Angry about how his encounter with Stromm went over, Lloyd started walking towards the front door to the mountain base. As he walked to the front door and as he sat there, waiting for the others, he thought about what he thought he should have said to Stromm. He knew there was no point in worrying about it, now that it was over.
Slowly but surely, everyone came back, all looking very disappointed. Yuan and Kratos were the last to show up. Lloyd couldn't tell if they had found anything useful, due to how emotionless and neutral they always were.
"Anyone find anything?" Kratos inquired as he talked to everybody when they came back.
"No," replied all of their companions in unison, disappointment clearly written all over them.
"Hmmmm," Kratos said. "I regret to say that neither Yuan nor I found anything of value either."
Everyone groaned. They were all very angry that they had just trekked through the mountain for so long and went through so much and got so excited to find the hidden base, only to have it end without finding a thing.
"I think all of you people should go back to your business," Yuan stated as he looked at all of Lloyd's companions. "It looks like we've done all we can, so don't feel ashamed or anything like that."
Everyone looked at each other with the same basic expression that screamed "What did he just say!", but no one actually said a word.
"Go!" Yuan commanded. "You've done everything you could to prevent this war, so don't feel like you haven't done a thing. Come on, Kratos and I will teleport all of you back to where you need to go."
After a bit of groaning, Yuan and Kratos brought everyone back to the ground. Genis, Colette and Raine were left in Iselia while Regal was sent back to Altamira. Lloyd was the last one to be dropped off. He was about to walk into Iselia with Colette until Kratos stopped him.
"Lloyd, I would like you to come with me," he said.
"What?" Lloyd asked, not sure he understood what Kratos was talking about.
Kratos took out his teleporter from his purple cloak and hit the button in it. Instantly, he and Lloyd were whisked away by the bright blue lights. They collided and flashed, sending Lloyd and Kratos away from Iselia and to wherever Kratos wanted to take him.
A moment later, the bright lights cleared and the two found themselves hovering over an infinite abyss with dark swirling clouds. The entire place felt menacing and lifeless, nothing more than a giant slab of rock inexplicably floating in the middle of nowhere.
"Where are we?" Lloyd asked with little life.
"We're on Derris-Kharlan," Kratos casually replied. "Follow me."
Without saying another thing, Kratos started walking away. Once again, Lloyd could only follow and hope Kratos wasn't doing anything that would lead to trouble. There was something really weird going on, and he wanted to find out what it was.
Kratos ended the moderately long walk at a dead end. Standing at the edge of one of the slabs of rock was Yuan. He was standing there with his arms crossed and staring right at the two of them.
"What's going on?" Lloyd asked, completely oblivious to what sort of game Kratos and Yuan were playing.
"We're here to discuss a few things," Kratos said. "You, Yuan and I have a few things we need to talk about, like what we found in Stromm's base."
"But…you guys didn't find anything in there," Lloyd insisted. "You even said so."
"That was a lie," Yuan admitted.
"What?" Lloyd asked, now really confused about what they were talking about.
"Yuan and I found some information in records in Stromm's base," Kratos explained. "But Yuan and I agreed that we'd be better off not dragging the others into this. But we thought you should know Lloyd, considering you'd probably be the best asset out of the others."
"What?" Lloyd asked. "You guys actually found something?"
"That's what he just said. Do you listen at all?" Yuan criticized, not un-crossing his arms and keeping the same expression.
Lloyd gave Yuan a dirty look, then turned his attention back to Kratos. "Then, what'd you find?"
"When Yuan and I were going through Stromm's database and looking for any plans, we came across something interesting. We saw that he was currently looking for a giant island."
"Really?" Lloyd asked, surprised. "You mean to take a vacation or something."
Kratos kept a straight face while Yuan closed his eyes in disgust, looked down at the floor and shook his head.
"No," Kratos sternly replied. "According to his plans, he was looking for a giant island because he had heard that there was supposed to be a great source of power on it. A power greater than mana."
"Whoa," Lloyd said. "Do you think that's what he needs to destroy Tiberia?"
"Most likely," Yuan said. "Kratos and I decided Stromm probably has some sort of weapon or device that can be devastating when used, but needs a lot of power before it can be put into operation. We both agreed that the power hidden on the island would be more than sufficient to fire the weapon and destroy Tiberia in no time."
"Then that means we're going to have to get to it before him!" Lloyd yelled. "Where's this giant island!"
"That's where the problems start," Yuan said. "The power is supposed to be hidden away on a giant island, but based on what Kratos and I found, a lot of the island is underwater."
"Really?" Lloyd asked. "How'd it get like that?"
"We don't know," Kratos answered. "We do know, however, that small parts of the island remain above the water. If what our research indicated was correct, three parts of that island should be above the water now. But, those parts would be big enough to be mistaken for an island now."
"I think I get it," Lloyd said. "So there are three islands that are actually part of a much bigger one, but the other part of it is currently underwater?"
"Precisely," Yuan said. "Which is why we're going to have to find that island out there and get the power before Stromm does. Finding that crystal before Stromm could actually put an end to the war."
"Why's that?" Lloyd said, not sure he knew what Yuan was talking about.
"If Stromm doesn't have the crystal, then he won't be able to fire that weapon. And if Stromm doesn't fire the weapon, the Tiberians would have nothing to fear and they could return to their world."
"Okay, I guess it makes sense," Lloyd said, trying to put everything the two Seraphim said together.
"We'd better go out and look for one of those islands now," Kratos said. "If we want to find the crystal before Stromm does, then we can't waste any time."
"Hold on a minute," Lloyd said, now sounding like something was wrong. "There are a bunch of islands out there. How are we going to know which ones are part of the big one?"
"I should have mentioned," Kratos started, "each of the islands that are above the water and is part of the larger one have mysterious statues on them."
Lloyd suddenly froze up. "A statue? What's it supposed to look like?"
"It's supposed to be tall and dark," Yuan answered before Kratos could. "And it's said to have the language of an ancient civilization written on it."
"That sounds exactly like something Colette and I saw when we got stranded on that island when that stupid pirate sidetracked us!" Lloyd yelled excitedly.
"You were?" Kratos asked. Even though his voice was barley any different, it was easy to tell he was gaining interest in what Lloyd was saying.
"Yeah!" Lloyd answered, the excitement in his voice not going down by any means. "Do you think the crystal was right there!"
"Highly unlikely," Kratos answered. Lloyd deflated with the remark. "But that statue may be of some help to us if we were to see it."
"Then it's settled," Yuan said. "We go looking for that island tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Lloyd asked, a little bit annoyed and surprised. "I thought you guys were just saying we should find the crystal as soon as possible."
"Yes, but you should rest, Lloyd," Kratos said. "You're going to need it if you're going to be searching for a small stone for a while."
"All right," Lloyd said coolly. There wasn't much else he could have said.
Yuan reached into his cloak and pulled out a small black device. "Here's my teleporter. I'm letting you have it so you can get back to Iselia."
"Thanks," Lloyd said, turning away from the two. He pushed the button on his teleporter and was instantly taken away by the blinding bright lights around him.
Yuan and Kratos watched as Lloyd left. When he was gone, Yuan looked at Kratos. "Do you suppose that crystal is…"
"Yes. There's no doubt in my mind," Kratos said before he let Yuan finish his sentence. Even though Yuan couldn't finish his thought, Kratos knew what Yuan was going to say.
"Do you think we should tell Lloyd?" Yuan asked.
"I think we should wait a little while," Kratos answered. "I don't want to risk it changing his mood towards looking for it at all."
Yuan didn't say anything, but he nodded his head.
Meanwhile, back on Aselia, Lloyd was just heading to Dirk's house to spend the night. And as always, he stopped on the way in to look at his mom's grave. It was very painful having to look at it, but Lloyd had gotten used to the pain after doing it for all those years.
Lloyd then went inside and proceeded to tell Dirk everything about what he had just learned. He mentioned how there was this one giant island that was partly underwater, and the parts that weren't underwater were big enough to be considered islands, but far enough apart to be considered separate as well. He also told Dirk about the mysterious statues that he saw. Lloyd mentioned to Dirk that the three of them had decided the statue would hold some sort of clue to the crystal.
"Sounds like you've got another tough journey ahead of you," Dirk said to Lloyd, but without any sadness or worry like you might expect from a parent. (or guardian)
"I don't know," Lloyd said. "How hard could it be looking for a simple rock?"
"Dwarven vow number twenty-one: never judge based on first impressions," Dirk said proudly.
Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I'm hitting the sack. Goodnight, dad."
"Goodnight, Lloyd."
Lloyd made his way up the stairs and into the tiny loft that he considered his bedroom. He hopped back in his bed, his mind racing with the thoughts of what just happened and what he learned in Derris-Kharlan.
Lloyd had a bit of trouble sleeping, knowing that the next day would be like a giant treasure hunt, or so he thought. He didn't like the idea of having to spend an entire day looking for one rock on three separate islands, and he especially didn't think it would be any fun if he had to do it with Yuan and Kratos.
According to what Lloyd had heard that day, there was a crystal with tremendous power somewhere on one of the three islands that are actually connected and form one giant island.
Lloyd hoped that the crystal was hidden somewhere on one of the islands that was above the water, otherwise it would be hidden on a submerged part, which would be impossible to get. If worst came to worst, the crystal would indeed be underwater, but there had to be someway of getting it. Maybe they just needed a really great swimmer with a lot of stamina, or maybe there was a way of raising the island out from under the water? And if so, how? Did those weird statues have anything to do with it?
After a while, Lloyd finally got to sleep, ready to tackle the events the next day. Little did he know that tomorrow was a day that would start another journey that would once again hold the fate of everyone's life in his hands.