(During Issue 7 Guardians meet up at Silver Dragon)
"What's going on? And why's there a crowd outside?" Eric asks to Grantaire.
After a discussed meeting with Caleb, Eric and Nigel walks back to the large hall where the improvised infirmaries are located. But they met a scramble of Meridianites all over the place as they pack their belongings in panic. Others quickly carry the confined and injured out of the large hall as they gathered outside. Eric and Nigel quickly go to check out Ray and Grantaire.
"An informant announces another wave of soldiers is approaching a few hours by now." Grantaire worriedly says. "What's worse, they may be twice the size as the first."
"Another wave? Aren't they persistent!" Eric grunts.
"Phobos will do anything just to keep us in bay or even annihilate us completely!" Grantaire replies. "Now help me carry your friend here—"
"No! I can manage!" Ray says as he staggers his body up from the bed.
"You don't have to carry yourself, Ray." Eric says as he pushes gently Ray to his bed. "We can carry you out."
"It'll be lame if they see an uninjured person sleeping on a stretcher." Ray replies and tries stands up. "I heard another wave, am I right? We can act as the rearguard so the people can escape."
"Can you even act as rearguard, if your mana is still depleted?" Eric asks. "I bet you can manage just one arrow from your mana."
"I saw a bunch of unused arrows, I can use some of it as long as I have my bow." Ray says as he materializes his bow.
"Yet how can we even manage the four of us as rearguard against hundreds of soldiers?" Nigel asks.
"Some of Jolras' men are here, I suppose their here to defend this place." Grantaire explains "There are two paths to get here. One is from the main route where the fighting earlier took place and where we will set up our supposed rearguard, and another is a hidden route from the other side of this place which will be an escape route for the civilians." He hisses as he points to the direction of the pathways.
Grantaire then stands up. "Come, we must regroup before the soldiers could advance further." He says as he secures his dark blue hood and walks to the exit, Ray and Eric too fixed their hoodies and follow Grantaire.
"Doesn't Caleb have an army of his own, such as when Vathek used his army to invade Earth? Aren't they here to defend this place?" Nigel asks to Grantaire
"Caleb's corps? They are at the 'Dark Ruins' which is pretty far from here." Grantaire replies. "When Lt. Gavro, the previous head of the 'Old Palace', was slain in battle, Lt. Caleb took command on both settlements. Having his troops stay in the ruins and the poor citizens, here." He continues. "So this settlement lies on the reinforcements and guard of Jolras' men."
They walk outside to gaze and take pity on a gathering of a crowd as they carried their belongings. Most of them carried their bindle sticks on their shoulders while others carried their belongings on large carts while others use large stretchers. The injured and bandaged rebels also joined the crowd; most of them are crippled as they use canes to walk while the seriously wounded are taken away on stretchers.
They reach to two rebel men as they point and gestures their hands to the crowd to the escape route. "Go quickly! Move now!" they shout.
"You boys stay here." Grantaire leaves them for a while as he approaches to the two rebel soldiers across the side of the pathway. The three boys wait for him as they press their backs on the bricked walls.
"Hey Eric" Ray asks as he points to Eric's pocket. "What's that green light in your pocket? A lucky charm of yours?"
Eric then looks to his pocket and shoves out a green and shining pendant. "This? Elyon's pendant?"
Ray then gives a big smirk "How sweet! Never thought that you could go certain heights to steal a pendant as a remembrance from her!" he teases.
"Wait—you have a crush on her?!" Nigel asks in confusion.
"No and no." Eric annoyingly replies to the both of them. "You really think I could do that? When I fought the soldier who took the pendant from Elyon, during the fight, I manage to retake it back again from him. I plan on giving it to her, but I've never seen her since after the fight.
"Still, you would go great lengths just for her pendant! How romant—" Ray sarcastically annoys.
"It just so happen that the held the pendant all this time." Eric clarifies. "So when I fought and win against him, I noticed and knew the pendant from his hand so I took it."
"I think I've seen this pendant before somehow." Nigel examines as he gently takes the pendant from Eric.
"Mayday, you've got a competitor Eric." Ray jokes.
"Reminder, he's got Taranee." Eric replies
"Oh shut it the both of you! I was referring to the shape I mean, not Elyon's pendant itself!" Nigel replies. "I know it's some kind of ancestral pendant where the souls of your ancestors can reside here. My father told me about it when he showed me his dark and black pendant of his."
"Really?" Ray says as he then examines the pendant. "How could such a pendant hold a thousand souls? Can you communicate with your ancestors with it?"
"It can actually." Nigel replies. "I tried using a spell to open my father's pendant but it wouldn't open. I bet my father used a 'sealing magic' so I won't snoop it around.
"Maybe because your dark pendant seals your evil ancestors—" Ray jokes.
"It's Caleb!" one of the crowd exclaims as the Vanguards gazes from the back and take a glimpse of Caleb, Elyon and Cornelia. The crowd then squeezes to the back as they pave the way.
"Listen to me! I know you're pain and suffering!" Caleb preaches to his people. "You have been bearing the cruelties of Phobos for too long! With deception, the tyrant took all the energies of Meridian and with deceit, he seized the throne!" Caleb then calmly breathes. "But the Light of Meridian is not dead!" he exclaims.
Then a disarray of murmurs and mutters begin as the crowd talks to themselves. "What is he saying? It isn't possible!" "The Earth girl has made him crazy!"
Caleb then approaches Elyon and rests his hands on her shoulders. "The legitimate heir has come back! This is Princess Elyon, the Light of Meridian! She will bring back the prosperity and the magic back after centuries of darkness! We don't have to travel to Earth anymore, because there is still hope in Meridian!"
The crowd then walks slowly towards her as they greet and plead to their savior, as Elyon though confused happily receives them.
"Seems like you persuaded the lieutenant, Eric—What are you doing?" Nigel asks as he glances Eric as he reads a page on his leather book and places the pendant on top of a mandala circle inscribed on the page and performs a ritual on the pendant.
"Oh! It seems like he really wants to hold on to Elyon's necklace than returning it!" he teasingly says to Nigel.
"It says here that the descendants of the pendant can only converse with the souls in it." Eric says as the mandala drawing shines. "If I could get her to talk to her ancestors then I'm sure she'll learn to understand herself—"
(During Issue 7, Elyon envisions her mother)
'Let yourself go! And you'll find the answers!" the pendant whispers to Eric's ear as it glows even brighter.
'That must be one of her ancestors, or maybe her mother!' Eric thinks as he hears a fading whisper in his ear.
"Uh—Eric…" Ray cuts him off. "Looks like your magic stunned her with a deep daydream." He points to Elyon who pauses steadily as she stares to nothingness with her jaw slightly open.
"Your highness?" "Are you alright your highness?" the Vanguards hear as the crowd concernedly asks to her as they try to wake her up.
"Ooppss…" Eric rubs his head in embarrassment. "Never knew that was going to happen to her. But at least she's able to talk to her ancestors." He chuckles sarcastically.
"Lyndon!" Vathek calls as he runs toward them.
"What do you want Vathek?" Eric asks as he closes the book and hides behind him.
"Grantaire has already formed the rebels on the rearguard." Vathek pants heavily. "Phobos' hundred men under General Frost's Corps are marching only a hundred feet away from us!"
The three legionates look shock as they hear about the news. "And I thought it was a few hours before they could invade us?" Eric asks.
"No! It wasn't! The information given to us was a fake!" Vathek explains. "The other problem is the other soldiers who attacked here, retreated and regrouped and plans to assault the escape route."
"So that means…" Nigel says
"…we're trapped!" Vahek exclaims.
(During Issue 7 Guardians enters the portal to Meridian; Phobos' men fought the rebels)
Nigel, Eric and Ray then rush toward the rearguard line and after a hundred meters of running along the winding and ascending road. They met the opposing arrows as they hear its fast zipping sounds. Finally, they found Grantaire and a few rebel archers who shoot and hide behind toppled wooden four-wheeled cart that serves as their barricade by the street.
The three discretely bend their bodies down as they rush toward them. "What's the situation? Vathek just told us that we need to be here as the rest of the rebels handle the soldier's main force by the escape route." Eric asks.
Grantaire then hides and rests his back on the cart. "When we got here, we were almost ambushed by Phobos' archers. But good thing too this wooden cart manages to save our lives from the arrows. So far, one wounded, yet I don't know the other status of the other thirty men who hold their post beyond here."
"Could we even hold the line with just thirty men?" Nigel asks.
"No we can't." Grantaire hisses. "The situation's gets tougher when we face a ten-to-one disadvantage and they also get the higher ground of this slope! But I hope a miracle could come as I also heard that reinforcements would come from the Sanctuary, so we should hold this line before they come!"
Grantaire says as he reveals himself and extend his arms forward. "Erebo Third Technique: Beaming Darkness!" he chants as dark energy beams blasts from his hands and hits a soldier from the barricade. "I can't even reach my beams to the fullest potential this far!"
Ray takes a peek out from the cart and uses his Farsight. "They're at least three hundred yards away from us. They also have wagons full of weapons of their own. No soldiers are marching within the crossfire range as we're still keeping them at bay."
"But with the limited arrows we have, we can't hold them off much longer. They're trying to exhaust us!" says a rebel archer.
"What should we do now, Atlas?" Ray asks as he hides behind the barricade cart. "You don't want me to make another reckless decision do you?
Eric thinks as he observes his surroundings and the situation at hand. He then comes up with a plan. "I've got an idea."
