The 'thwick' of a bowstring and the sound of metal crashing against wood filled the air of the dungeon. As two fighters whittled down the remaining Hillichurls in the room, their conversation seemed extremely out of place.

"Honestly Prinzessin, I think you should talk to him again if he's keeping your payment from you" casually said the sword-wielder with burn marks all over his body. A red gem attached to the pack at his side glinted in the light of the torches on the wall.

"Hmph, you dare deign to tell one how to conduct one's royal business?" Snarked back the one with blonde pigtails and midnight tattoos of a raven's wings on her back. The shine of a purple gem resting in between the wings flashed as she effortlessly shot down enemies from a distance.

"No no no!" Cried the one with the Pyro Vision as his sword turned a fiery red, the enemies in front of him getting cut down like butter. "I'm not trying to tell you, but well, I've had my payment kept from me a fair few times and I've pretty much got it down how to deal with this kinda stuff." He laughed a little nervously, the final Hilichurl in front of him falling to the ground.

The girl in purple with an Electro Vision aimed her bow at the boy's head and let the arrow knocked on the string fly. As the boy let out a rather embarrassing scream of fear, the arrow flew past his head and into the face of a Hillichurl that had snuck up on him.

"How very careless Bennett. If not for me that would've been the end of you, and one still requires one's royal retinue's assistance." Though the words were somewhat harsh, she was smiling as she said it. The one now known as Bennett tried to turn around quickly to look at what the archer had shot at, but ended up tripping over his own feet and falling flat on his face. "Oomph! I'm mkay!" The sound was slightly muffled, what with Bennett's face smashed into the ground. This only caused the Prinzessin to break out into giggles though.

"I, Fischl, the Prinszesin der Verutilung do indeed think that this means that you, my loyal subject, owe your very life to me." She said with a sort-of mock haughtiness.

"Oh c'mon Fischl" Whined the boy as he pushed himself up from his rather embarrassing position, "you could drop the act when it's just us, you know I won't tell anyone, right?"

Caught by surprise, Fischl stumbled, but managed to catch herself before fully falling like Bennett had.

"I, I, uh, one has no idea what thoust could possibly be referring to!" She yelled back, her face as red as the vision resting at Bennett's hip.

"Heh, I mean, putting on that act has managed to convince almost everyone else but well, I'd like to think that we're pretty close, I mean this isn't the first dungeon we've tackled together and I'd like to think that we're pretty close and like I mean like-" Bennett rushed to get the words out of his mouth, rubbing the back of his head in a nervous manner and trying to come up with some way to talk his way out of this rather awkward conversation 'Crap! Fischl's one of my closest friends and I really hope I didn't scare her away!" He thought nervously.

Looking at him, Fischl opened her mouth to retort, then just as suddenly snapped her mouth shut. Sighing, she looked up to the ceiling as if praying to some sort of deity, before finally sighing and looking Bennett right in his eyes. "I-." She started. "How were you able to-" she took a deep breath. "It's just that no one's seen through my image so far, how?"

Bennett, having still been rushing to try and explain his rather sudden, and he realized now, extremely personal question, snapped his jaw shut. "I, I guess it's just th-"

That was all he could say however, as suddenly, an explosion rocked the chamber, and the back wall exploded outward.

As the two took cover behind a nearby wall, as dust billowed up from where the stone masonry making up the former wall crashed into the floor, a tall, looming figure floated through the hole that was now big enough for a Lawachurl to get through.

The tense silence was broken by Fischl's urgent, harsh whispers for her Night Raven Familiar. "Oz! Oz! Ozvaldo!"

Bennett slowly snuck to the side, attempting to see what or who exactly caused that explosion, Fischl yanked him by the shirt back behind the wall again, and pointed up above, to where a dark purple, almost black bird was just barely discernible against the dark cavern walls.

Fischl and Bennett crouched behind the wall for what felt like hours, the only sound their harsh breathing, until Fischl finally stood up straight and gasped in fear. "Bennett we need to get out of here now!"

A dark, inhuman growl interrupted them, "Ah, insects who have spied on the secrets of the Abyss, you shall be exterminated."

Suddenly, a dark shadow was looming over them; as they turned, Bennett pulling out his sword and Fischl her bow, the dark shadow suddenly stabbed with its arm. A rippling, almost angrily spinning lance of coalesced hydro energy ripped forward towards the duo.

A scream of agony erupted in the cavern, and right after a sword cleaved forward, chopping off the arm of the figure in front of them. Green eyes filled with hate glared up at the inhuman being. "How dare you try and hurt him!" The words were interrupted by a cough, blood splattering the front of the Abyss monster in front.

The Abyssal being looked at what had happened. The girl had jumped in front of the boy before he could stab him! The monster of the Abyss didn't know how she had moved so fast, but turned and fled without pondering it. Content in the fact that, while it had lost an arm, it had taken the life of another inferior being.

"Fischl!" The sheer pain in the voice that screamed her name made her almost regret her decision to jump in front of that creature's attack, if only to spare him the pain of having to watch her die. "Are you *cough* are you alright?" she questioned.

"Me!? You just took a blade for me and you're asking if I'm alright!?"

"Well, it would be a waste if I took this stab wound and you were still wounded" The words were said in a joking manner, but the look of pain on her face showed how she was only trying to distract herself

"Wh- Why Fischl? I'm the unlucky one! It should be me! You still have so much to do, meanwhile people would probably be happy that I'm finally dead" Tears streamed down his face as he pulled her towards him.

"Amy." She breathed out, the effort cleary exhausting her. "My real name" She took a deep breath, "is Amy." And the Prinzessin breathed no more.