"Well, if we want to get to Tiberia, we'd better leave now," Cesara said rather confidently.
"Huh?" Lloyd asked, slightly confused. "Why now?"
"You'll see," Cesara said as she walked towards the front door to Zelos's mansion. "Come on."
Kratos started following Cesara without saying so much as a word. Lloyd was confused as to why Cesara thought they had to leave so quickly, but it sounded like she knew what she was talking about.
"See ya, guys," Lloyd said as he waved good-bye to all his friends in the mansion.
"Bye," said Zelos, Genis and Raine in unison.
Lloyd gave one last smile to all of them, and then walked out the door and followed Kratos and Cesara. The three of them started walking away when Kratos brought up the question, "Where do we have to go to reach Tiberia?"
"A town called Iselia," Cesara cheerfully replied.
"Iselia?" Lloyd asked with the amount of shock in his voice very high. "Why there?"
"You'll see," Cesara said. "Do you know how to get there?"
"Yeah," Lloyd said. "But…it's a bit of a walk. It'll be several hours before we make it there."
Cesara now looked a bit worried. "It's that far away? We have to make it there by the time the night is over."
"Eh…that's not going to happen," Lloyd said, looking down at the ground and pretending to be scratching the back of his neck.
"Wait," Kratos said. "We can use our teleporters, Lloyd."
"Huh?" Lloyd asked. "Oh, right!"
Lloyd reached inside his red cloth shirt and pulled out the small device that Yuan and Kratos had been working on for a while: the teleporter.
"What are those?" Cesara asked.
"They can take us places that we've designed them to," Kratos answered. "We can get to Iselia in the blink of an eye with these."
"Splendid!" Cesara yelled with a large smile on her face.
Lloyd stared at Cesara with a confused and slightly suspicious face. He raised an eyebrow at her as she started getting really excited. Why was she so thrilled about the fact that they'd be able to go to Tiberia that night?
Moments later, Kratos hit the button on his teleporter and all of them were engulfed in the bright lights. The lights closed in on them more and more, and soon, the lights disappeared in an instant. When the lights were gone, the trio found themselves just outside of Iselia.
Cesara started quickly walking into the quiet little town without saying anything to either Kratos or Lloyd. The two of them stared at her for a while before Lloyd finally broke the silence.
"Well, let's go," Lloyd said as he started walking after Cesara.
"Lloyd?" Kratos asked after his son had walked a few steps away from him.
Lloyd froze in his tracks and turned his head back to Kratos. "What is it?"
"Don't die, Lloyd," Kratos cautioned.
Lloyd's expression turned into an upset one. He hated it when Kratos said that. But before now, he always took it as just something to make him more careful. This time, however, Lloyd turned the comment back.
"You watch out for yourself," the young swordsman shot back.
Kratos smirked. "I'm over 4,000 years old and show no signs of dying anytime soon."
After he said those words to Lloyd, Kratos walked into Iselia after Cesara. Lloyd quickly followed the Seraphim and both of them started looking for Cesara.
"Over here!" they heard a feminine voice call a short while after they walked inside the village. Kratos and Lloyd turned to the side and saw that Cesara was standing above a patch of grass that was illuminated. The grass was a pure white color and a mystic light was coming from it.
"What the?..." Lloyd asked. "What's that?"
"It's a portal to Tiberia," Cesara replied. "Whenever Tiberia is visible in the night time sky, it looks like a flashing red star. When the star is visible, it opens up a portal from there to here."
"Flashing red star?" Lloyd asked. He then looked up at the night sky and tried to figure out which one Cesara was talking about, and it didn't take long at all. "It's that one…" Lloyd said in disbelief.
When Lloyd saw the star, he realized that it was the one he and Colette were staring at the first time they went to Sybak to do some research. (back in Chapter 6) Lloyd never would have thought that the star he and Colette were looking at would turn out to be the decisive element in creating the portal between Aselia and the two worlds.
"How did you know about this?" Kratos suspiciously asked.
"I work at the research academy, remember?" Cesara asked. "I read about this a while ago and just remembered it now."
"So…that's why you wanted us to get to Iselia before nightfall," Lloyd said, putting two fingers on his chin.
"Yes," Cesara said. "Because the stars would not be visible during the daytime, so therefore we wouldn't be able to make it to Tiberia."
"No more talking," Kratos calmly commanded. "We have to get there quickly."
"Right," Lloyd said. "Come on, Cesara."
Cesara quickly nodded her head. The three of them bent over and touched the glowing grass. The light started getting even brighter and was getting to the point where it could practically blind someone.
After the bright light reached its peak, the entire area went white around them. For a few brief seconds, it looked like the three of them were standing in a completely white abyss. After several more seconds, it cleared, and the three found themselves in what looked like a rather sophisticated looking kingdom.
The ground beneath them was fitted with several large rocks cemented together. There were several small, yet sturdy houses lining the sides of the road where men, women and children were living.
"Gee," Lloyd said when he saw that Tiberia looked very peaceful. "I can see Stromm wanting to protect us from this place's military, but I can't understand him wanting to destroy the whole world with all these innocent and happy people living on it…"
That's when Lloyd realized how hard this entire ordeal was really going to become. How was he going to stop Kayne and Skelter from destroying Aselia with the crystal when there were this many innocent people at stake?
"Lloyd," Kratos said. "We have to make way to the headquarters where Kayne probably is. Let's go."
"Right," Lloyd said.
Lloyd, Kratos and Cesara started wandering the streets of Tiberia, looking for any place where Kayne could be lurking, ready to wreak havoc with the powerful crystal. In no time, they found a giant building that looked like it could very possibly be a military stronghold.
"Oh, great," Lloyd said when he saw the building. "They got guards all over the place. How are we going to break in?"
"Don't worry," Kratos said. "Let's just get rid of the two guards at the front door. When I say so, you and I will both cast a demon fang, got it?"
"Got it," Lloyd understood.
Kratos gave the signal, and he and Lloyd cast a Demon Fang that made its way over to each of the guards, knocking them out cold. Lloyd and Kratos sheathed their swords and ran in the front door past the two unconscious guards.
"Okay," Lloyd said when they had gotten inside the base. "That was pretty easy. All we gotta do is find Kayne and stop him from using the laser to destroy our world!"
The inside of the base looked very similar to Stromm's base. It had long and dark hallways, but there was just something that seemed more treacherous about it. The building was massive on the inside and it was empty for some reason.
"Where do you suppose Kayne would be?" Kratos asked, seeing if Lloyd had any idea where they could find their enemy.
"I don't know," Lloyd admitted. "Do you have any idea, Cesara?...Cesara?"
Lloyd and Kratos looked around, and just like that, Cesara was gone.
"Oh, no!" Lloyd said, immediately fearing the worst. He cuffed his hands around his mouth and started screaming Cesara's name.
"Lloyd!" Kratos scolded, "do you want everyone to hear you?"
"It's okay, I'm right here," said a feminine voice a short while away. Lloyd and Kratos looked up, and Cesara was running right towards them. Somehow she had gotten in front of them and was apparently quite a distance ahead.
"Where were you?" Lloyd asked, concern and frustrating growing in his voice. "Don't ever run off like that again!"
"I'm sorry," Cesara apologized. "I…guess I just got lost. This is a pretty big place, after all."
"I guess so," Lloyd said. "All right, enough of this. Let's get back to looking for Kayne."
The trio started making their way very quickly through the giant military base. They checked through room after room, looking for Kayne, the crystal or Skelter. Finally, they saw a room at the end of a long hallway. The three of them walked in and saw Kayne standing in front of a giant television screen. He appeared to be talking to the person on the screen.
"…are you sure that's the same Kratos?" the figure on the television screen asked. His hair looked somewhat similar to Kayne's in terms of its fiery color, but his eyes were a pale blue. He was wearing armor that looked like dark yellow and had several badges and medals on it, indicating his implied high rank.
"There's no doubt about it," Kayne said. "That man was Kratos and the younger one in the red was his son, Lloyd."
"I just find it hard to believe that that was actually Kratos for the Kharlan War," the man on the screen said.
"As hard as it may be to believe, it's true," Kayne replied, apparently not aware of the fact that Kratos, Lloyd and Cesara were standing just a few yards behind him.
"Kayne!" yelled Lloyd after he had heard enough of the discussion.
The image on the television screen suddenly blacked out and Kayne turned around. His hair was no longer flat like it had been the last time they had seen him. Now, his hair seemed even redder and was spiked.
"Like my new uniform?" Kayne asked, tugging at the military suit he was wearing. The top was entirely black, and the pants were dark gray. There were a few merits on his black shirt that were blood red in color. It was obviously a very high ranked uniform as well. "It's all thanks to you that I have it."
"Kayne, why do you want to destroy our world?" Lloyd yelled.
Kayne started snickering. "I'm afraid that's not for you to know. It's none of your business."
"Really?" Lloyd sharply said. "Then how about I make it my business!"
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Kayne said. He pulled out a giant sword that was sheathed in his belt. The sword was icy blue and had two sharp prongs sticking out from the tip of the main blade. It was quite an upgrade from the boomerang he had before.
Lloyd unsheathed his material blades and Kratos unsheathed his sword as well. Cesara, meanwhile, was now acting like she was freaked out by the fact that that were three fairly hardened warriors about to engage in combat while she was completely helpless and unarmed.
Kayne pointed the tip of his sword at Lloyd and started charging at him. Lloyd jumped in the air and leaped out of the path of the sword, just as it was about ready to impale him.
Lloyd took both of his material blades and started slicing at the air around Kayne's head, but Kayne kept ducking out of the way just in time before the blades would have come in contact with him.
"Lloyd!" Kratos yelled. He pointed his sword at the ceiling and launched a fireball at it, causing part of the ceiling to collapse and fall to the ground.
Lloyd and Kayne jumped out of the way just before the ceiling was about to crush both of them.
Cesara let out a loud shriek of terror as she ran to the corner of the room and began cowering.
The fight was becoming very violent as the three swordsmen began clashing their swords together quickly. If any one of them let their guard down for a second, then it would mean certain doom for them.
Finally, Kayne let out a surprise attack by moving the butt of his sword backwards and bashing Lloyd in the side of the head with it. Lloyd got knocked to the ground and even temporarily unconscious.
With Lloyd no longer a threat, Kayne turned his attention back to Kratos and gave him a hard kick in the stomach. Kratos got slammed back into a wall, surprised by the amount of force behind Kayne's kick.
Kayne didn't waste any time before he continued his attack. He took his pronged sword and was about to thrust it right through Kratos.
Gasping at seeing how imminent his death now was, Kratos put out his hand and grabbed the two prongs on the sword and started to push back.
Kratos grunted and his hands shook violently as Kayne tried to push through Kratos's resistance. For Kratos, it was no use. Kayne was surprisingly strong and kept pushing the prongs (and the blade itself) closer into Kratos.
Finally, Kratos had one last burst of strength and was able to push the sword away, knocking Kayne back with it. At that moment, Lloyd was also starting to return back to his senses.
Kayne gave Kratos a nasty look. "You got lucky…that time!" he said coldly.
As he was about to continue his attack on Kratos, Lloyd saw that Kayne had really tired Kratos out and was ready to take advantage of it.
Without even thinking, Lloyd sprinted over to Kayne and started to swing his flamberge right at the back of Kayne's neck. But Kayne was somehow able to sense it and he whipped around, parrying Lloyd's flamberge with his pronged sword.
Lloyd and Kayne were soon dueling at a very fast pace. Both of them were swinging their swords very violently and quickly at each other, only to have the other block it and immediately strike back. In less than ten seconds, the two of them had already either blocked or attacked a total of over fifteen times.
Finally, Kayne did something unexpected. He jumped back from the battle and ran over to the corner where Cesara was hiding. Cesara let out a bloodcurdling and terrified scream when Kayne started to hold her hostage.
"If you follow me, this woman dies!" Kayne threatened as he put his sword right under her throat.
Saying this, Kayne forced Cesara out of the room with him. Lloyd and Kratos could hear Kayne running down the hall, with Cesara's screams of terror slowly dying down as they got further and further away.