similar look to Sharon. In the middle was a blonde man with long hair that was tied back in a ponytail. He was tall and well built, he wore a blue turtleneck with the sleeves cute off, and white pants. Like Tir, he too used a staff to fight with. Next, was another woman. She had long brownish hair, tied in a Chinese type of bun. She wore a pink Chinese dress with baggy green pants. Beside her was a dark haired man. He had kind eyes, and wore red clothing similar to Tir. Next was Edge, with the Zodiac sword, and to the right of him was an old man wearing black armor and a blue cape, followed by a blue bandana. Steering the ship was a tanned man with small eyes and black hair with a ponytail. Behind the group was a man dressed in black armor.

"It's good to see you all again." Tir smiled. "Riou, Nanami, Jowy, everyone."

Riou smiled and shook his head. "You had us for quite a scare. We didn't think you'd be taken so easily."

Hugo gasped as soon as he saw Jowy. "Jowy? Jowy Atreides? You're, you're the leader my mother fought with during the Dunan wars."

Jowy smiled. "I see you must be her off spring. Hugo isn't it?"

"Yeah. I was going to be the new chief, but…"

Jowy looked at his friends with large grin, and shook his head. "I understand. We're like that too."

"Really?"

Jowy nodded and then looked at the others. "So who are these people?"

Ace introduced his group. "I'm Ace, and this is Queen, Joker, and over there are Aila and Jacques, and this here is our captain, Geddoe. We're the Southern Frontier Defense Force for Harmonia."

"Harmonia?" Nanami gasped. "Why are you helping Tir then?"

"We have the same goal, that's all." Geddoe frowned.

Tir shook his head. "He's with us for now, so there is no need to worry."

"And the rest?" Riou asked.

"I'm Thomas. This is Cecil, Juan and Emily. We're from Budehuc castle."

"Please to meet you." Nanami smiled. "This is Sierra."

Sierra smiled. "A pleasure."

"She's the first vampire, and has the Blue Moon rune."

"Vampire?" Thomas shuttered. "You mean…"

"Don't worry." Sierra giggled. "I won't bite, unless you upset me."

"Understood madam."

Futch walked up to the group and smiled at them. "I'm glad to see you all again."

"Futch, what are you doing here?"

"I'm escorting Milia to the top of the world. Milia is the leader of the dragon knights."

Milia bowed her head as a greeting. "I'm honored to meet you again Lord Mcdohl."

"I'm glad to see you to." Tir smiled.

"So we meet again." Edge said stepping forward.

"Who is the person beside you?" Hugo asked.

"This is Flik, he accompanied the original owner of the sword."

"Glad to meet you all. I heard of what you did during the Elemental wars." Flik chuckled.

"Over there is Amanda, our sailor, and Pesmerge recently joined us believing we'll meet with Yuber."

Tir smiled and nodded. "We have many things to discuss, I guess."

"Yes. It's been a long journey for all of us." Riou sighed.

When night fell upon the group they all discussed on what they had done. After dinner, Riou and Jowy showed the group the circle rune they captured from Hikusaak.

"Wow." Cecil gasped. "How did you managed to get it? Doesn't Harmonia have one of the strongest armies."

"We had help." Riou smiled.

"From who?"

"A strategist named Shu. He gave us detailed instructions before going to the top of the world."

"So what did you do exactly?" Hugo asked curious.

"First, we had to get into the castle." Nanami said sitting down on a chair. The anxious listeners followed by sitting on the floor. "Shu got us some information on suitable 1st class citizens that we could pose as. We took those people's identities and made pretended to be them until the right time came for us to raid Hikusaak's castle. Luckily, no one noticed, and then the next step was to find out about the security of the area. There were lots of seals, and not to mention guards from the Howling Guild. They wouldn't let us get near Hikusaak."

"So how did you break in?" Aila asked.

"With the help of Leknaat, we managed to break the seals and come in as the 1st class citizens we were posed to be. We collected the True Runes Harmonia had once inside of Hikusaak's castle, and Sierra used an illusion spell with Nash to confuse the guards."

"Nash?" everyone said in a shocked voice.

Sierra snorted. "He's lucky I didn't do anything else with him, that traitor."

Nanami, Riou and Jowy laughed nervously, while everyone else exchanged puzzling looks at one another. "Anyway, when we came half way to Hikusaak, more guards decided to show up. I told Riou and Jowy to go on ahead. They didn't believe me when I said I could take care of myself, but I showed all those bull-headed Harmonian soldiers the meaning of my secret technique.

Riou and Jowy shook their heads. "By the time we got back she was nearly dead. It was a good thing we didn't use our runes to fight Hikusaak."

"You fought Hikusaak?" Ace gasped.

"Sort of." Riou said laughing nervously. "We actually used this." Riou took out a sword from their bag. The sword had the crest of the Sovereign rune.

"Is that?"

"Yes, the Sovereign rune, it can cancel the effect of any rune, that's how we got in so easily. It was a good thing Tir took it along with him when he left the Toran Republic. From then on, we used the rune crystals that the Sindar clan provided for us."

"Wow…" Hugo and Thomas said gazing. "You guys must be awesome."

"We just know how to work well together." Jowy said looking at his friends. "What happened with you though Tir?"

Tir shrugged. "It seemed like there were more complications then I thought, but we managed to get all the runes. How many do we have now?"

"25, counting yours, and the one we just go from Hikusaak."

"So two are still missing." Tir thought.

"We still have some time left." Jowy shrugged.

"What should we do in the meantime?" Hugo asked the two leaders.

Riou and Tir looked at each other and simply nodded. "We'll think of something." they both laughed.

The ship continued to drift forward, and ahead, awaited their fate.