(During Issue 11: Phobos goes back to the palace)

"Hold and steady….Take aim and fire!"

Rius commands as he and the Pasture Heights' archers begin to counter the incoming invading soldiers. They launch and descend a hundred arrows in unison like rain on the soldiers' charge. The siege has gone about for minutes as the rebels continuously release their arrows within their range as the soldiers persistently charge and fight back.

"Aarrghh!" "Aahh!" the soldiers cry out as though most of the shots were amateurish and random, they are no match to evade or hide. Between the scutum lines and the wave of soldiers is only a vast, grassy and empty hill with less trees and rocks for the soldiers to hide from. With nothing else to hide from they usually drop to the ground and crawl towards the lines, yet the farthest soldier who made thus far was only a few feet away from the first scutum line of defense before he was then taken down.

"Retreat!" "Fallback!" After minutes of punishing minutes, the soldiers declare a retreat back to the foothills and to regroup once more. Then as the archers cheer and lay to rest, the other men scramble to the wagons to once again refill the archer baskets with arrows before the enemy strikes with another wave.

As Rius and Uilly take charge for the hilltop's defense for the meantime, Ray gazes his Farsight on the on the situation of the battle around Meridian. He seeks out the positions of both the rebels and the enemy. He calculates in his mind the number of men of both sides and the armory of each sides. His eyes then squints beyond the plaza where fire and smoke suddenly abrupt to the sky. 'Oh heck no!' he sighs as he rushes to Eric.

Eric sits on large rubble of stone with another Meridianite officer from Jolras vanguard, Corporal Jhaoully, around them as well are large stone walls which as supposedly used to rebuild the dungeon. He then uses a piece of stone to draw symbols on the map of Meridian, given to him by the lower ranking officer, as Ray dictates back and forth to the edge of the hill and back to them theirs and the enemy's present positions. Eric and the officer continues think, discuss and strategize the next phases throughout the mapping process.

"Since the bridges are down, Jolras' men can't cross the river and can't get to the northern gates as planned." Eric says.

"And without them, Lamarcus' Corps can't enter Meridian walls and reinforce Caleb's Corps." Jhaoully replies as he points out on the map. "We will be soon be trapped and overwhelmed by Phobos soldiers and Annihilators alone."

"So in summary, what we're dealing right now is the combined Meridian Third and Fifth Corps on the foothills, Fourth Corps who now marches toward Jolras' Corps and the Royal Guard and the Annihilators at the plaza?"

"That's correct." The knowledgeable corporal replies. "What we don't know yet are the positions of Frost's Corps, Thenard's Corps and the Army of the Annihilators."

"Atlas!" Ray calls out amidst the busy and rushing men. He approaches to Eric and points his finger on the map. "The rebels may have to lose ground at the plaza, and may soon retreat afterwards."

"Huh? Didn't Caleb's Corps overwhelm them earlier? And you said that the Guardians are with them?" Eric asks.

Ray drags his finger across the map. "The so-called Frost's Corps and the Annihilator army are now reinforcing the Royal Guard to take down Caleb's Corps." He then points out to a puff of smoke in the east. "As Grantaire said, a series of likely fires is about to start once they go all out."

Eric sighs as he thinks and strategizes. A tense and awkward silence then begins to dominate the atmosphere as the only noises they could only hear are the rebel yells and exchange of commands as they resupply the needed weapons. "We need to rethink our strategy once more. For now, Caleb's Corps and the Guardians must retreat and regroup to an undisturbed location so they can plan out, any ideas?"

"They can retreat to the south and enter the underground sewers by entering the manholes that leads to the sewers of the 'Dark Ruins'." Jhaoully replies.

"That settles then for now." Eric writes on a piece of parchment.

"Ferroris!" Eric continues to write as he calls out to one of his men who, with other men at his side, create more arrows before the archers could run out.

"Atlas, sir you came for me?" he runs toward his officers.

Eric folds the paper and gives it to Ferroris. "Are you're archer skills still good?"

"Not as much as I can tell." Ferroris replies. "I'm more of a melee fighter, not a range. But I could still shoot from afar."

"Good then…" Eric replies as he pats his back and points to the other side of the hill where their comrades are. "I want you to descend town the hill as quick as possible. When you get to the river, tie this letter to your arrow and send it to the other side across the river for Jolras to intercept the message. This is urgent and I want you to hurry before the enemy starts to move. Understood?"

"Yes sir, I'll do it right away." He replies and runs off to his way.

"The second wave's coming!" Rius yells out across the hilltop as the rebels suddenly rush again to their positions to defend the lines again.

Ray heaves a sigh as places his hands on his waist as he looks down on the construction of the bridge. "How much longer do we have to wait and hold out…?"


"How much longer do we have to wait, Grantaire?"

Gruul grunts as the other 'Calluna' rebels wait impatiently in the training hall in the rest house as Grantaire casts a magical spell on a large circle he drew around the majestic hall using black ink earlier. A large rotating aura alchemy disc rotates above the said drawing in mid-air.

"I'm trying as hard as I can!" the hooded uniformed Grantaire yells back as he continuous to extend his arms and focuses on the spare mana he has. He tries to use his magic to lift the Queen's rest-house through the portal for the past hour by now. Yet nothing happened as the left rebels are now delayed to meet Nigel at the 'Dark Ruins'. "No use! My mana needs to be replenished since most of them was taken away from me when I was arrested. If I at least replenished my mana somehow or I need another mage who could share some of the mana to me! We're going to delay for another an hour so, I guess." His weary arms almost drop when they hear the unlocking the 'Calluna' entry doors.

"G-Good d-day, everybody!" a small boy with the round glasses appeared in before the doors and approaches them. "I'm looking at—wow!" His eyes sweep in wonder as he sees the majestic circle in the air.

"And look who it is…" Gruul crosses his arms. "It's Martin."

"Martin?" Grantaire asks.

"Oh, I see you didn't meet him yet." Ignitus says. "Martin's a usual visitor here and a friend of Ignitus. He casually talks about some stuff which kinda' annoys me for a while."

"And why would he be here—" Grantaire asks but stops when he feels an increasing strong magical presence out from the boy as he weakly fast walks towards them. 'A legionate?! And a strong sense at that as well like he has the 'tattoo' in him too. Say, have seen him somewhere before…'

"Kid, this is Grantaire, an informant and Imperial legionate." Gruul hesitantly introduces. "And why are you even here? Shouldn't you be in some mission such as to guard the portals or something just as Ignitus tells you to do?"

"Nope, not today my good friend" Martin amusingly replies. "I asked Nige—Ignitus, I mean, if he needed some help so I came here as he told me to. He said me about sharing some of my so-called magic I think? to him—Grantaire, he says." He explains as his explanation stammers.

"Sharing some of your mana?" Grantaire reassures as he releases his arms to rest and the circle in the air disappears. "And you voluntarily wanted to help him?"

"W-Well, it's some kind of pay to him and to the Meridianites and besides I think roaming around the and guarding the portals isn't enough to express my gratitude—" Martin embarrassingly says.

"Oh for crying out loud!" Gruul annoyingly stops him. "Grantaire, could you please do it now!"

Grantaire then quickly forcefully grabs on to Martin's hands. "Are you sure you're fine with it?"

"U-Uhhmm…y-yeah sure." Martin mumbles as the situation gets a bit too fast for him to cope.

"Alright then..." Grantaire says as takes out a bottle of black ink and dips his scaled fingers in it. "Hold still, I'll be drawing something on your hand." He says as he draws a different kind of magical circle on Martin's hand.

"That tickles!" Martin chuckles as his hand jiggles.

"I said 'Hold still', please!" Grantaire annoyingly hisses. "We need to do this quickly…"

"S-Sorry!" Martin apologizes as he tries to control the ticklish sensation he feels on his hand as Grantaire draws the same circle on Martin's both hands.

"Done!" Grantaire then shoves back his black bottle of ink to his pocket.

"Well that wasn't so bad!" Martin happily says as he looks at his hands, thinking that the magical process is over.

"That's just the drawing…" Grantaire sighs as he looks at the men who witness the uncomfortable scene between the two legionates. They begin clasp their hands on their faces while others chuckle to themselves. 'Now I know why they're so annoyed by this young legionate over here…But I guess I have to thank him for helping us out here!' he then quickly grabs on to Martin's hands.

"Bu-But Nigel told me that it stings a-a bit, right?—" Martin worryingly asks.

"Don't worry…" Grantaire then mumbles to himself a small spell in runic. "Magic be shared, not flesh nor blood! A part of which I take part!' he chants and focuses on the advanced magic he uses. "…I'll hold unto you…"

"Huh?—OWwowwoww!" Martin yells as he feels a shrinking pain and feels as his skin drains towards his hands. He tries to pull his hands away from him but is skinny arms were too weak to pull away from Grantaire's large lizard-hands. "Let go! Let go!" he cries.

"Almost there…" Grantaire still holds onto Martin's hands as he continues to replenish his mana through the share of Martin's. A half a minute has passed when Martin then becomes weaker and weaker by the seconds as Grantaire finally regain the mana he needs. "Gruul, take Martin's body…" he instructs as Gruul obeys. Grantaire then releases his hands from him as his unconscious body lands on Gruul's large hands.

"What should we do about him?" Gruul asks.

"We can't just leave him here alone. Tag him along and we'll leave him at the 'Sanctuary'…" Grantaire says as he extends his arms upward once more to the drawn large circle around the training hall. He then chants a spell once again in runic. 'Levitate! Through the air and to the sky! Through places for another time!' he closes his eyes and focuses.

Then a large alchemy circle rises once again from the drawn circle and rotates in a spinning disk. Suddenly, the building starts to tremble from below as the rebels bend down to maintain their balance. "Expect another earthquake gentlemen! We're going up!" Grantaire exclaims as the building then levitates from the ground as it goes through the portal.

Martin, still unconsciously awake feels the earth trembles as he lies on Gruul's large hands. He chuckles and coughs at the same time to himself as he tries to relieve the pain "W-Well I'll be…"

"…Damned that Phobos."

A few meters away on the broken stage where Nigel has landed, he then sits up and rubs his head and groans as he gets up and takes his staff and secures his hood as he looks far ahead as he sees Vathek who holds up a glimmering flower on his hands. Beside him are the Guardians who also look upon the flower sorrowfully. 'What's with the flower? And isn't that—what do you call that again? In our Biomagic class?' He then gives the flower to Cornelia and the Guardians take off to where Vathek instructed them too.

"Ignitus!" Bahorel yells as they fight their way off to his aid and approaches the stage together with some of the 'Calluna' men. "Are you alright?"

"You think?' Nigel rhetorically replies as he shoves the dust from his cloak. "Where's Phobos? Caleb? I have a score to settle—"

"Caleb's gone!" "We're finished!" the rebels anxiously yell out the news in the disarray of the battle as discourage they are now without their leader gone, soon retreat from the battle.

"C-Caleb's gone?" Nigel asks anxiously to Bahorel.

"He's turned into that flower Vathek's holding." He explains. "Phobos turned him into his origin being, a flower. He was a Whisperer who once served High Court."

"W-What?! Flames!" Nigel swears with guilt as he throws his staff to the ground. "I should've aid him while I can!"

"You did everything you could do sir…" Lesgle heavy voice replies.

"Retreat!" "Fallback!" the Third Corps orders a retreat. Without their inspiring leader, they soon become demoralized and discouraged to fight on. Their overwhelming strength earlier has left them as the soldiers and the Annihilators soon take control of the battle.

"Flames! When things aren't going as planned…" Nigel says as he sees the soldiers and Annihilators chase the rebels away, leaving a few fights in the plaza left. "Where are the others?"

"They're coming this way Ignitus. They're just fighting off on their way here." Bahorel replies as more and more 'Calluna' men arrives at stage.

"Ashcroft! Nigel!" Vathek calls out to him as he approaches the broken stage and makes his way through the soldiers.

"I got news from Lyndon, who's on the hill right now…" Vathek explains as he huffs. "More soldiers and Annihilators are coming this way and they plan to destroy the city! I need you and your men to be the rearguard while I evacuate the citizens and regroup and encourage the retreating rebels at the 'Dark Ruins'. Can you do it?"

"We can, yet no promises though. Half of the men are here are we're still waiting for Grantaire and the rest." Nigel sighs as he takes up his staff from the ground.

"Thank you, Ashcroft!" Vathek says as he goes off his way.

"Sir Vathek!" Nigel calls him out as Vathek turns back at him. "And I thought you were concerned for boys going to war? Just as you told Atlas, and now you're placing me in charge of the rearguard?"

"That was back in the academe, Ashcroft." Vathek calls out grins. "But you're no boy, as I see you now, you're a legionate!" he says as he takes off.

Nigel proudly snickers back at him as he vanishes from the streets. "Well then we better get the rearguard on the line!" he orders his men.

"Yet what about Gruul and the—!" Bahorel stops when suddenly the ground shakes wildly, another earthquake abrupt in Meridian. Nigel and his men bend down to regain their balance as the trembling earth continues and prolongs for the next thirty seconds.

"Speak of the devil! It's about time too!" Nigel says as he holds on to the ground.

"Here comes the rest of the 'Calluna'!"