Chapter 2- The First Goodbye

Presea and Regal were at Altimaria. Presea stood at her sister, Alicia's grave. "Alicia…" she said solemnly. Regal appeared next to her, his shackles were removed. "Should we begin our project?" He asked. Presea turned around and nodded. She followed Regal to the elevator and went down, but as it was, there was a thumping sound.

At first, the two thought it was nothing important and ignored it.

"Do you think we should destroy the other half of the mine?" Regal asked.

"No," Presea replied, "Half of it is already destroyed, no new Exspheres will be made. We should leave it and move on to something else."

The thumping sound was getting louder and louder, Presea couldn't take it anymore.

"Regal," Presea turned to him.

"Yes, I hear that too."

When the elevator stopped going, they pressed the button so it went back up. They still heard some thumping noises. It was getting louder and louder, like a heartbeat. Suddenly, there was a loud bang, just as the elevator reached the top. Regal and Presea ran out in a hurry, and to their dismay, the top floor of the building was burning in flames. Presea screamed and ran to her sisters grave, which sat in the middle of all the flames. The grass around the stone seemed to be exploding with energy. It drew closer and closer, until the whole grave was erupted in fire also.

"Alicia…" Presea said.

"What happened…?" Regal asked, his eyes wide.

Suddenly, they heard a familiar voice rang around them. It said, "You…" in a zombie-like tone.

Regal's eyes grew even wider. "Mithos?"

Presea also heard it, but she couldn't believe it. "No… it can't be…" She turned around and started looking everywhere, frantically trying to find where the voice was coming from.

"You… you… I remember you…" The voice continued. It seemed to echo in their heads.

Presea covered her ears. "It's not Mithos! It can't be."

Unexpectedly, a large black cloud, no bigger than a balloon, soared upward, from the bottom of the building. It swayed back and forth and looked so much like mist. There were two blood red circles on the cloud, in a position that made it look like eyes. "I remember you…" it continued. "My memories are fading… but I remember you… so… so clearly…" It started to swivel around in midair, and as it was doing so, it seemed to grow larger.

Presea and Regal were in such shock, they didn't know what to say or do. They just stood still, watching what would happen next. They stood still for a while, staring intently at the cloud. Then, they noticed that its eyes were glowing. They stared into them, and what they saw, shocked them more than ever. Inside those bloodish eyes, stood the silhouettes of a group of twelve people. The two recognized the figures. In the middle was Lloyd, to his right was Colette, to his left was Genis, then Raine, to Colette's right was them: Presea and Regal, then came Sheena and Zelos, but there were other figures too, they were much farther back, and much more blurrier. Rings of fire surrounded them, most likely representing hatred.

Before their very eyes, the dark cloud had changed to twice its size. A dark aura seemed to engulf it.

"You… must… die… like I died…" it said in that same zombie way. It made one twirl in the air, and the building below Regal and Presea seemed to wobble. A crack suddenly appeared under the feet, and the building split in two. Presea and Regal fell between the crack to the first floor, but with the help of their Exspheres, they were able to land on their feet. The flames had reached this floor and everyone was running and screaming.

"Everyone!" Regal commanded, "Evacuate the building immediately!" He turned around and saw his butler, lying helplessly on the ground, George. "George!" He yelled. He ran toward him and picked him up. "We have to get out of here!" Everyone ran out the door toward the elemental railway. The pilot's face was pale, and he looked so stiff, that there was a doubt that he could even steer the boat to mainland. The cloud slowly descended toward the crows of panicking people. Presea instinctively turned around and swung her axe with great force at the top of the door. Bits of cement and rock fell to the flour in clumps and crashes. She knew it wouldn't bide them much time, but every moment would count for them. She ran ahead and jumped into the elemental railway. It was so cramped that it looked as if people were just about to fall off into the sea.

"Drive! Drive!" Presea commanded desperately.

The driver's face turned paler than ever, but he kept repeating to himself that the lives of these people were in his hands. He quickly grabbed onto the wheel and drove forward on the rails. Sweat rolled down his face and he swiftly shot a glance behind to see what was happening. To his horror, the rocks blocking the door exploded and a dark cloud slowly made its way out. The driver looked ahead, and to his relief he saw the mainland just up ahead. The elemental railway drove on ahead, and halted to a stop at the dock. The group of people jumped out immediately and started to run away screaming. The people at Altamira were a bit confused at first, but then realized what had happened from all the screaming. Then someone said, "Look! It's the cloud!" That caused everyone to run and scream. Even the driver got out of the elemental railway and started to run away. Regal and Presea calmly got out of the elemental railway and stood and faced the enemy approaching them. They knew what they had to do. They had to face to the enemy before them, to protect the people of Altimaria, and possibly, the people of their world. Presea pulled out her axe and glared at the cloud, which was only a few feet away from them.

"Mithos… or whatever you are, no matter what you're intentions are, you cannot go harming innocent people like this!"

Regal nodded, "Yes, we will put an end to this."

Mithos suddenly stopped moving toward them.

Presea and Regal became confused. They watched it for a moment, waiting for it to make a move. Then, unexpectedly, the cloud spun around and the earth below them started to shake. It shook some more until a crack below them appeared. The two jumped out of the way just in time, but the other citizens were not so lucky. Half of them fell threw, shrieking in horror.

"No!" Presea screamed.

Regal ran ahead and to strike the enemy, which was now at the dock. He tried to kick it, but foot went through the cloud. Regal was speechless. Presea then charged ahead and smashed her axe onto the floor at full force. Rocks shot forward at Mithos, but it too just went through him and fell into the water with a loud splash. The two were in panic. How were they supposed to fight it?

Mithos spun around again, and to their horror, a dark and black beam appeared out of it. It had purple marks on it , which spun around like a lava lamp. It looked just like Derris-Kharlan. And it moved incredibly fast, so fast that it hit Regal without him even realizing what happened. On contact, it caused an explosion.

"Regal! NO!-" Presea screamed in horror. She jumped out of the way to avoid the explosion.

Then she raised her axe and said, "Mithos, I'm not going to die without a fight! I'm not going to run away" She slammed her axe down on the floor and many rocks and rubble flew out at the dark cloud. But it just went through it, like everything else. Mithos shot another laser at Presea, but she jumped out of the avoiding the laser and the explosion that followed. "I won't be hit by that Mithos!"

But unexpectedly, more lasers came out of the explosion. Presea jumped out of the way of them, one-by-one. But then, they started to follow her.

Preseas ran as fast as she could, but in the end, it was futile. She collided with a rock that jutted out of the ground and fell to the floor, back first. She got up and looked at the beam-dead on. She knew she could run. "Lloyd, Colette, Genis, everyone… be careful…"

And it ended like that, with another explosion.