In a change of pace Lucatiel was alone in the central area of the capital, there were almost no people out, hiding in their homes in fear of the waves that would come in the next thirty minutes. Ren and Naofumi went to their blacksmith while Eclair and Raphtalia were last minute buying potions and soul healing water.

Lucatiel had learned something in the last thirty minutes, Naofumi and Ren had not only an MP gauge, but apparently they also had a gauge that was exclusive to heroes. The SP gauge. This was something his ring did not have and this confused him, he was clearly a hero like the others so why didn't he get the gauge? Then again, this wouldn't be the first time his ring had changed the rules on him. Like giving him a unique affinity and allowing him to gain experience with the other heroes.

Lucatiel turned down a street that was normally extremely busy, but today it was entirely bare. He half expected to see a tumbleweed go by and somebody appear out of the shadows to challenge him to a Mexican standoff. It was so quiet you could hear light breeze in the air.

"Lucatiel?"

"SHIT!" Lucatiel screeched and nearly jumped out of his boots, almost tripping over a closed stall. When he realized who it was he was painfully embarrassed. "Dammit Motoyasu!"

"Heh, sorry about that. Didn't realize you were so jumpy, you look so calm all the time it's hard to read your face." The spear hero stepped forward out of the shadows, a sheepish smile on his face.

"Yeah, jumpy." Lucatiel mumbled. He refused to tell Motoyasu that it was the sudden noise that scared him. "What's up, you need something?"

"Nah not really, just saw you walking and wanted to chat. Are you still partying up with Ren?"

Lucatiel noticed that Motoyasu wasn't alone, his two party members and Myne/Bitch were close by and obviously trying to listen in… so either Motoyasu was trying to gather Intel or they were nosy, could be both honestly.

What are you playing at Motoyasu? Lucatiel thought. "Yeah, Ren and Naofumi are… busy right now, so I'm just hanging around." He noticed Motoyasu's expression shift into one of anger and… jealousy?

"Really? Okay. Fine. That's… that's fine. Whatever Ren wants to do, well I need to be going. There's something I have to get done." Motoyasu stiffly turned away to leave.

"Motoyasu, one more thing." Lucatiel doubted it would do anything, not with Bitch over there. But he might as well give it a shot.

"What is it?" Motoyasu was growing uncomfortable, he kind of gave off the vibe that he didn't want to hear what you had to say if it didn't align with his views.

"Naofumi's innocent, you know that. You saw Myne's reaction when I called her out. She's not the person you believe she is." Lucatiel spread his hands out in a peaceful gesture. He wasn't trying to rile up the spear hero, he could be unsurprisingly pig headed.

"Your lying, Myne wouldn't do that!" Motoyasu managed to keep his voice level, but he was suddenly very upset. "Naofumi raped her and you cant convince me otherwise! And I'll convince Ren that he's a bad person too!"

Ahh, so this is the topic he wanted to get too. Got it. Lucatiel made a show of dropping his arms and letting out a disappointed sigh. He got the effect he was searching for, the spear hero blanched. He didn't exactly enjoy doing it, but Lucatiel was rather good at manipulation.

"I see. I can't say I'm not disappointed at all, I figured you'd be better than that Motoyasu. A true hero is able to see through deception, I suppose that means you aren't a true hero. I'm disappointed in you."

Motoyasu's face went blank, and for the briefest moment Lucatiel worried he pushed to hard. But then the spear hero took a shaky breath and turned fully towards Lucatiel. Clearly intending to speak.

"Motoyasu-samaaaaa!" Whatever Motoyasu had been about to say died in his throat when Myne called his name and shoved her breasts into his arm. Turning him into a flirtatious mess.

It took all of Lucatiel's mental stability not to blast her with ice. Or kill her entirely with Eternal Requiem, this bitch just ruined what he was trying to do and by the smirk on her face, she knew what she did.

Lucatiel was getting angrier. He was getting angrier fast so he needed to go, he turned and strode down the desolate street while making sure to ignore Motoyasu calling him. Eventually he slowed to a normal walk, stopping by an inn to check on the residents there.

...

Lucatiel saw Itsuki ten minutes before the wave started at the apex of the city, he attempted to speak to the bow hero but either he was hated by him or Itsuki was just in a bad mood, he completely ignored Lucatiel and pretended he didn't exist. This would have made Lucatiel angry if he had cared, Itsuki (From what little Lucatiel knew of him) seemed like an arrogant, condescending ass. He didn't want the guy to die though.

"Oh shit, I just realized I forgot to give Motoyasu and Itsuki the potions." Lucatiel slapped his forehead and groaned. "Well I guess it can't be helped, I'll have to hand them over later."

Lucatiel looked at the timer and took a shaky breath, just thirty seconds left until the wave. Thirty seconds until they have to stop something that could destroy the world, he looked out over the city, it's normal hustle and bustle completely gone.

"Moment of truth. Let's do this." Lucatiel said.

Then the timer hit zero.

Line break.

Lucatiel appeared at the edge of a forest facing away into a vast field, at the back of the forest was a hill which the other four heroes stood at the top of, but what grabbed his attention were the swirling masses of purple portals that appeared across the sky, connected by loose strands of several other colors. The Ring hero had just enough time to think they were gorgeous when suddenly a metric fuckton of monsters came flying out.

Lucatiel suddenly realized that this exact spot was where the wave was taking place, and he'd been teleported right into the thick of it. He heard a massive rockfall behind him, and glanced back just enough to see three of the four heroes rushing down the hill and through the forest towards him and the oncoming wave. Naofumi and his party were running towards a nearby village, and Lucatiel realized with horror that it was Lute Village.

A notification appeared in his status: Stop the wave of catastrophe! You must kill 400 monsters to make the boss appear, work with the other heroes and save this land!

Lucatiel felt his heart rate pick up, and his hand began to spark. "I'll slaughter you! Chaos lightning!"

One of the best things about the ring is that it's unique magic grows in strength as it bearer levels up, originally Chaos lightning was akin to a spark. Now however… it was an entire storm, cascades of black lightning flung from his hands and rained down on the monsters, frying them to a crisp as they fell out of the sky dead. He no longer had to chant the ritual to access it's full power.

Lucatiel may have killed tons of monsters, but there were still thousands more. He wasn't worried, Ren and Motoyasu had sprinted by him and directly into the fight, slashing and stabbing with an almost dance-like quality. Itsuki was standing back firing arrow after arrow into the crowd, shouting off skills that killed monsters by the dozen. Lucatiel almost laughed, they were already at 100 monsters! This was so EASY!Even better they were all gaining experience, apparently you didn't have to be in a party with the Ring bearer to gain it's XP allowance, you just had to be near.

Suddenly however, things took an interesting turn. The counter disappeared and a new notification appeared in his status magic: Warning: the counter has stopped, elite monster has arrived. An elite monster will arrive every 100 monsters defeated.

"You guys seeing this!?" Lucatiel called. "Something's coming."

A loud shattering sound similar to glass rang from the sky, and a roar so powerful shook and cracked the earth nearly made Lucatiel's knees buckle. Another wave portal appeared in the sky, but unlike the others…

This one was massive, a whole other echelon. At least triple the size of Melromarc's castle, what came out of it was almost disappointing by comparison, it was a chimera, barely even a 16th of the size of the portal. It couldn't have made that roar.

Ren ran up to Lucatiel, a relieved smile on his face. No doubt about to make a joke about the elite monster being a weaker version of something they already killed, before he froze and became the picture of fear. In fact all the heroes were suddenly so terrified they couldn't move.

Something was trying to come out of the portal, Lucatiel could only see it's wing… because the wing genuinely might have been the size of mount Everest, but it's roar caused another earthquake, the wing flapped backwards and it's wind gust literally sawed the mountain behind it in half. Then it yanked it's wing back, for the briefest moment Lucatiel saw the abyss of the portal.

Then a single red eye peered into it, the size of the portal itself and Lucatiel thought he was going insane. It was like staring into the soul of nonexistence, a being of absolute unfathomable power. Then the chimera landed, letting out a roar that compared to the unknown inside the portal was like a kitten mewling.

Lucatiel looked up again. And whatever that thing was, was gone. He switched his focus onto the elite monster that bounded towards the heroes. It was strong, but wasn't anything near the power of the Alpha Chimera.

"Thunder arrow!" Itsuki released the skill into the monsters leg, it roared in pain and attempted to bite Itsuki, but it was too slow to catch up to the bow heroes speed. Motoyasu twirled his spear and stabbed the chimera through the open wound on the leg, blood burst through the other side and the spear hero yanked the spear out before hitting it again with a thunder skill.

The leg of the chimera came off, it was a rather gruesome display that made Lucatiel feel somewhat ill, and Ren rushed forward with his sword ablaze, putting the chimera out of it's misery.

"Hah! That was so easy. I could get used to this." Motoyasu grinned.

"I'm falling asleep here, they could at least give us a challenge." Itsuki said.

Ren had his arms crossed and was keeping his face impassive, trying to pass off that cool persona per usual.

"It's not over yet, we still have 300 more monsters to kill and the bosses will only get stronger." Lucatiel reminded. "Do not let your guard down and we'll win this."

"Who made you leader?" Itsuki snapped at him. Lucatiel giving him a 'what is your problem?' look. The other heroes were also looking at him in confusion, it made the teenager sheepish. "I-i'm just saying! We're heroes too, we can handle ourselves."

Lucatiel rolled his eyes and turned away from the heroes, blasting a monster with his Ice skill. "I'm not trying to be a leader, I don't care about that. I only care about keeping people alive, that includes you… even if you hate me for some reason."

Itsuki looked properly ashamed now, and he didn't respond to Lucatiel. Instead he ran in the direction of his party. The other three heroes shared a look of exasperation before leaping back into the fray. It went on like this for some time, the heroes fighting the monsters only to beat a slightly stronger chimera as the elite monster by fighting together before breaking up to kill more monsters.

Finally after an eternity, Lucatiel got a notification in his status: 400 monsters have been killed! The boss monster will now appear. Work together with the heroes, and stop the wave of catastrophe!

"It's about time, I was getting bored!" The spear hero said haughtily. "Bring out the big one!"

Motoyasu might have been talking about the massive creature they caught a glimpse of earlier during the wave, Lucatiel didn't know for sure but what he did know was that was something he'd never want to fight.

Suddenly, a literal giant crashed down onto the plains, knocking Ren off his feet. The monster looked disturbingly human-like except it had black veins running across it's entire body and crimson colored eyes. It's hair was also completely on fire, unlike most giants Lucatiel had heard about in legend this one had a massive great-sword instead of a club.

The status magic told the heroes it's name: Ruined worlds Giant. It raised it's body to it's full height and stood in an almost regal way, like it actually had some intelligence. It sniffed around as if it smelled something familiar. Then it's eyes looked at Lucatiel's ring and it smiled.

A chill went down Lucatiel's back, and the Ring suddenly felt to heavy for his finger, the Giant swung his blade and a blade of condensed wind flowed forward in Lucatiel's direction, he jumped out of the way just in time for it to saw a tree in half like scissors through paper. It's sole focus was on the Ring hero, it raised it's blade to attack again.

But the other heroes were suddenly there.

"Oh no you don't! Eagle strike sword!" Ren swung his blade.

"Fall down and die! Eagle spear thrust!" Motoyasu thrust his spear.

"Not yet! Eagle piercing shot!" Itsuki shot his skill as Lucatiel gathered his courage, he rushed forward as well his hands glowing gold and black.

"This ends now! Eagle's dark light!"

For once, they were in perfect sync as the combo skill activated on it's own. "Combo skill! Eagle's final formation!" The all shouted at the same time as the skills coalesced into a single attack which struck the giant like a wrecking ball, it roared as it was flung back stabbing it's sword into the ground so it wouldn't fall.

"That hurt it pretty good, but it's still alive." Ren growled, the giants health had been effectively halved by that attack but the monster itself looked no worse for wear.

"That may be but were heroes, we can take it down!" Motoyasu puffed himself up and raised his spear to the sky.

Itsuki smirked. "Not surprised that this is the end result."

The giant raised his sword in the air then stabbed it into the ground, then it knelt and let out a breath, suddenly a green field of magic spread around it and it's health shot back up to max. Lucatiel's jaw dropped. The damn thing healed itself, worse than that, it knew magic.

"Wait, seriously!?"

"What the hell!? That mechanic wasn't in emerald online!"

"Ugh, it's because you fools kept talking while the fight wasn't over!" Itsuki growled and shot an arrow at the giant, which deflected it with the flat of his blade.

The fight renewed with the giant fully restored, once again only attacking Lucatiel while glaring at the ring in disdain. It brought it's sword down like a cleaver as the ring hero rolled out of the way and tried to fire ice into it's eyes, the giant batting it away like a mere nuisance. Lucatiel was growing more afraid even though it wasn't fast enough to hit him.

Lucatiel was nearly cleaved in half by a side-swipe that barely missed, then the giant got smart. After missing with it's initial attack it raised it's foot and stomped it into the ground, sending a shockwave that knocked the heroes onto their backs. Lucatiel couldn't get up quick enough this time, as the flat of the great-sword smashed into him.

It felt like he'd gotten hit by a truck, Lucatiel howled in pain as he was launched across the field. For a brief moment he felt like he was flying, then he landed on a poking up tree branch that pierced his right shoulder.

"GAHHHHHHH! FUUUCKK!" Lucatiel snarled and glared at the oncoming monster. The anger and pain he was feeling turned to fear as his death got closer and closer, the other heroes were attacking the Giant relentlessly but they weren't doing any damage.

"No… no not again." Lucatiel whimpered, scrambling back as much as he could, jarring his shoulder on the ground, tears came to his eyes and blurred his vision. "G-Get back! GET BACK! REVOLUTION LIGHT!"

Lucatiel couldn't focus properly and the skill fizzled out, the giant got closer, it's grin splitting it's face and the Ring hero whimpered, he felt himself falling into despair.

Do you desire power?

What?

Do you fear death?

What is that voice? Of course I don't want to die!

You have unlocked the requirements for the ***** series ring: Ring of ****

"To hell with this!" Ren suddenly shouted, whatever trance Lucatiel was under he snapped out of and watched as Ren stopped attacking.

"I didn't want to have to use this so early, but I won't let you kill him you bastard!" Ren's sword began to glow a myriad of colors and a silver circle appeared around him in a ten meter diameter. For the first time the giant turned away and began to Run at Ren in desperation.

"Oh no you don't! Super Spear thrust!" Motoyasu stabbed the Giant in the leg, by a miracle piercing it's leg and knocking it down, it roared in pain as it tried to bash the Spear hero to death.

"Stop moving! Binding arrow!" An arrow pierced the Giants hand and lodged it into the ground, the giant struggling to move to no avail. Itsuki swayed on his feet, that skill had taken a lot out of him.

The giant suddenly shook Motoyasu off and flung the spear off into the trees, which immediately appeared back in Motoyasu's hands and ripped the arrow out of his hand to stand.

"It didn't work! Impossible!"

Of course it wouldn't it needed more. Lucatiel knew what it needed. "Fuse together origins of time and space, bend to my will as the ring hero and freeze my target! Time stop!"

The giant froze mid-stand, but it's struggling grunts and roars told Lucatiel it was already breaking out, the normally one minute timer dropped to twenty seconds. "REN HURRY! THAT WILL ONLY WORK FOR TWENTY SECONDS!"

"Under my command give me power, I am the Sword hero Ren Amaki." Ren raised his sword to the sky and gripped the blade with both hands. "upon the essence of infinity and all that is natural life, give me the power to destroy my target in a single SWING! BLADE OF ULTIMAX!"

Ren brought his sword down hard. The colors that formed around his sword exploding like fireworks and cutting the Giant right down the middle, it was dead so quickly it could never make a sound.

A notification appeared in Lucatiel's status as Ren fell to a knee and the sky became clearer: The boss wave monster has been defeated, the wave of catastrophe has been eradicated. You have gained: 3000 experience points, you are now level 41.

You have unlocked: Chaos Guard, Sword of Light. Lunar light cycle has grown in power.

"Oh… are you kidding me." Lucatiel let out a strangled sound. "I forgot I unlocked Lunar light cycle…"

That reminded him, in his haze of pain and fear he'd unlocked a new ring apparently, but frustratingly couldn't find it in his Ring list, eventually he just sighed and dropped it. He must have been hallucinating.

"Lucatiel! Lucatiel!" Ren called his name and sprinted up to him with the other two heroes hot on his heels.

"Holy crap your hurt bad! Myne! Girls where are you we need medical help!" Motoyasu sprinted off and shouted for his party.

"Holy…" Itsuki gagged and covered his mouth and turned away. Ren was bordering on a full panic attack.

"It's not that bad guys, look…" Lucatiel looked at his right shoulder and his face fell, his entire right arm was covered in a river of blood, and the worst part was that it was going numb. "Oh… okay, maybe it is that bad… is it normal to not feel any pain?"

"WE NEED MEDICAL HELP RIGHT FUCKING NOW!" Ren immediately screamed, at least. Lucatiel thought it was Ren, his hearing was growing fuzzy and his vision was getting spotty.

Three figures came running from somewhere and Lucatiel was reasonable sure somebody grabbed him… but then oblivion finally came for him and he slipped into it.

A/N: That is all for this chapter, hope you enjoyed that and Ren's liberation skill. I wanna see some theories about this chapter from you guys, what was that giant? Why was he only attacking Lucatiel?

Also to the guest that has told me twice that there in fact is a Ring hero in cannon… I didn't know that until you told me so thanks, don't tell me again please. I don't appreciate spoilers.