All the younger group members had just run inside the academy, desperate to hear the news that the Auburn-haired Seraphim had to report. Unfortunately, they were all let down by what he had to say.
"I regret to say Raine and I were unable to come across any new information," Kratos said with a rather-flat face when everyone walked in. He watched as disappointment flooded all of his former comrades' expressions.
Just as it looked like all that waiting was for nothing, Kratos suddenly spoke out. "But listen to me. Just a little while ago, a thought came to me. I may know somebody who could have information on Stromm's whereabouts."
"Really?" Lloyd asked, hope filling up his eyes. "Who?"
Kratos didn't respond. Instead, he took out his teleporter and pressed the button on it. Instantly, blue lights started swirling around everybody in the room, making a loud, sci-fi like sound.
"What the?..." Genis said to himself as he looked at the blue lights as they engulfed him.
Lloyd didn't say anything while Colette was on the verge of screaming out of terror. Raine was amused by their antics, but Kratos was taking the entire situation seriously.
Finally, the blue lights collapsed around everybody. There was a bright white flash around everybody when the lights collapsed, and in the blink of an eye, they were gone.
Before anyone could react, they were suddenly able to see again and the bright blue lights were gone from around them. Lloyd, Colette, Raine and Genis all looked very confused about what just happened and even slightly scared, but Kratos looked relatively calm.
Lloyd was confused about the entire thing, but eventually realized that that was exactly what the teleporter was supposed to do. Looking down at the ground, he saw that he was standing on a large strip of multicolored stone. The disturbing part was that beneath the ground, and all around them, was a swirling cloud of dark purple fog. The fog seemed to be floating up towards them. They were seemingly walking on ground that was inexplicably supported over an abyss.
"Are we…on Derris-Kharlan?" Lloyd asked, not knowing what to believe.
"Yes," Kratos calmly replied. "Follow me."
Without even checking to make sure everyone was following him, Kratos began walking away to wherever it was he planned on going. Genis, Raine and Colette followed him without much trouble, but Lloyd just stood there like an idiot, not knowing what the heck was going on. It took until everyone was quite a distance away from him before he started running after them.
The entire place felt very disturbing to Lloyd. For some reason, he didn't mind the abyss and the dark, swirling fog. No, it was all the angels that he was running by. They still seemed lifeless and emotionless. It was very weird seeing things that were living but having no sensation of being alive. It was almost scary.
Lloyd finally caught up to everyone in his group, and the walk continued for a while longer. The only sound that could be heard was the dead silence, with the exception of people's shoes being heard as they trotted across the stone ground of Derris-Kharlan.
Finally, Kratos seemed to get to where he wanted everyone to be. They were standing at a dead end on their path, but standing a few feet in front of them was a person. The person was wearing a long cloak. Although no one could see the front side of him, it was obvious his hands were cross. He had his back to them for a very long time and looked a lot like a statue due to the lack of movement. His hair was a strange color of blue and was tied in a ponytail that dangled down to the base of his neck.
As if he knew of their presence, the man turned around. Just as Lloyd suspected, it was Yuan: a former Seraphim himself and the leader of the Renegades.
"So, you've come," Yuan said plainly when he saw everybody. "Kratos, what did you say to them?"
"I've told them you'd have some information on a General named Stromm," Kratos calmly said to Yuan. Hearing the two emotionless people talk to each other sounded a lot like robots talking to each other.
"Stromm…" Yuan said, sounding as if he had just gone into deep-thought mode. "I haven't heard from him in a while."
"Heard from him?" Lloyd said, surprised. "You mean you know him?"
"Yes," Yuan said, looking at Lloyd. "When I was leading the Renegades to take down Mithos and any other Chosen, I was asking for Stromm's help and assistance. He seemed to make a valuable asset."
"Yeah, well he's not being that great now!" Lloyd said, throwing his balled fist in front of himself. "Right now, he wants to destroy another world!"
"What are you talking about?" Yuan asked as if Lloyd had said something that made no sense at all.
"Lloyd and I recently met Stromm," Colette explained. She proceeded to tell Yuan about everything that happened, from how they got stranded, to how Kayne met them and explained everything to them about the war between Tiberia and their own world, Aselia, to the brief standoff between them and Stromm on his ship.
"Tiberia?" Yuan asked. "I can't say I've ever heard of that world before. Do you know where it is located?"
"No," Lloyd said, shaking his head and closing his eyes.
Yuan made a small exasperated noise but looked completely normal. "Are you sure Stromm would want to do something like that?"
"There's no denying it!" Lloyd said with authority in his voice. Suddenly, he considered Stromm a huge threat, whether or not he knew what was going on in the war and why it was being fought. "He definitely looked like he was pretty hostile towards Kayne and the other Tiberians."
"Hmm," Yuan let out. "At any rate, you should consider yourselves incredibly fortunate, because I do happen to know a thing or two about Stromm. What is it that you need to know?"
"We have heard that he has a hidden base somewhere," Kratos said. "We think there may be information in that base about what he's trying to do, but we haven't the slightest idea where it might be, and I thought that perhaps you would."
Yuan seemed to tighten the grip on his arms. "And if I do?"
"We need you to tell us!" Lloyd said. "Otherwise, millions of innocent people on Tiberia could die! We have to know what's going on!"
"I have no need to explain it to any of you," Yuan said.
Kratos grit his teeth and stepped closer to Yuan. "Now that Mithos is gone, we have no further need to oppose each other. Please, tell us where Stromm's base is so we can figure everything out."
Yuan looked very annoyed, but eventually gave in. "Very well. I haven't been to Stromm's base in a while, but if nothing has changed, it should be hidden high in the mountains of Flanoir."
"All right!" Lloyd said, making a commanding pose with one his arms. "It's off to Flanoir then!"
Raine shook her head. "He still acts like such a child sometimes," she mumbled.
Kratos took out his teleporter, but Yuan took his out of his cloak and put it on the ground. That way, they'd be able to return to Derris-Kharlan when they were ready to.
Kratos hit the button on the teleporter and the bright blue lights surrounded everyone. They took to the lights much more calmly this time and allowed them to collapse atop them.
When the bright white lights flashed as the blue lights collapsed on each other. A heartbeat later, everyone was back on Aselia and in Sybak, the place they had just teleported from.
The walk from Sybak to Flanoir was a long one, and the group often had to take rest stops to regain their strength after walking for long distances. Hours later, the group reached their destination: the outskirts and the mountains on the outside of the snowy city of Flanoir.
It started making all the group members sick to their stomachs, knowing that they would have to trudge through those freezing mountain paths. They weren't even sure that Stromm's base was still there, or if Yuan had just led them on a wild goose chase.
Just taking the first step on the mountains caused everyone to start worrying about what was going to happen. The freezing air and winds were biting at anyone's skin that wasn't covered by clothes. Everyone felt like their face was going to get frostbitten, except for Yuan and Kratos; both of them were able to take it like nothing was wrong at all and that the rest of the group was acting like a bunch of babies for letting the cold get to them.
The entire group had no choice as they persevered traversing through the mountains. As they got higher and higher, it got harder to breathe. Genis and Colette were starting to get exhausted a while up, and Raine and Lloyd had to act as the motivators to keep them going.
Yuan seemed to have a surprisingly high amount of confidence in where he was taking them. There were several mountains all around the Flanoir region, but he was sure that Stromm's base was in the one they were currently walking through. Lloyd would want to rip Yuan's face off if he was wrong…
A while into the hike, everyone except Kratos and Yuan got exhausted and they wanted to take a break. Even though it was very uncomfortable, they all sat down on top of the snow. Since they were fairly high up, the snow was more solid, so it was more like sitting on a sheet of ice.
There was a long silence filled with the sound of the wind howling and the snow blowing around. No one said anything, and none of them dared speak the idea that maybe Yuan had led them on the wrong trail.
Finally, Yuan broke the silence. "Can I ask you guys a question?" he said.
Everyone looked at Yuan, then all of them nodded their head. A lot of them were too exhausted to say anything.
"Just how did you figure out Stromm was currently at war?" Yuan asked as if he were in an interrogation room. "Because I have not heard anything about a war-at all."
"Yeah, because you live on Derris-Kharlan," Lloyd said in a "you-should-know-this" tone. "You haven't been here for months. I guess a bunch of stuff has happened since then."
Yuan made a small smirking noise, then turned his back to Lloyd and the group and took a few steps forward, his arms crossed.
With no one knowing what to say, Kratos decided to speak up. "I think everyone is ready. Let's continue following Yuan."
Before seeing if anybody had any objections, Kratos walked towards Yuan and Yuan automatically started walking forward. Not wanting to stay lost in those mountains, the group had no choice but to get up quickly and followed the two Seraphim.
The group continued to walk higher and higher up the mountain, and everyone was getting very nervous about how high up they were in the mountains and how slippery the trail was getting. One wrong move and the ballgame was over…
"I am very sure we're close to it now," Yuan assured everyone.
"But we've reached the top of the mountain now!" Genis yelled, now very annoyed. "I can't even see the ground from here!"
It was true that they had climbed up almost the entire mountain. To get to the very top, they'd only have to climb maybe another hour or so, which wasn't so bad compared to nearly spending half a day trying to climb the mountain where Yuan thought Stromm's hideout was.
"Do you want to just go home now?" Yuan asked Genis in a commanding way. "Because I couldn't care less if you just slipped and fell."
Genis grit his teeth, but Lloyd looked at Genis and non-verbally told him to calm down.
Without saying another word, Yuan continued leading everyone up the treacherous path on the mountain. Everyone followed him as if they sheep that were being herd.
At a seemingly random point, Yuan just stopped as if he hit an invisible brick wall. He then looked around at the mountain around them and looked as if he knew where he was but couldn't quite figure out where exactly.
Finally, Yuan looked at a slab of rock that was covered in snow and sheeted with ice. He put out his hand and started charging up a ball of energy in it, and then fired it at the rock. The ice and snow got blasted off, but the rock itself didn't look like it suffered any damage.
A bit surprised by the rock not shattering, Yuan tried attacking it again, but it still didn't show any signs of breaking or chipping or cracking. He then crossed his arms and even looked like he was about to smile.
"This is it," Yuan said. "If we can break this rock open, it'll take us right into Stromm's headquarters."
"But that rock looks really strong," Colette whined. "Lloyd, try breaking it!"
Lloyd took out his material blades and started bombarding the rock with them, but the rock still showed no intention on breaking.
"Don't tell me we came all this way for nothing," Genis complained, looking angrier than anyone had ever seen him before.
Everyone tried their best attacks on the rock: from Colette's judgment, to Genis's Indignation, to Raine's Photon, to Kratos's Super-Lightning Blade. Unfortunately, the rock would break.
"I see Stromm still keeps his base fortified," Yuan said.
Lloyd looked at the giant rock and saw how breakable it was. Almost like she was reading his mind, Colette spoke up. "Lloyd will come up with something! Right, Lloyd?"
Lloyd looked at the rock, and then he smiled as if he thought he had just come up with a brilliant idea.
"Lloyd!" Colette said excitedly as she clapped her hands together. "You know someone who can break this, don't you! Who is it?"
Lloyd looked at Colette in a pleased way. "Who else?"